Muddy mess....straw, pine, sand?....HELP(DUPLICATE)

[NJbirdlover]

Hello fellow chicken lovers-

My run is a muddy mess! What is normally a well drained rock hard run is now (after 50" of snow) a sloppy, muddy, smelly mess!
I need to dry it out somehow but need to do it the most economical way possible. I could use straw just to give them something to walk on but I am afraid they will eat it and get impacted. I know the straw can get moldy but it's just until we get dried out a bit.

Any thoughts??

 

[LittleFeat]

I had the same problem and went to Home Depot and got bags of Pea Gravel and some sand. I mixed both in one area but like it better just using the gravel. It has REALLY helped and this Spring I'm going to try and get a truckload to use all around the run and deeper in the run. I'm not sure if it's the best to use for the chickens walking on it but surely it can't be as bad as walking in mud and drinking from pools of "poo tea".

I'm like you .....ready for dry weather!!

 

[bockbock2008]

Straw works good initially but once it gets wet and packed down, its really hard to get cleaned up. I had the same problem last year and put down sand and it works great.

 

[Nyrial]

I was going to rake mine out this weekend to get rid of the stinky top, sprinkle it liberally with DE, and then put some new sand down. Not sure how it's going to turn out, but it has to be better than the mud they're ankle deep in right now. My White Leghorns are Brown Leghorns right now.

And believe me, we understand WET here

 

[LittleFeat]

One more comment about the sand I had used. It is great but I noticed that when the chickens would scratch in it, they would dig holes and then the holes would fill with water making nice "poo tea". The pea gravel even mixed with sand seems to have prevented that.

I would be interested in knowing if anyone thinks the pea gravel could be a problem in some way for the chickens? So far it seems great. I think the pieces are big enough that the chickens won't try to eat any of it but I was a little worried about that at first. Any ideas/advice for me and the OP.