Muddy coop

[MROO]

My father got a bad case poison ivy many years ago when he was clearing out some wild brushes and trees on my property. It was really bad. The next year he got some kind of a shot so he would not be so sensitive to poison ivy, and he never got a rash that year. Even though I'm not all that sensitive to poison ivy, I always wear work gloves when clearing brush. I also wear gloves when working with wood chips, at home, and at the landfill.

I think the chances of getting poison ivy mixed in with the wood chips is minimal, but if you have someone in the family that is super sensitive, then, yeah, take a pass on free wood chips that you don't know where they came from.

I bought a small electric Sun Joe wood chipper for yard cleanup at home. So I know what is in those chips. Those electric wood chippers do a pretty good job for smaller branches up to about 1 1/2 inches that might fall down from your trees in the yard. Better to chip them up and reuse them with the chickens than to burn them or haul them out to the landfill. It does not make sense to chip wood at home if you consider your time and effort. If you value your time at all, it would be better just to buy bagged wood chips at the big box stores. However, I just put on a pair of my work headphones, load up an audiobook, and chip up the branches with my electric wood chipper while listening to my audiobooks.

If I have lots of branches, and up to 3 inches in diameter, then I get out my gas chipper and get to work. It's a pain to get running, but after that it chips up the wood much faster than my small electric chipper. However, gas chippers are much more expensive than the electric chippers and still they are not very fast. Again, you would be money ahead just to buy bagged wood chips at the store.

But, in keeping with the original intent of this thread, all those wood chips I make at home go right back into the dry deep litter in the coop or into the chicken run to help it from getting muddy. I still think wood chips are the best base to build up the chicken run to prevent it from getting all muddy. Eventually they break down into compost you can reuse the compost in the garden.

Agreed! Not only are wood chips great for keeping the run dry, but the compost is worth every bit of time and effort put into them! I wish I still had my chipper, but it's ability to break down finally outstripped our ability to repair it, {{ ... sigh ... }}

 

[gtaus]

Agreed! Not only are wood chips great for keeping the run dry, but the compost is worth every bit of time and effort put into them! I wish I still had my chipper, but it's ability to break down finally outstripped our ability to repair it, {{ ... sigh ... }}

My gas chipper is about 30 years old. It's a PITA to start up, but once running, it has the power to munch the mulch and spit the chips. But I had to get it repaired last year and that was about $100.00 for some carb repair and cleaning, and general tune up. It ran great for the rest of that year, but this year I'm having trouble starting it again. I live in northern Minnesota, and my gas chipper sits in the shed for about 8 months out of the year, so the gas goes bad and gunks up the carb - even with fuel additives that are supposed to prevent that problem. If/when my gas chipper does die, I will not replace it.

My little electric chipper cost me just over $100, on sale, and it does a fair job of chipping small branches. It broke once within the warranty period and Sun Joe replaced it without a hassle. It's no longer under warranty, so if it breaks again, I'll have to decide if I want to get a new one. My thoughts are that as long as it works through the 2 year warranty period, I'll probably get another one from Sun Joe because they have great after sales warranty support. Any branches too big for the electric Sun Joe chipper will be cut up and thrown into a hügelkultur garden bed.

I hope by the time either/both my chippers die, that the electric chippers will have improved in quality. I am really fed up with small gas engines and the constant problems I have with gas issues in the carbs. My local mechanic tells me that about 90% of his shop repairs are due to bad gas we have nowadays. I have already replaced my gas push mower and grass trimmers with battery operated mower and trimmers. They just start up every time with fresh batteries and don't require any maintenance.

 

[3KillerBs]

I am really fed up with small gas engines and the constant problems I have with gas issues in the carbs. My local mechanic tells me that about 90% of his shop repairs are due to bad gas we have nowadays.

We have found that it's absolutely CRITICAL to get the non-ethanol gas for our small engines.

 

[Shadrach]

Using lime in a coop run is not a good idea.
Lime kills a wide range of bugs in the soil and its decay rate to a neutral compound is quite long.
There are good bugs and bad bugs with regard to chicken health and lime doesn't discriminate between them. If you lime your run all those good bugs that the chickens eat get killed and of course because the chickens eat a proprtion of the soil they ingest some of the lime as well.

 

[3KillerBs]

Using lime in a coop run is not a good idea.
Lime kills a wide range of bugs in the soil and its decay rate to a neutral compound is quite long.
There are good bugs and bad bugs with regard to chicken health and lime doesn't discriminate between them. If you lime your run all those good bugs that the chickens eat get killed and of course because the chickens eat a proprtion of the soil they ingest some of the lime as well.

Depends on the lime.

There is the corrosive kind and there is the ground rock.

 

[Shadrach]

Depends on the lime.

There is the corrosive kind and there is the ground rock.

I've only come across the corrosive type.

 

[3KillerBs]

I've only come across the corrosive type.

Garden lime is just ground limestone.

 

[629864]

I actually do wear mine even in the summer, but they are heavy. I find the protection worth it and if the heat is so bad I can't bear them I figure I shouldn't be out it in very long anyway.

But I'm used to wearing heavy, rubber, non-slip shoe covers at work while standing for 8 hours so that makes a difference.

I wear knee high snake boots from April to November. It gets hot in tall boots and jeans...but that's preferable to venom.

As for the mud, my boys and girls are free range so this isnt such a problem for me as they have a variety of places they can go to get into or out of weather as they choose. However, our enclosed run doesn't have a roof so it isn't sheltered from rain. It's on a slight slope though and I dug trenches to divert rainwater around the hen house attached to that run. The run never has standing water or excessive muddiness and I believe it's due to the slope.

ALL of my birds will choose to stay in the rain foraging except on the coldest of rainy days...and even then, as soon as the rain settles to a light drizzle, there go the birds out in search of treats. They've got free feeders and water hanging in both houses...they just love foraging. Both hen houses stay dry inside and that's what important to me...that they all have somewhere cozy to go when they get fed up with being wet. Even the guineas are starting to get the idea that being part of the chicken flock might have its perks... like roosting inside a warm dry hen house at night.

 

[Thetinyfarm]

And I'm prepared to bring them into the workshop if it gets really bad this weekend. I'll be putting them in a camping tent. NOT looking forward to this at all.

Bless your heart. I would put mine in my greenhouse if the weather got too extreme here. I have a wood stove in it, which I can cover!

 

[Thetinyfarm]

I just read the news letter that came through from backyard chickens but I had a more in depth question. If my coop gets muddy, can I put powdered limestone down? I know we have used it in barns to keep everything dry but I didn’t know if it would hurt the chickens or if anyone has any input!

No idea about limestone. Might irritate their feet. I use wooden pallets they can stand on. Mine are free range though also and have two different, attached runs. You could also try square bales of straw.