How to get rid of mud in the out door run

[ShannonsChimkens]

Thank you! Yeah this thread has helped many others!

Let me know if you end up getting some chips and from who, if you could. I’m on Burn Rd outside of Granite and it’s a soggy mess out here! Need to get a handle on the muck before it gets any worse. With the wind storm we just had, I’m sure the tree companies are slammed.

 

[aart]

With the wind storm we just had, I’m sure the tree companies are slammed.

Call em up and ask them to dump a load, I'd predict they'd be very happy.

 

[Mvan42]

Mine was real bad. We dug a dran trench behind the coop(its on the up hill side of our run..) I have a tarp covering most of the run. Roof. And we throw hey in every so often. Chickens love it for the seeds, keeps them from getting board. We do clean it out every so often to keep the yuck down in the run. We still have mud but alot less now.

 

[KahKaDoodleDo22]

Let me know if you end up getting some chips and from who, if you could. I’m on Burn Rd outside of Granite and it’s a soggy mess out here! Need to get a handle on the muck before it gets any worse. With the wind storm we just had, I’m sure the tree companies are slammed.

Hi!

It’s soooooooo soggy! But here’s what I did for now while I wait on some money for my wood chips, I put a bale of straw down, it helped SO much and my chickens LOVE it and appreciate it SO much! I’m so glad I did it! I have 30 chickens so they scratch it around pretty well and it hopefully won’t have any mold issues, next month I plan to get wood chips from Topsoils northwest. They quoted me $30/load. I forget the size but 4 loads would cover my 25’ x30’ run with 2” thick, delivered to my house by them was another another $120 really not bad! So I’m going to do that when it fits my budget.

Seriously though, I’d get some straw if I were you, I’m going g to rake mine out before I put down the chips, or I’ll leave them if I don’t think I need to...good luck!

 

[KahKaDoodleDo22]

I wanted to jump in here and say I've been using straw in the run for 4 years. My run is 4000 sf and therefore not covered at all, except with bird netting. I do have covered areas that stay dry. I have never had the straw get moldy. It just eventually turns to dirt. And the chickens love straw day. You might say they have a hay-day digging through it and helping me spread it around. We live in a rain forest and moss grows everywhere, but I have not had mold in my straw even one time. I use straw in the coops and scoop that out into the run every week too. Last week I had puddles everywhere out there. Friday I spread a few bales of straw around and it's so much better.

I vote straw.

Thanks for the tip! I put some in for now and my chickens LOVED/ love it! Keeps their feet dry and cleaner too.