Help with Coop Run on a slope

[412chickengirl]

Hi! Looking for some advice to improve our chicken run. Our coop is built inside the run at the top of the hill and the run goes approximately 30ish feet down on a decent slope. We've had lots of rain recently. Normally we would throw straw all over the ground to make it less muddy and easier to walk thru. Well that's not working and create a gross mess that's harder to work with because the chickens move the straw all down to the bottom of the hill and fence and it clogs up the gate. We tried the absorbant bedding pellets and while those work for one day of rain, after several rains, the run turns into this soft mud cake that you sink into. Is there anything else we can try to keep the coop dry and less muddy?

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Hi! Looking for some advice to improve our chicken run. Our coop is built inside the run at the top of the hill and the run goes approximately 30ish feet down on a decent slope. We've had lots of rain recently. Normally we would throw straw all over the ground to make it less muddy and easier to walk thru. Well that's not working and create a gross mess that's harder to work with because the chickens move the straw all down to the bottom of the hill and fence and it clogs up the gate. We tried the absorbant bedding pellets and while those work for one day of rain, after several rains, the run turns into this soft mud cake that you sink into. Is there anything else we can try to keep the coop dry and less muddy?

You might consider using the deep litter method in your run instead of just straw. (Note the version of this for a coop is called "deep bedding.") This article has a concise explanation of how to do it. It was for a hoop house, where there's not a lot of transition between house (coop) and run.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ll-city-part-1-the-beginning-fall-2018.75664/
It continues with part 2, but links to the videos are broken, and apparently part 3 never happened. At any rate, it's a good starter article, and there are plenty of threads in this coop and run sub-forum with more info.

Deep litter is essentially composting within your run, but not using every single scrap that you might usually compost It tends to handle water flows better than straw alone, although with downpours it still might shift a bit.

I wasn't nearly as formal with deep litter in my run. I started bare soil, first adding maybe 3 bags of unstained bark nuggets (mulch aisle), then another 2-3 bags of shredded wood mulch, part of a bag of medium pine shavings, several bags of pine straw (dead pine needles), and raked-up dead leaves and grass clippings. Maybe 6" deep total. You could also add in your existing straw, if it isn't moldy from the rain.

As I added different materials (bark, shredded mulch, pine straw, etc.) I did a little flipping of the layers to mix things in. I first used a garden fork after the first layer of bark nuggets, breaking up the soil a bit, and the rest of the layers with a pitchfork, but really, the chickens have done the majority of the mixing.

I sometimes throw dried mealworms or a bit of dry chicken feed in the litter to encourage digging.