Keep mud down - suggestions?

[jus10inla]

Both were supost to be once in hundred year floods . Crazy thibg is both also happened over nite with no real warnings.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Some strategically-placed pallets might help, but that's a LOT of water.

I think you'd need more than a few pallets in that case... oof.

 

[gtaus]

After my chickens ate all the grass in the chicken run down to the dirt, I just decided to turn my chicken run into a composting system. I started off with a nice layer of wood chips which kept my chickens up and out of the dirt. During the spring and summer, I dumped in bins full of grass clippings. When fall came around and the leaves started falling, I mowed them up with my riding mower and dumped bin after bin into the run. Before winter, the chicken run compost litter was a good 18 inches deep.

The chickens seem to love the composting system. They scratch and peck in the compost all day long finding good stuff to eat. I just let them turn over and mix up all the material in the chicken run. I continue to throw in additional wood chips, grass clippings, and leaves as I get them. All this material has started to compost down so I harvest some of that black gold whenever I need to top dress my garden, or if I need chicken run compost to mix with topsoil when I (re)fill my raised beds.

My chicken run does not flood out like yours in the pictures, but I think all that water on the ground level would only work to your advantage in a composting system. At first I thought I had to turn over the litter in the chicken run and (re)pile it up, but after awhile, I came to the conclusion that the chickens will mix it themselves and have fun doing it. I don't spend any time "cleaning" the chicken run because any chicken poo gets magically mixed into the litter and disappears on its own. My chicken run never gets muddy and never smells.

The only work I do in the chicken run is dumping bins of wood chips, grass clippings or leaves into the run as I clean up the yard. When I need some compost, I'll take a shovel into the run and start digging up some of the composted litter and run it through my cement mixer compost sifter. Maximum effort from my composting chickens and minimal work for me harvesting the finished compost.

Whatever system works for you, I hope you get those birds up and out of the mud.