How to get rid of mud in the out door run

[Ridgerunner]

It's hard to tell how steep it really is, camera angle can be deceiving. You can see where stuff across the slope is creating wetter spots but I would not want to walk in there. With that roof water is just falling in. A berm or swale across the top might help some but probably not that much.

To me wood chips look to be a good approach to start with. See how they work out and base your next actions, if any are necessary, on what you see. Hopefully that will solve it.

 

[zark]

I used a few different matetials, but I liked a grassy hay the best. I think the chicks liked it best also. I just toss in some sections of the bale, and let the chickens fluff it up and spread it around. Then every once and a while toss in some scratch. They love digging through the hay and finding the treats.

 

[Misty Lee]

Hi, who knows how I can get rid of the mud in my chicken run?!

We have a 30x20 outdoor area. It has some plastic sheeting over the top on part of it for a temporary fix till spring when we can build a proper roof but it still won’t be completely covered. It’s too big! Lol

But for now, with this Washington rain/snow, then raining, raining, raining some more I am having a hard time getting rid of the mud in the run. What can I put down to help?

Straw seems like that’s a breeding ground for nasty stuff and unhealthy.

Woodchips? All I can get is cedar...
Gravel?
Sand?

Other ideas??

We use sand. Washed construction sand

 

[BoudreauxFarm]

Hi, who knows how I can get rid of the mud in my chicken run?!

We have a 30x20 outdoor area. It has some plastic sheeting over the top on part of it for a temporary fix till spring when we can build a proper roof but it still won’t be completely covered. It’s too big! Lol

But for now, with this Washington rain/snow, then raining, raining, raining some more I am having a hard time getting rid of the mud in the run. What can I put down to help?

Straw seems like that’s a breeding ground for nasty stuff and unhealthy.

Woodchips? All I can get is cedar...
Gravel?
Sand?

Other ideas??

I use “walk on bark” from the gravel and bark place locally. It still gets wet, but stops the mud issue. And it’s gives them something to dig around in.

 

[Elmbrooker]

Hi, who knows how I can get rid of the mud in my chicken run?!

We have a 30x20 outdoor area. It has some plastic sheeting over the top on part of it for a temporary fix till spring when we can build a proper roof but it still won’t be completely covered. It’s too big! Lol

But for now, with this Washington rain/snow, then raining, raining, raining some more I am having a hard time getting rid of the mud in the run. What can I put down to help?

Straw seems like that’s a breeding ground for nasty stuff and unhealthy.

Woodchips? All I can get is cedar...
Gravel?
Sand?

Other ideas??

I have the same problem in NH with snow/melt/ rain. I have 8x12 under coop and 8x16 under/surrounded by plastic. Both get incredibly muddy. I think I'll put down gravel and then sand, maybe with a French drain down the middle. I’m also going to get a gutter up which will fill rain barrels.

 

[I am the Chicken Lord]

Hi, who knows how I can get rid of the mud in my chicken run?!

We have a 30x20 outdoor area. It has some plastic sheeting over the top on part of it for a temporary fix till spring when we can build a proper roof but it still won’t be completely covered. It’s too big! Lol

But for now, with this Washington rain/snow, then raining, raining, raining some more I am having a hard time getting rid of the mud in the run. What can I put down to help?

Straw seems like that’s a breeding ground for nasty stuff and unhealthy.

Woodchips? All I can get is cedar...
Gravel?
Sand?

Other ideas??

Wood chips is a great solution. I use a generous amount of hay in my run and that works great too. With the hay, I find that it breaks down and by adding new over old frequently it raised the ground level so water accumulation all but went away. I never had any issues with wet hay and mold provided it was outside and not in my coop.

 

[Jrzebra]

Hi there, I may have the answer you've been looking for: I used to run a 50- horse boarding facility in a flood-prone area. In the winter, the horses wood churn up the mud so bad, some would be almost up to their knees in soupy mud. Tried everything, nothing worked. Then an old pro suggested wood pellets (the kind sold for pellet stoves), & to our surprise, this solved the problem completely. Turns out this stuff is the most absorbent, best bedding we've ever found, and it's not even marketed for that! The pellets are sold in 50# bags for about $6-$7 a bag, but you can often find a store that will give you a deal on broken or rained on bags, or even free, (b/c it turns to sawdust when it gets wet & is useless as stove fuel then). 1 bag will easily cover a 12' x 12' area. It will not look like it at 1st, as it takes a few hrs for it to absorb the water & fully expand, but you will be impressed how much mud 1 bag can take on. The wood is compressed so tightly, that when it comes in contact with moisture, it sucks it up & expands about 20X it's original size. Once it fully expands, it becomes a soft, great smelling carpet for your chickens to enjoy. The wood has natural tannins, so it doesn't rot & start to smell bad like straw. It packs down & you can throw their food on it, and once it packs down, it's easy to remove the manure from it by gently raking it up. The wood they make it from is hardwood &v it is very clean- it can't contain any noxious chemicals, b/c people burn it for heat & fumes from chemicals would be dangerous if inhaled as smoke.
I use wood pellets in all my coops now, almost exclusively. Sometimes I mix it in w/some sand. Sometimes I even have to spray water on the pellets to get them to break down, as they use up the surrounding moisture quickly. All of my coops are now mud- free and have a pleasant woody smell as a bonus! I would say it is definitely worth a try, good luck!

 

[atechieboss]

I have a ton of mud in about a half acre where chickens walk. I bought 20 bales @$4.50/bale of corn cob stalks from the Amish in my area and covered the ground. Chickens and larger animals like poking through it, and the sheep/goats munch on it. It's thicker than straw so better at covering mud and more durable. I can now walk in the area without slipping and chickens/ducks have a drier walk.

 

[Marcustherooster]

Hi there.
We had tree same problem here in Australia before the drought. We had water from our neighbours back yard coming under the fence. Then the ducks would dig up the mud.

My solution that worked was sand.

I also made temporary fences and reseeded the lawn slowly

 

[leslielbk]

Goodness, you're getting alot of answers! Obviously we all feel your pain . I qualify because I live in Florida, hurricane-land. Our "rainy season" is more like buckets of water slamming down, causing flooding everywhere. My run becomes mud city. Here are my suggestions:
A) The drilling holes in the mud works. Do it where there's standing water. I don't bother with pebbles. It's an emergency solution and very effective.
B) Use pelleted horse bedding in mud or standing water. It expands like a sponge, but when it's fully expanded it leaves sawdust but still helpful and GREAT at soaking up water. I use it inside my coop instead of shavings, which don't absorb nuthin. During heavy rain, water always creeps in somewhere. Bonus? They don't take up as much room to store.
C) Anything like old sheets of plywood to lay down on top of the mud. Raise it up on something - I use logs because that's what's handy. I'm blessed with a treeline the girls hide under during rainstorms (why the hell don't they go in the coop??!??) so I lay the plywood there, up on logs.
D) Set up a temporary lean-to out of anything wetproof. I use that plastic tarp and make a tent out of it. That's in the treeline too. They like to hide under that because there's plywood under it too. Nice and dry-ish.
E) EVERYTHING'S TEMPORARY until you can get your permanent run built. Cobble together whatever you can til then.

...Permanent. No such thing in keeping chickens. I'm always changing and adapting to make things better for the girls, and easier for me.