Muddy Coop Club

[PapaChaz]

Quote:

yeah, plant something, that's a sure fire way for it not to rain again for a while

 

[HomesteadGal]

My hen yard is looking more like a pig yard with all the mud. Our area of Virginia has had a lot of rain (we needed it) and with all the rain we got a LOT of mud. The Speckled Sussex hens will walk right through the puddles and keep on scratching while, my Welsummer girls prefer to walk around the puddles and stay on the old hay we mulched their yard with. I've even had them choose to get rained on just so they could scratch in the hen yard! The girls don't seem to mind it but, I'm really tired of slipping and sliding around in all the muck.

I have to say the hens are much happier since they have hay to scratch in. When I let them out in the morning it's like a bunch of kids busting out of the school door for recess! Some of them fly out the coop door and start scratching the minute their feet hit the ground!

Wish this "Ol' Hen" had that much enthusiasm when she flys out of the house to work every morning! LOL

 

[tendriana]

Quote:
I hear ya. I used to live in Santa Cruz and even after several years in Sac, I still can NOT handle the heat!! I love cold rainy days... Until this year. Now I've shocked everyone by being glad the rains are done!! I'll still complain bitterly when the temps jump up over a hundred. You just can't win in this part of Cali - either way too cold and wet, or ridiculously hot and dry. *dreaming of the days of living two blocks from the beach....*

 

[Attack Chicken]

We were dealing with alot of rain/ice/snow here

the run got so freaking muddy and started puddling in there. Looked more like a duck run than a chicken run.

Got to thinking. We decided to get around 7 50lb bags of sand and viola! No more muddy/wet runs!

Never really like sand but I LOVE it now.

Dunno if this is an option for you all but it cured my problem

 

[columbiacritter]

Same here up in Oregon, 2 months of record rain has everything super saturated. The only ones happy about all the water and mud is the ducks. We put yards and yards of pea gravel and sand down last fall and there barely any trace of it now.

One benefit of all the wet. Last night I was up on the roof of the coop I've been struggling to build in between rain storms. A freak wind gust blew me right off the roof but I wasn't hurt becuase the ground was so soggy where I landed it was like falling into thick oatmeal. Thankfully I landed face up so it was just a matter of struggling out of the big dent I made before it completely filled with water. I was soaked, muddy and rattled but not even a bruise to show for my 8 ft drop. The step ladder I'd been using ended up 20 ft away.

 

[feldsine]

I was reading this thread and read of a couple folks with horses dealing with mud. I live outside Eureka CA, a few miles from the coast, and constant rain is a problems here as well. Incredibly, I solved the mud problem.

I have a 40x40 paddock attached to a 30x48 barn. In the paddock area, I laid down geotextile paper, which is the stuff they lay under roads, and comes in 12' wide rolls. I got it at our local United Rental yard. Pull it good and tight. What I did is got several dumptruck loads of 5/8 crushed rock and put it over the top of it. It was recommended to me to use crushed granite, but we can't get that around here. The thing you want is crusher dust. For a while, you will have to bring in additional loads of rock to fill in, but after a few months, a layer of fine sand / rock will start to build up under the 5/8 rock and form a hard surface, kind of like road base does. We've had this surface down now for around 3 years, and it is a nice hard surface that gives under the horse's hoofs somewhat. This area used to be a foot to foot and a half of mud just from people and tractors on it, now, horses can walk on it without sinking in even an inch.

There are two keys. One is the geotextile cloth, which keeps the mud separate from the rock, and the crushed dust, which develops into that hard surface. I didn't think about it at the time, but this process might be helped by putting a thin layer of road base under the crushed rock when starting off. The second is constant scooping of the poop. We scoop at least three times a day, you do not want the poop getting mixed into the rock in large quantities, or you will just create a mud pit on top of the cloth.

This might be a pricey solution, but the results are astounding, it really works. During heavy rains, this area actually has a stream running across it, and it's hard as a rock, no mud!

I have pictures of the construction on my Facebook page, which I would be happy to share upon request. I don't have any recent photos, but if anyone would like some, I'd be happy to take some and share them.

Stan

 

[chloebetsychicks]

It's spring in NC where we live and my pen is muddy-but not too bad as I have straw down right now in there. Here is the problem-It decomposes and gets icky disgusting and then i have to shovel it out and that is gross and tiresome. My thought is this: do I wait til it dries out some-shovel it all out-put it in the garden-and then truck the crusher run we have in a giant mountain by the barn into the run by the wheelbarrow full? Is this, in fact, a good solution to the mud problem? I am wondering if the poo will sort of drain through that when it rains or maybe i could hose it during extended dry spells-such as july and august. Anyone have any experience with various pen floor substrates that may help here. Here is my 2nd problem, rats keep tunneling into the pen, and I'm wondering if I laid down a nice big layer of gravel if it may discourage them. Thoughts??