mud in coop??

Yes, Winter does suck!

A couple years ago, our coop had the same problem. We were just starting out keeping chickens. We repurposed a lean to shed for their coop and it held water bad. Water in winter turned to ice skating rink and then back to nasty mud. Not good. We also use straw for bedding. We ended up building the coop floor up with the straw, sand, fireplace ashes, and dirt. We have a earth floor. If I had it to do over, or when I make a new coop, the coop will have a proper floor and we will be using pine shavings.

 

There are two basic ideas. Keep the water out to start with or get the water out once it gets in. Not always easy but this might help.

Pat’s Big Ol' Mud Page (fixing muddy runs):
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1642-fix-a-muddy-run

To me a proper floor is one that keeps water out and drains water out if it gets in. I built my coop on a slight rise and then added a few inches of dirt so it is higher than anything around it. I also built a swale on the up side to help keep those heavy rains from flooding it anyway. My coop does not get wet from floodwaters.

Sometime some rain water or especially dry swirling floating snow will come in through an opening. The dirt will eventually drain since it is higher than the surrounding ground, but what I really rely on to dry it when that happens is ventilation. Lots of ventilation will dry it out, but it really helps to rake it. You can do that yourself or just toss a little corn on it and the chickens will rake it for you.

A lot of different people use different techniques. Building it up with sand can be a great solution as long as the sand is high enough that it has somewhere to drain to.

A lot of people will consider a “proper” floor a raised wood, concrete, or something else floor. That can work but if water gets in it still needs to be able to dry out.

 

If you have access to wood chips, about 12" deep should also work.

 

Sounds like you only used a layer of shavings.

I'm talking about a mountain of chips, creating a hill, allowing the water to pass freely underneath.

Also as suggested by Ridgerunner you need to address the drainage issues, and or the surrounding landscape, so the coop is not at a low point where water will accumulate.

 

A couple of ideas:

Create a "floating floor" that either sits directly on the ground or is supported by concrete blocks (preferred). This is probably the quickest fix, but you will no doubt have to replace it over time because even if you put it on blocks, it will still be exposed to all the moisture from below. Also, it does nothing to mediate any of the humidity issues that you likely have in the coop because of all that water.

Jack up the coop, retrofit it with a real floor, and set it back down on footings that raise it off the ground. This would probably be a pretty big undertaking that might require serious carpentry skills. It will no doubt require alternate temporary housing for your flock but it would get everything up and out of the water and prevent the coop from rotting from the ground up.

Dig a trench around the perimeter of the coop, install gravel and perforated pvc pipe (French drain) to direct the water around and away from the coop. If the coop is truly at the lowest point in the yard you may have the best effect by installing a French drain in combination with a drywell. This strategy will probably result in less upset of the current housing situation and as long as you don't mind digging (and don't have rocks/tree roots that make it too difficult) might get you the best results compared to the effort required.

If it were me, I'd probably put in a floating floor (on blocks) for immediate relief from the mud, and that would give me time to install a French drain/drywell to divert the water.