I live in the Pacific NW and, needless to say, it rains here quite a bit. The soil under my run is probably the worst clay soil I've ever seen and it turns into a spongy mess of poo and water anytime it rains.
Half of the run is covered and, because there's not much sun this time of year, doesn't get much sun at all right now.
I recently laid about 3 inches of pea gravel and 2 inches of sand in the run which seemed to fix the issue, for about 3 weeks.
Now I'm back to soggy poo in the run. Should I 'turn' the gravel? hose the poo down? I wish I could let the hens run around the yard, but it's not fully fenced and raccoons roam my neighborhood in full daylight!
Here are pictures of my coop/run, any advice would be wonderful!
This is the size of the run and it's location, but the first picture shows the "updated" coop.
Half of the run is covered and, because there's not much sun this time of year, doesn't get much sun at all right now.
I recently laid about 3 inches of pea gravel and 2 inches of sand in the run which seemed to fix the issue, for about 3 weeks.
Now I'm back to soggy poo in the run. Should I 'turn' the gravel? hose the poo down? I wish I could let the hens run around the yard, but it's not fully fenced and raccoons roam my neighborhood in full daylight!
Here are pictures of my coop/run, any advice would be wonderful!


This is the size of the run and it's location, but the first picture shows the "updated" coop.