Muddy feathered feet

[junior67]

Sorry about the dog. If you can get more litter materials, that'll help with controlling the mud. It's fine if feathered feet get wet or a little muddy, but you don't want them becoming mud balls, so anything that'll keep them out of the dirt (which is then mud if it rains) will help.

we are going to be putting in more grass clippings and leaves just need to wait for the rain to stop so we can mow. LOL I think most of it came from where the plywood meets so has a gap so once that is shingled it won't be an issue any more. The part of the run with out a cover didn't have any mud that I noticed it was in the roof covered part since the plywood didn't meet up perfect.

They weren't mud balls just really dirty feet.

 

[CluckerFamily]

You may be able to put a tarp over the top of the run until the roof gets done. This way, most of the rain stays out.

 

[junior67]

You may be able to put a tarp over the top of the run until the roof gets done. This way, most of the rain stays out.

I thought of that Sat when it was dripping on us when we went in. But with it raining so much I didn't want my husband on a ladder that would get slippery. Now that the rain should be mostly done today I think we may do that. We have had rain before this weekend and had no mud in there. I think that it was just so much this weekend and basically non stop that it made mud in a couple spots. I couldn't completely find what we had but Sat (which rained a bit less than yesterday I think) I believe it said we had 2-3" of rain. so I am guessing we had around 5" of rain between Sat and Sun. Which is not normal for us.

 

[junior67]

there feet were about 99% clean this morning when they came out so didn't have to worry about cleaning them.

 

[3KillerBs]

I've never had to worry about my Brahmas' feet. They do get dirty if it's wet and/or if the run needs more litter, but they groom their feet as part of their regular preening. They only need our intervention if clay mud dries into adobe-like balls that are beyond the chickens own capability for cleaning.

The key is to have your run in a well-drained location and to keep plenty of litter in it -- wood chips, wood shavings, straw, pine straw, leaves, etc.

BTW -- at 7 weeks they should be fully-feathered and capable of choosing to go out in or stay in from whatever weather you're experiencing. As long as they have shelter available that they *could* choose to use they will not get any wetter or any colder than they want to be.

Remember, chickens know how to be chickens better than we know how to be chickens. Once they're no longer downy babies they are OK outside even when it's wet.

 

[junior67]

I've never had to worry about my Brahmas' feet. They do get dirty if it's wet and/or if the run needs more litter, but they groom their feet as part of their regular preening. They only need our intervention if clay mud dries into adobe-like balls that are beyond the chickens own capability for cleaning.

The key is to have your run in a well-drained location and to keep plenty of litter in it -- wood chips, wood shavings, straw, pine straw, leaves, etc.

BTW -- at 7 weeks they should be fully-feathered and capable of choosing to go out in or stay in from whatever weather you're experiencing. As long as they have shelter available that they *could* choose to use they will not get any wetter or any colder than they want to be.

Remember, chickens know how to be chickens better than we know how to be chickens. Once they're no longer downy babies they are OK outside even when it's wet.

Thanks for the answer. They did clean themselves I just wanted to be sure.

My thing with them going in or whatever is they haven't put themselves in the coop yet at the time. When dusk starts they huddle in a corner of the run until we go out and call them to go into the coop then most of them will come a few we still have to help. They did much better with it last night so think they are finally starting to figure that out so hopefully in the next day or two they will fully go in alone. They did go into the fully dry spots at time Sunday which is why I left them out for the whole day.