Muddy Run - pine pellets

[taylacline]

During the summer and spring I was able to put some dye-free mulch in our chicken run but now that its winter the run has been so muddy with all the rain and snow. I've heard of people putting pine pellets, that absorb some of the moisture, into their runs and seeing success with that. But has anyone had any issues with that method? I feel like the chickens will try to eat the pellets and then they will swell inside the birds and they'll die? Or is that not really a risk? I feel like our birds peck at everything?
Also whats an alternative to pine pellets to help with the mess?

 

[nuthatched]

How bad is it? Can you work on draining your run, adding run offs?

 

[alinas2010]

During the summer and spring I was able to put some dye-free mulch in our chicken run but now that its winter the run has been so muddy with all the rain and snow. I've heard of people putting pine pellets, that absorb some of the moisture, into their runs and seeing success with that. But has anyone had any issues with that method? I feel like the chickens will try to eat the pellets and then they will swell inside the birds and they'll die? Or is that not really a risk? I feel like our birds peck at everything?
Also whats an alternative to pine pellets to help with the mess?

We use pine pellets in our run when it gets muddy, they work wonderfully. Our chickens never tried to eat them. That was something I did worry about, too, that they would try to eat them. They don’t seem to have an interest in sampling them, though. The chickens do a wonderful job of spreading them around and breaking them down. I recommend them, they help so much with them muddy mess.

 

[3KillerBs]

Pellets wouldn't hurt, but coarse wood chips would be better because of the good drainage they offer. Once the pellets have turned into sawdust the material would just sink into the mud.

But first, address the cause of the mud -- the drainage problems that are putting so much water into your run.

Does your run sit in an area where streams of water run through it during the rain? If yes, dig diversion ditches and/or install French drains to direct water around the outside of the run and lead it to lower ground.

Does your run sit in a low spot where water pools? If yes, the best option is to move your run. Alternately, re-grade the area and/or build up the level of the ground inside the run so that water no longer pools there.

Is the soil heavy clay that can't absorb the amount of rain that falls? Or frozen and also unable to absorb water? Covering the run might help as well as adding plenty of dry organic material.

 

[akf93]

I used pine pellets in our small run. They pecked at it for a couple days but after the first rain, it turns to dust-like fluff anyway. It’s worked really well! For convenience reasons, we used straw in the larger run we recently built. It’s doing a great job and I will probably stick more to that because it doesn’t build up as much as the pellets. Worried about my run shrinking over time. the straw makes a nice floor up off the wet ground. I’d love to try out wood chips since they are so highly talked about but haven’t gotten around to getting any yet.