Muddy chicken coop

[Phalennichole]

Our yard is terrible at draining water which means our coop is always muddy after rain. Yes there is a cover on our run. Drives me crazy but anyways. Our silkies are always the ones to get covered in mud. I had a friend suggest pelletized bedding that she uses in her
coop. Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[KyCoop]

You need to solve your drainage problem first or you will just have muddy sawdust. The pellets can only do so much. I also had mud problems but solved them with ditches, dams and drains. If you just keep throwing pellets down you will eventually get a thick layer of yuck that will not smell very good.

 

[3KillerBs]

Coarse wood chips, the kind you get from a tree trimming service, are usually considered the gold standard, but no kind of bedding can fix a drainage problem.

Install French drains and/or grass swales, dig diversion ditches, or have the area professionally re-graded as necessary and then bedding will be able to work to keep the area fresh and clean.

 

[Acre4Me]

All true statements above. Fix the issue or move the coop.

We also had drainage issues-I live in a fairly flat area of Ohio. Water wasn’t draining very well, and the whole back area was a squishy mess with rain, and some areas had standing water. The area the coop was in would mildly flood. So, we built an elevated walk-in coop so it wasn’t directly on the ground. Then we added flexible drain pipes to the gutter downspouts to direct water flow where we wanted. Then we had 102 tons of dirt (4truck loads) brought in to spread out and make the back area flat (actually not the coop and run area, but area around it where our raised bed garden was going to go). In the run area we put approx 20 yards of chunky chipped wood and we lined the run fence with 2x4s one level high. These kept the chipped wood in the run. The run is 500sq ft and is bordered on one side by our barn. Now (a few years later) we finally got the whole run roofed. Rain still blows in, and we don’t have gutters on the roof over the run, but the run no longer is a wet mess.


My neighbor had a similar problem. His solution was different. He dumped a lot of gravel into the run and spread it out. He topped this with straw snd chipped wood and more straw. His chickens stayed dry after that. He had NO roof over the run, just a couple old sheets of plywood here and there, so his run wasn’t very protected from the rain.

 

[Phalennichole]

Yeah we live on half an acre and the whole thing and both our neighbors holds rain so not sure how great drainage would go tho I’m not knowledgeable in that department lol. I mean the only thing I can think of is running it to the ditch in front of our house but that’s way to far. Building our run up right now isn’t feasible. We have a huge run lol and that would take some money. They free roam our yard when our dogs aren’t out and in the run when the dogs are out or when it’s raining. Was just trying to find a cheaper solution for the moment until after the holidays. We use pine shavings right now and they are great until it rains.

 

[3KillerBs]

Yeah we live on half an acre and the whole thing and both our neighbors holds rain so not sure how great drainage would go tho I’m not knowledgeable in that department lol. I mean the only thing I can think of is running it to the ditch in front of our house but that’s way to far. Building our run up right now isn’t feasible. We have a huge run lol and that would take some money. They free roam our yard when our dogs aren’t out and in the run when the dogs are out or when it’s raining. Was just trying to find a cheaper solution for the moment until after the holidays. We use pine shavings right now and they are great until it rains.

The coarse wood chips might help but it's hard to work against nature.

 

[Acre4Me]

Cheap = pallets

Not the best long term, can provide shelter for mice or rats, particularly if you are not careful with excess/spilled feed. But, to get you through to next spring, get coarse wood chips and pallets to whatever extent possible.

 

[Phalennichole]

We live in the country. Where we live we have mice out there and it drives me crazy. lol I’m terrified of them. They don’t mess with the chickens or eggs but still disgusting. we have some horse stall mats but it only helps sometimes. I have some huge pallets for when we had our kids swing sets dilevered. I didn’t even think to lay them down under the horse stall mats maybe I’ll try that. I got them because they are a lot easier to clean and still get lots of grass and dirt time every day for hours at a time to still get that in.

 

[Phalennichole]

We did have pvs feeders we saw off Pinterest to make but they kept getting mold in them I guess from the Texas heat. Was gross so we stopped using them. We are just using the basic tractor supply feeders now. Looking for better ones that are more covered but won’t get mold inside.

 

[Crazychickengirl2]

I would suggest plants that soak up lots of water