Muddy ground--what to do with it?

[tlagnhoj]

I just put the chickens in the coop/run for overnights this past weekend. It's rained 3 times since then. Between the chickens and the rain, it's fairly obvious the ground cover it going to be trampled to smithereens in a matter of days or weeks. Which isn't going to be a problem when it's dry. But when it's wet, it will definitely get muddy(ier). It sits higher than the surrounding ground so there's no standing water issues and won't be so muddy that you slop in it and lose a shoe or something. But it'll be slick. From all considerations, hen happiness/health to caretaker (me!) satisfaction, is it easier to leave it and deal with the mud when it rains? Or is it worth some sort of effort to ameliorate the area with something? What would I do to improve the situation? The coop is half covered so only part of it gets really bad.

Honestly, I'm okay with mud just being mud. But nothing is ever just limited to "being" what it is. And I don't know what kind of future issues will arise from this.

THanks.

 

[wsmoak]

I would concentrate on making a mud-free path from the door to the egg boxes (or where ever you typically need to walk.

Given the chickens will scratch and scatter anything loose you try to put down, maybe paving stones would work? I had decent luck with crusher run left over from the driveway as it packs down fairly well, but even then they've scattered the larger gravel pieces.

-Wendy

 

[BoltonChicken]

3 inches gravel, top with 3 inches sand.