Keeping coop litter dry in a very wet climate

Shan30

Songster
8 Years
Sep 17, 2012
614
60
186
Vancouver island
I'm having trouble keeping my coop litter dry and clean.

We live on Vancouver island in BC. Canada. For a better perspective on location and climate, from the southern parts of the island you can see Seattle if you look across the ocean.

During the fall/winter/spring it rains hard almost daily and the top half on the run is pure mud right now.

My problem is that our 30 girls go out and mess around in the rain all day and go back in periodically to eat and dry themselves leaving everything inside soaking wet. Even adding dry hay and shavings daily, its constantly wet it there.

Has anyone found a solution to this problem? I can't cover the run as it's 6000 square feet
 
Have you tried adding a thick layer of straw in the run? That might help cut down on some of the mud. To keep things drier in the coop, you could try Sweet PDZ or Stall Dry...they're formulated to absorb moisture and we find it does really well for us. Our coop is only 4 x 5 and our climate is way more arid, but just 1/2 cup mixed with the shavings will keep it dry and fresh smelling for a month here.
 
I'll ask about the sweet pdz and drystall when I pick up more feed on Sunday. Just never been a huge fan of using anything that's not natural for the animals. Oh well better artificially dry than naturally gross and mucky :).

Could I use maple leaves instead of straw in the run?
 
I live just a hop, skip, jump away. I use horse wood pellets and love them! Inside I fluff out the entire first layer and then add the pellets (no water) every few weeks. For the run it gets all unsoaked pellets dumped right in. More near the high traffic areas. maple leaves are good when dry but turn pretty mushy when decomposing.
 
OMG I just re-read the size of your run. I would cut it down in access and try to plant some sod or you could put down drainage rock followed by wood chips. I would still recommend horse wood pellets in the coop.
 
How about a "snack shack" ?? Maybe you could keep some food/water in a covered, but outside location in order to keep the coop dry during the day. With all the space you have, you could also have a couple/few separate pens; while one pen is in use, the other(s) could be recovering.
 
I'll ask about the sweet pdz and drystall when I pick up more feed on Sunday. Just never been a huge fan of using anything that's not natural for the animals. Oh well better artificially dry than naturally gross and mucky
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I don't know what you ended up doing, but I used drystall for my perch boxes, and found it to be extremely irritating when dry (the dust would give me a cough that would last a week, I had to use a mask until it started raining again) and on top of that, because this area is so humid (I live just outside of Vancouver) after summer, it just absorbed the water, and didn't let it go.

From what I know, they don't sell sweet pdz on this side of the country.

I switched to wood bedding pellets in the perch boxes, and love it, but they don't seem to lose their moisture. I will try it on the floor as per the suggestion of Smoochie and hope for better results.
 
Sweet PDZ or Stall dry are natural products, clay, and the hens like being able to peck and eat it. But I would not put it in an open run, it will help reduce moisture in the coop. You might get less of a problem if you were able to cover 8 feet or so of the run before they come into the coop entrance?
 

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