Keeping a Chicken Run From Getting Muddy?

[chickadee2]

Hi, everyone! This may be a silly question, but does anyone have any tips for keeping chicken runs from getting muddy? I live in Western Washington, where it's raining most of the time. My chicken run is big, about 30' square and I can't cover it. While I do have two huge evergreens growing in the middle, they don't stop most of the rain. The dirt is packed as hard as rock in half of it, and during storms, my chickens are sloshing around in the water, which can not be good for them. To sum it up, do any of you have any tips for making the dirt better draining and getting less muddy? Thanks!

 

[PhilSanchez]

Put four to twenty-four inches of sand on it. Sand drains much better than dirt. While it will be sandy mud while it is raining, it will dry fast. If you never want mud, use pea-rocks instead. With sand you can just comb it over with a yard rake to clean, but pea rock is harder to maintain. But, there's pros and cons to everything.

My experience with sand over hard packed earth the sand will simply wash away

 

[HeidiZ]

Hi, everyone! This may be a silly question, but does anyone have any tips for keeping chicken runs from getting muddy? I live in Western Washington, where it's raining most of the time. My chicken run is big, about 30' square and I can't cover it. While I do have two huge evergreens growing in the middle, they don't stop most of the rain. The dirt is packed as hard as rock in half of it, and during storms, my chickens are sloshing around in the water, which can not be good for them. To sum it up, do any of you have any tips for making the dirt better draining and getting less muddy? Thanks!

Lots of straw, I go through this every spring I put straw all over the chicken yard just so I can walk in there and so they are not standing in that mess.

 

[muddy75]

i turn over and add fresh mulch to my aviary as often as once a month and have much less flooding and mud since i started doing that......my chicken run, I used the larger pine nuggets but unless you get good coverage, you can still get muddy spots

 

[muddy75]

Lots of straw, I go through this every spring I put straw all over the chicken yard just so I can walk in there and so they are not standing in that mess.

i use straw very sparingly......it took me over 12 hours a day for a full weekend with a shovel to remove all the packed down nasty sheets of straw

 

[CassieD]

Hi, everyone! This may be a silly question, but does anyone have any tips for keeping chicken runs from getting muddy? I live in Western Washington, where it's raining most of the time. My chicken run is big, about 30' square and I can't cover it. While I do have two huge evergreens growing in the middle, they don't stop most of the rain. The dirt is packed as hard as rock in half of it, and during storms, my chickens are sloshing around in the water, which can not be good for them. To sum it up, do any of you have any tips for making the dirt better draining and getting less muddy? Thanks!

We live in Houston and get a lot if rain as well. I was concerned about the same thing thinking it can’t be good for the chickens. Our run is much smaller but we use sand for part of it as well as the coop floor. It drains much better and its much cleaner. The additional plus is that I actually soak it a bit when it’s super hot so that my girls can dig into it to cool off

 

[Gallinarium]

My experience with sand over hard packed earth the sand will simply wash away

You have to have wooden boards or something similar on the sides of the run. If you mean it dissolves into the ground, you replace it. Besides, if it does that then the soil achieves better drainage.

 

[Mturner]

Hi, everyone! This may be a silly question, but does anyone have any tips for keeping chicken runs from getting muddy? I live in Western Washington, where it's raining most of the time. My chicken run is big, about 30' square and I can't cover it. While I do have two huge evergreens growing in the middle, they don't stop most of the rain. The dirt is packed as hard as rock in half of it, and during storms, my chickens are sloshing around in the water, which can not be good for them. To sum it up, do any of you have any tips for making the dirt better draining and getting less muddy? Thanks!

I use home depot patio paver sand and it works great!

 

[fishin_dad]

Hi, everyone! This may be a silly question, but does anyone have any tips for keeping chicken runs from getting muddy? I live in Western Washington, where it's raining most of the time. My chicken run is big, about 30' square and I can't cover it. While I do have two huge evergreens growing in the middle, they don't stop most of the rain. The dirt is packed as hard as rock in half of it, and during storms, my chickens are sloshing around in the water, which can not be good for them. To sum it up, do any of you have any tips for making the dirt better draining and getting less muddy? Thanks!

Medium to course grain sand works well. I dug small trenches from center and leading outward and have 4 inches of medium grain sand. The only time I have standing water is when we get really heavy rains. But within a half hour of the rain stopping there is no more standing water. Plus it makes clean up soooo much easier.

 

[SkyBlue49]

Hi, everyone! This may be a silly question, but does anyone have any tips for keeping chicken runs from getting muddy? I live in Western Washington, where it's raining most of the time. My chicken run is big, about 30' square and I can't cover it. While I do have two huge evergreens growing in the middle, they don't stop most of the rain. The dirt is packed as hard as rock in half of it, and during storms, my chickens are sloshing around in the water, which can not be good for them. To sum it up, do any of you have any tips for making the dirt better draining and getting less muddy? Thanks!

Hi, I only have a small run but have found sand to be the most effective so far. We have been getting way too much rain lately and I hate mud. I have used straw in the past, but sand is so much easier to clean up the poop than straw. Hope that helps.