How to get rid of mud in the out door run

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KahKaDoodleDo22 said:
Hi!

My run is sloped since we live on a huge hill, but for the most part of its not raining or snow is t melting the run drains fairly quickly. It’s just that we’re always wet where we are. We’re in so kind of rain shadow in addition the the wonderful rainy weather we get for 9 months out of the year. So I don’t know what to do, I might just have to cover the whole thing!
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Can you post pics? Also, where, in general, are you in WA? Must be in the western half with the rain, but north, south, coastal, Puget Sound area, Cascades? Your "rain shadow" and "snow melting" comments makes me wonder. Years ago I lived on the dry east side, and then on the wet west side.

If it is often wet, you will likely need to cover the run in some manner. If you have water that flows through the run, you will need to divert it. Even bags of sand on top of the ground will accomplish this, but put them outside the run, and angle them if needed to make the water go where you want. If you fill the run with pourous material like chipped wood, you can place boards agains the fence to keep it in if needed. We added a lot of coarsely chipped wood and had to do this bc we have a chain link fence and the chipped wood was falling out of the holes or being actively scratched out by the chickens.
 
Why is cedar the only kind of wood chips you can get? Are you buying them buy the bag as mulch? Call local tree services and ask them to drop a truckload. Its usually free and always a mix of whatever trees they has to chop up that day. Put down about 4-6 inch layer on the mud. First of all it covers it so no one is walking on mud. Second wood absorbs water. The surface layer can dry out while underneath it absorbs. Then as weather drys up the water realeases water into the soil below. This is also why wood chips are so good as a top layer on gardens. It keeps the garden soil watered as it releases excess water into the soil that it had absorbed on a wet day. Don’t mix it into the soil, that depletes nitrogen. Just lay it on top. All natural remedy. Best stuff ever.
 
All I do is call all the area tree services and invite them to drop their chips here. Saves them time and money cuz the dump charges them a fee to dump. I also signed for chip drop. Google that and sign up. I get at least one delivery a year when they are in my area. You’ll be amazed at all the ways you can use them. Gardens, trees, walkways, chickens, fence lines, anywhere you want to stop weeds or water. For weeds first put down newspapers or cardboard then pile on the chips! 4-6 inches for garden areas, deeper for areas you won’t be planting in this year. Best done in fall. By spring you cut a hole in the paper or cardboard to plant each seed or seedling.
 
Read this, you might see something that will help.

Pat’s Big Ol' Mud Page (fixing muddy runs):

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/how-to-fix-a-muddy-run-chicken-coop.47807/

We all have different conditions. What works for one person may not work for another if conditions are different. Your challenge is to determine what might work for you in your conditions.

To me there are two steps. First try to keep water out to start with. In a run your size that can be challenging. If you cover it, slope the cover so water runs off away from your run, not into it. Your coop roof also should not drain into the run. Make it strong enough for snow or ice load. Rain and snow can still blow in from the side but covering it can help a lot. Since it is on a slope, berms and swales can maybe help keep rainwater run-off out of your run.

If it gets wet you need to get the water out. Gravity will remove water of the water has a place to go. Some soils are permeable, they drain well. Some are impermeable, don't drain worth a darn. We tend to simplify it by saying sand drains well and clays don't but there are a lot of soils in between these extremes.

I don't know how steep that slope is, your slope could be a benefit to improve drainage and could pose some issues, mainly erosion or washing off bedding.

Mud is unpleasant to deal with. It's a mess to walk through, they can track it into the nests so you dirty eggs. Mud can be really unpleasant to deal with.

There is another more sinister side to a wet run. Poop and other organic matter breaks down. If it is dry enough that air can get to it, the microbes that break it down are aerobic (oxygen-breathing). These give you a nice earthy smell. If it is too wet for air to get to it, those microbes are anaerobic. Oxygen can kill them. These can really stink and become a slimy mess. Also, certain microbes or parasites can live in wet soil that don't do well in drier soil. If they can't get their feet dry they can develop foot issues. One day of mud won't be an issue but a run that is wet for an extended time can become a health issue. It's not just that it is unpleasant in the short term.

Even if your slope isn't that steep rainwater can wash dirt or bedding down slope. Also, the chickens scratch a lot. Even if they scratch uphill a lot, gravity will eventually move soil or bedding down slope. If it is steep you may need terracing and there is a fair chance you will need a barrier across the bottom to keep soil or bedding in. I'd wait to see how it behaves before I did anything, but be aware of the possibility. As much as you can, go by what you see not what someone like me tells you over the internet.

The water needs somewhere to go. If you dig a hole in clay and fill it with sand, all you have is a bathtub filled with sand and water. It's not really going to drain and can become anaerobic. I really like the idea of drilling holes and filling them with gravel, but that will only work if you reach a layer underneath that is permeable so the water has a place to go. You might be OK putting a few inches of sand on top to keep things dry while water seeps away underneath but on top of clay. You may dig a trench or two or three across the slope and fill them with sand or gravel while digging a trench down slope and filling that with sand or gravel to drain those horizontal trenches.

Hopefully you won't need to do anything this drastic. If that area doesn't hold water that well many people are very successful just filing it with some type of fill to get above the mud. This could be sand, it could be dried leaves, grass trimmings, wood chips, hay, straw, just something to keep you and them out of the mud. Some people put something to walk on like wood, pallets being very popular. Cinder blocks, bricks, or pavers might work. I dumped a few bags of pea gravel in critical places for me to walk on, that stays pretty firm and dry. The rest isn't that bad but I don't want to walk in it.

Some people dump bedding in there to absorb water and dry it up. If it stays too wet they remove it and put in more dry bedding. That's too much work for me plus you need a place for that wet bedding, but for a smaller run or small area it might be a solution.

I'm not going try to tell you what is best for you, I don't know. I'm trying to give you ideas. Good luck!
 
You're going to get differing pts of view on cedar. I use some cedar both inside and outside of my coop, it's pretty unavoidable if we're having branches chipped, and I've never had any sign of respiratory issues with my birds. Unless for some reason your run isn't open air (like you wrap the entire thing in plastic) there's enough air volume to help negate the fumes, plus unless you chose to plant it, on the West Coast you're unlikely to have the highly aromatic varieties of cedar (the type used to line hope chests) growing.

I really recommend aging chips (cedar or otherwise) at least 6 months or more if you can, but ah, that doesn't fix the problem now...

So since it sounds like drainage isn't the issue, you can go for a gradual fix - get a delivery of wood chips (in WA tree companies are usually happy to drop off chips on whoever wants them, maybe for a small fee or tip, but some will do it for free if they happen to be in your area). Add just enough wood chips for the time being to at least start stabilizing the situation, then continue adding thin layers of wood chips as needed, along with other organic matter as you get it (dried pine needles, I use short lawn clippings from my electric mower, left out to dry a couple of days, I bag leaves in the fall, I throw in some weeds or bits of chicken safe plants from my garden). Just keep building it up gradually and between the materials and the chickens scratching it and mixing it, the mud should eventually get mixed in with everything and form a stable, drainage friendly run floor by the time fall hits.
 

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