Rainfall muddy coop and run solutions

[Meweber]

Looking for advice on how to help soak up muddy ground from rainfall. Last night we got about 10” of rain..not typical for us, but it happens. I’m a new chicken owner, my chickens are about 11 weeks old and have been in their coop for a few weeks now. Since then we’ve had rains but coop floor and run have stayed dry. Coop and run have dirt floor. Coop is a converted shed and run has a metal roof. Rain didn’t get in from the roof or the structure just from ground water. Ground is completely muddy and saturated. I don’t expect this to happen very often but wanting to get advice on what to add to the dirt floor of the coop and/or run to help soak in ground water and help prevent this from getting so bad in the future. Sand?(what type), wood chips? Pine shavings in coop? I’m thinking of laying down plywood temporarily now until the ground water soaks back in and dries up. Is it bad for them to be walking around in mud? I’ll post pic of my coop/run shortly.
Thanks in advanced for the help: )

 

[Auntiejessi3]

Looking for advice on how to help soak up muddy ground from rainfall. Last night we got about 10” of rain..not typical for us, but it happens. I’m a new chicken owner, my chickens are about 11 weeks old and have been in their coop for a few weeks now. Since then we’ve had rains but coop floor and run have stayed dry. Coop and run have dirt floor. Coop is a converted shed and run has a metal roof. Rain didn’t get in from the roof or the structure just from ground water. Ground is completely muddy and saturated. I don’t expect this to happen very often but wanting to get advice on what to add to the dirt floor of the coop and/or run to help soak in ground water and help prevent this from getting so bad in the future. Sand?(what type), wood chips? Pine shavings in coop? I’m thinking of laying down plywood temporarily now until the ground water soaks back in and dries up. Is it bad for them to be walking around in mud? I’ll post pic of my coop/run shortly.
Thanks in advanced for the help: )

I would definitely put down some wood chips, pine needles, leaves, grass clippings, whatever is free and then go from there. In the meantime you could put down pallets or whatever is handy. Get some deep litter going that you can later use in your garden or flower beds. @3KillerBs has a great article on deep litter. This will help keep your run and coop dry, with little to no poop pick up besides once or twice a year depending on what you use it for and how you manage it

 

[Percheron chick]

The first thing to do is collect and channel the water away from the coop. Gutters, trenches, french drains... 10 inches of rain on a 10x10 roof is 625 gallons of water. Has to go somewhere.

 

[Tonyroo]

Definitely start digging a trench to get the water to flow away from the chicken area.

 

[3KillerBs]

Welcome to BYC. Where, in general, are you? Climate matters.

If you can get coarse wood chips, the sort you get from a tree-trimming service, they are usually considered the gold standard for control of mud and odor.

Coarse, UNDYED mulch without any additives can be used as a substitute.

Failing that -- any dry organic material that you have in abundance at a reasonable price will help. Some materials, particularly straw and dry fall leaves, will need more intensive management to prevent them from packing, matting, and molding.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

Being on Mt. Hood in Oregon I get a ton of rain. At first with a bare floor I tried all sorts of materials to soak up water. But what a pain in the rear it became to have so much bedding that I had to constantly clean out. Since then I dumped a few bags of "Quikrete" around the outter and inner foundation (side benefit, helps with predators.) The floor is now dry enough that I put down dug in some railroad ties acting as joists and installed a plywood floor. I also installed poop boards with sand under the roosts so now I only deal with sifted out poo for my compost, TOTAL GAME CHANGER! I can die happy now

 

[Battlepants]

TBH, it's all about driving the water away from the coop. If you are able to move the coop, one of the best solutions is move the coop off the spot, build up a pile of dirt that is 0.5-1 foot higher than the current grade and put the coop back on top of it. My current big coop is a converted dirt-ground shed that I was thankfully just able to fill in the ground inside the coop and this mornings flash-flood rain had no effect on them (...my house on the other hand didn't fair so well).

If you can't raise the land under the coop, the other solution is to lower the land around the coop. Effectively you will want to create a trench that allows water to run away or around the coop rather than going through it. Depending on your topography, French Drains can be of good use here.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Agree that trenching is something you want to look into to help divert water away.

For now, I'd consider getting wood pellets, wood chips or using pallets or scrap wood to form dry islands that the birds can walk on. Mud isn't immediately harmful, but it's also not good for them since it cakes on their feet and legs, and moist ground is also breeding grounds for things like coccidiosis and some other pests/parasites.

I have dealt with flooding in the past. We're on very flat ground but have very good drainage, so in my case building up the floor of the run is enough to help divert floodwaters around the run area. My coop is slightly elevated (about 6") to allow water to flow under it if necessary.

 

[Meweber]

Welcome to BYC. Where, in general, are you? Climate matters.

If you can get coarse wood chips, the sort you get from a tree-trimming service, they are usually considered the gold standard for control of mud and odor.

Coarse, UNDYED mulch without any additives can be used as a substitute.

Failing that -- any dry organic material that you have in abundance at a reasonable price will help. Some materials, particularly straw and dry fall leaves, will need more intensive management to prevent them from packing, matting, and molding.

Thanks for the advice, I’m in mid Missouri. I think I will end up getting wood chips for the run floor. I put a bunch of pine shavings in the coop, think I’ll do deep litter method there.

 

[Meweber]

Agree that trenching is something you want to look into to help divert water away.

For now, I'd consider getting wood pellets, wood chips or using pallets or scrap wood to form dry islands that the birds can walk on. Mud isn't immediately harmful, but it's also not good for them since it cakes on their feet and legs, and moist ground is also breeding grounds for things like coccidiosis and some other pests/parasites.

I have dealt with flooding in the past. We're on very flat ground but have very good drainage, so in my case building up the floor of the run is enough to help divert floodwaters around the run area. My coop is slightly elevated (about 6") to allow water to flow under it if necessary.

Thanks, I put a bunch of pine shavings in the coop and considering continuing to add dirt/shavings to build up the height on coop floor a bit. I got a pellets and scattered them in the run which helped a bit with super muddy areas. I think I’ll put wood chips in run eventually like someone else recommended. I’ve got mulch all around my coop over top of my hardware cloth which helps with drainage too.