Managing my chickens/run to avoid disease.

[rosemarythyme]

Thanks. It's pretty wet in their run and I think I do need to develop dryer ground. Not sure how. But as soon as I have a dry couple of hours I need to clean the coop and they'll get a couple of inches of fir shavings. I thought about some gravel, but I think that sounds a little boring for the chickens. I can't cover the run for a while, so if you have any temporary solutions I would love to hear them. Right now I am relying on their common sense. They like to forage in the grass of the yard and I try to give them 2 to 4 hours a day out there. When they are in the run they stay under the 4 square feet or so of dry ground I provide under the sheet of plywood I put out.

Any photos of your current run set up? Is the run in a lower spot in the yard? How is the existing drainage?

Gravel is a bad idea, it can cut up their feet and once poop dissolves into it, if it can't aerobically compost it'll start stinking.

Do you have access to wood chips, not shavings? Provided the drainage isn't a problem, it's a great way to help control mud and you can build it up a few inches to help provide a drier, more stable surface to walk on. I use deep litter with a base of wood chips: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/prepping-deep-litter-for-fall.1599199/ I have good drainage but we do have flooding sometimes, the run drains faster than any of the surrounding area because of the chips.

Temporary covered spots should work fine to provide shelter in lieu of a roofed run for time being, or long term, as long as mud/drainage isn't an ongoing issue.

 

[LER23]

Well, its late in the evening for pics. Besides, my run looks like my chickens are the trash of the neighborhood, lol! But as to the ground, there are just a few little puddles, not even an inch deep. Our backyard is a little uneven, but the chicken run is fairly level. It's just that the chickens have pretty much eaten everything green in there. That is why I let them into the rest of the backyard as much as possible, despite having to keep my dogs inside while the chickens free range (they ate 5 of my chickens early on. It was a blood bath, lol!) But I can definitely get wood chips. I will do so.

 

[RedwoodCoastChick]

Same issues here in coastal Humboldt, now that our rains have returned this month (so grateful!!!)

The wood chips in the runs are working well, except in all the places the girls love to excavate all the way down into the soil! Constantly filling those in, but they are quite diligent in their diggings. Ah, well, my husband has a chipper and loves to use it, thank goodness.

We also have a nearby tree service company that's happy to drop off loads of wood chips so they don't have to pay to take them to a dump. (Worth looking into in your area, perhaps.) We're lucky to have an easy-access "zone of accumulation" (permaculture-speak) at the back of the property where they can dump a big pile of chips and I can use it as needed; understand storing that can be a problem in a more suburban area.

The chooks have dry space under the coop (where their "official" dust bath stays reasonably dry) and in their secure run (covered by translucent tarp for the winter) but their large daytime yard is open air, covered with hawk netting and it's deeply moist already. No puddles, our soil drains very fast and the redwood roots that grow in from the woods edge suck up water like crazy. I'll just keep piling on the wood chips - this is our first rain season with chickens, so fingers crossed! And I check the girls a couple of times daily to be sure everyone's looking healthy and behaving normally.

So far they stay under cover for heavy/steady rain, but come out to chicken-around happily when it's just light drizzle.

 

[Perris]

I thought about some gravel, but I think that sounds a little boring for the chickens

We get a lot of rain in Wales too, so when we tiled a covered walkway round part of the building we put a palm-wide trench of small grade gravel on the dry side between the tiles and the building, and a foot-wide trench of medium size gravel between the other exposed side of the walkway and a paved terrace, so rain water would have somewhere to drain and not pool on the hard surfaces or flow from the terrace to the building. The chickens here regularly excavate through both, when they're hanging around under the cover when it's raining, so they don't find it boring - and we've not had any foot problems here. Nor does it smell, though the rainy days' poop is inevitably swept into it to clean up the walkway after they've been hanging around there; I guess it gets washed down into the soil below by the next dump of rain.

To help you visualise this, here you can see the narrow small gravel trench next to the building, and how it's been rummaged around in by birds sheltering there on a wet day (and before the clean up!).

 

[RedwoodCoastChick]

Perris, that is such an adorable photo, all the big chicks peering out from mama's fluff!

 

[LER23]

Same issues here in coastal Humboldt, now that our rains have returned this month (so grateful!!!)

The wood chips in the runs are working well, except in all the places the girls love to excavate all the way down into the soil! Constantly filling those in, but they are quite diligent in their diggings. Ah, well, my husband has a chipper and loves to use it, thank goodness.

We also have a nearby tree service company that's happy to drop off loads of wood chips so they don't have to pay to take them to a dump. (Worth looking into in your area, perhaps.) We're lucky to have an easy-access "zone of accumulation" (permaculture-speak) at the back of the property where they can dump a big pile of chips and I can use it as needed; understand storing that can be a problem in a more suburban area.

The chooks have dry space under the coop (where their "official" dust bath stays reasonably dry) and in their secure run (covered by translucent tarp for the winter) but their large daytime yard is open air, covered with hawk netting and it's deeply moist already. No puddles, our soil drains very fast and the redwood roots that grow in from the woods edge suck up water like crazy. I'll just keep piling on the wood chips - this is our first rain season with chickens, so fingers crossed! And I check the girls a couple of times daily to be sure everyone's looking healthy and behaving normally.

So far they stay under cover for heavy/steady rain, but come out to chicken-around happily when it's just light drizzle.

Thanks! I grew up in Napa Valley and lived in Mendocino County as a young adult, so have a good understanding of the Humboldt area. I don't really have the energy to do the physical labor that your type of gardening seems to require, but have read about, and am really interested in, permaculture farming and gardening. I took up chickens because I can't garden anymore. They are so calming. Good luck with yours. So far mine have been great. I just have to teach dogs not to kill them (lost my first 5).

 

[LER23]

We get a lot of rain in Wales too, so when we tiled a covered walkway round part of the building we put a palm-wide trench of small grade gravel on the dry side between the tiles and the building, and a foot-wide trench of medium size gravel between the other exposed side of the walkway and a paved terrace, so rain water would have somewhere to drain and not pool on the hard surfaces or flow from the terrace to the building. The chickens here regularly excavate through both, when they're hanging around under the cover when it's raining, so they don't find it boring - and we've not had any foot problems here. Nor does it smell, though the rainy days' poop is inevitably swept into it to clean up the walkway after they've been hanging around there; I guess it gets washed down into the soil below by the next dump of rain.

To help you visualise this, here you can see the narrow small gravel trench next to the building, and how it's been rummaged around in by birds sheltering there on a wet day (and before the clean up!).
View attachment 3661415

Wales-so far away! Thanks for the pics. Your gravel looks small. If I add any to my run I will keep that in mind. Thanks for the encouragement.

 

[Mrs. K]

DRY as you can keep it is good. Ventilation is very important. That has all been covered.

But you asked about disease - one of the mistakes I made when I first got chickens, was giving them too much feed. They would bill it out, not clean it up, and it got ground into the dirt and created sheets of stinking feed. It smelled terrible and once they did that, it was wasted.

I tend to underfeed my birds verses overfeed. I watch what is left over pretty carefully. If a lot is left over, I feed less, if it is bare clean - I feed more. Spilled of billed feed is cleaned up by the girls. Thing is, there is a lot of variance day to day.

So keeping your feed dry, keeping it from being spilled, from collecting in the mud is also important.

Mrs K

 

[Morrigan]

Do you have access to wood chips, not shavings? Provided the drainage isn't a problem, it's a great way to help control mud and you can build it up a few inches to help provide a drier, more stable surface to walk on.

Heartily second this. Wood chips are a good way of combating the muck. You can mix leaves and pine needles in with the wood chips. Aside from giving the chickens some relief from standing water, it is nice to be able to walk out and check on chickens without being ankle deep in mud. It also enriches the soil of their run going forward.

 

[LER23]

DRY as you can keep it is good. Ventilation is very important. That has all been covered.

But you asked about disease - one of the mistakes I made when I first got chickens, was giving them too much feed. They would bill it out, not clean it up, and it got ground into the dirt and created sheets of stinking feed. It smelled terrible and once they did that, it was wasted.

I tend to underfeed my birds verses overfeed. I watch what is left over pretty carefully. If a lot is left over, I feed less, if it is bare clean - I feed more. Spilled of billed feed is cleaned up by the girls. Thing is, there is a lot of variance day to day.

So keeping your feed dry, keeping it from being spilled, from collecting in the mud is also important.

Mrs K

Thanks! There is a lot of spillage, for sure! I have been super annoyed at this, since I feel like I am throwing money in the dirt of their run when it gets kicked, pooped on and generally ignored by the girls. This has been especially true since I have been letting them into the backyard to forage. But I am not sure that they are getting the right nutrition. They like corn a lot, and go for mealworms regularly, but they do serm to ignore the crumbles.....I will cut back on treats and see what happens.