Run floor..muddy and nasty

[Eggcessive]

Here is an older thread that many others have shared about muddy conditions:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-to-fix-a-muddy-run-chicken-coop

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

We are using leaves in both runs now, as that is what we have too much of. I have also used corn stalks and okra stalks, after they are done in the garden.
Really, anything that will keep them up out of the mud will do.

 

[ENor70]

Lots of helpful comments here. I'm relatively new to chickens, but they seem happy and healthy, so I think what I'm doing is working ok. I don't have access to many leaves, so use pine shavings and straw. When the run gets really wet I put down a good layer of barn lime and the cover with the pine shavings/straw. I just repeat that process when needs be. The lime is cheap, and seems to bind and 'dry' the bedding and mud pretty well. Just an idea. Good luck!

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

ENor70- can you get some mulch from any local tree trimming companies? Chipper shredded?

 

[ENor70]

ENor70- can you get some mulch from any local tree trimming companies?  Chipper shredded?

I probably could. Is there a certain type of chip you'd not recommend? I think I've read cedar is not good.

 

[Folly's place]

Black walnut, cedar, and probably there are others, not likely where I live. I think that the bagged fine chips for horse bedding are cheap, easy to manage, and trouble free. Mary

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

Quote: I think if the cedar is just a small portion of the chipped mulch, it would probably be safe. But if they have done nothing but cedar, then it would probably not be good to use.

 

[Howard E]

To the OP, once you confine your birds into a small space and give them access to the outside in the form of a run, it is short work for them to convert that run area into bare ground. They will pick it clean, leaving no vegetation at all. So what happens next depends on a few variables, one of them is drainage. Consider a bowl. Turn it upside down so water and stuff runs off and you can dump as much water as you want on it and it all runs off, the surface drying quickly. Then turn it over such that it catches water you throw at it and it will retain and hold that forever. So for starters, think inverted bowl or at least a slope of some type to get drainage. Water needs to run away from it, not towards it. If the run is wet because it holds water, that is issue #1 to deal with.

Next consideration, even if it is sloping, there will be short periods when rain and snow will sit on it, so to elevate them off the surface.......you need to put in some type of water permeable platform for them to stand on. The quick and easy material to use for that is organic litter of some type. Something that once upon a time was a living plant. It needs to be fine enough for them to walk upon (that leaves out sticks and tree branches and stacks of firewood), yet coarse enough so water can drain through it and strong enough to support their weight. So really small stuff like sawdust, rice hulls, etc. are out. That leaves a whole slew of stuff in the middle. Things like tree leaves, wood chips, pine needles, and MAYBE straw. Down deep at the soil / litter interface, the organic matter reacts with the moisture in the soil, organic matter (carbon) in the form of litter and Nitrogen in the chicken manure to start a slow or cold composting process. It rots down and turns into black gold down there, which can be harvested for other uses, or simply allowed to build. This is what mine looked like after a few months:






The issue with straw (at least wheat and oat straw), which are the residual plant materials baled up after the grain is harvested, both of those have flat stems that tend to collapse, so when they get wet, they tend exclude air and absorb and hold moisture, so they can mat down and not drain well. Shallow layers work OK inside a coop for litter, as they are dry and hold moisture, but have issues outside in a run. In really wet conditions, I would expect those to turn into a wet, smelly, mucky mess too. At least if used straight. Mixed with other coarse materials, it won't hurt a thing.

What I am using, because I have it, is coarse grass hay. It was baled late, so has almost no nutritional value for livestock, and when baled late, what should have been digestible fiber turned into indigestible lignin. So it is mostly round stems (think mini plastic drinking straws) that drain like a sieve, so dry out quickly and take forever to rot down. Legume hay, like straight alfalfa, clover, etc. have leaves in addition to stems and as litter, will behave much like wheat and oat straw do. They will quickly mat down into a mess.

So the best is a wide variety of coarse materials and make them about 6" deep to start and build from there.

If you can cover the run with a roof to shed water in a really wet environment, that is OK too, but the process is the same.