Show me your solutions for a muddy mucky chicken yard!

[Michael Propst]

Is that run covered?

Yes it is fully covered.

 

[feathermaid]

Great pics!
What do you turn it with to avoid damaging the mesh?
Will you eventually remove the fines(or all of it)....or just keep adding larger chips?

I have a manure shovel from when I had horses, and also a "snow shovel" my brother gave me when he moved back from New Hampshire. The flat edge just scoops it right up. As long as I only scoop in the direction it was laid, I won't accidentally pull up the mesh. It's fastened to the ground with square garden pins and the shovel slides over the top of those too, though it's not too difficult to fix if something does get out of whack. As long as nobody gets all crazy stabbing the ground, it's good.

I planned to remove it all (or most) and use it as mulch around my landscaping. If I leave it there and pile more on top, it'll just turn into soil, aka mud, which I'm trying to avoid. And because of the location next to my house, I can't keep making it deeper indefinitely. I'm not really sure yet when I'll move it, but I figure we shoveled it all in there, we can shovel it all out. It's just a days work with my DH's help.

As far as replacing it, still debating. These chips came from a large maple tree we had removed before I built my new coop. I will probably ask for a load from the same tree service we used, but may not know the type of trees used. Otherwise, I can buy from my local landscape supply companies, they sell mostly bark chips, of which I know reasons not to use. But they do have clean barkless cedar chips, which I'm also considering.
I've started a new thread on possible concerns:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/using-cedar-wood-chips-in-the-run.1308504/

 

[CCUK]

Hi Friends,

As can be expected the chicken yard is worn down to dirt/mud when it rains. Here in the NE, we've had a persistent pattern of rain with very few sunny days to dry anything out. I've been tossing fresh straw in the run every few days to try to cover the mud; but you know chickens they scratch it all around anyway. Ridiculously, I even go out in the evening with "my big chicken foot" (a rake) and move the straw back around. Call me crazy, it's okay. By now, the straw is part of the muck. We need a long stretch of sunny, dry weather (ha!) and some water management work which will come soon. We are also extending the electric fencing out to give them some green pasture soon.

At this point I need to get all the old straw out of there and do something different. It's gotta be a health hazard for them, and it's no fun to fall down in for me!

Until then, and after actually, what tips do you guys have for managing a muddy, mucky run?

* Different cover material? (straw, wood chips, shavings, pine needles, etc.?)
* Install sand or gravel somehow?
* Pavement? (Just kidding).

Pictures of your yards appreciated if you have them!

TIA!

My run was a mud bath in the winter months and very slippy. So I put wood chips down.
This is what it was like before.

After the wood chip. I put about 4-6 inches down.

It looks great! This was in February '18 so 18 month's later after the chickens have been digging! This is now. It's raining.

It will be needing to be replaced this summer but it has worked incredibly well. Even in the hardest rainfall there is no chance of slipping over and the mud is minimal.

 

[aart]

cover it with a barrier, I used pvc poultry netting. This isn't meant to be a predator proofing, just a means to keep the wood chips from sinking and keep chickens from mixing the chips and the mud together.

How deep are your chips @FlappyFeathers?
Do you have another place they can dust bathe?
What happens when they dig down to the mesh?

 

[Michael Propst]

My run use to be just sand and dirt and always got so muddy after spring and fall rains. I found a new product at my local landscape store call PrimeraOne Field Conditioner. I love this product a bit more expensive than sand but the results and maintenance are worth it. I tried it out in one part of my run for a couple months and then this spring I shoveled out my entire run and put down a 3-4" layer of PrimeraOne. Here are the results.

 

[aart]

Its not sand it is a new product

Yes, I know....but still, a covered run is much different than an uncovered run.

 

[blackdog043]

This wet weather! In the highest traffic part of my run, all the leaves we got from the pre-Memorial Day cleanup have turned to mush.

I put four bales of straw in today to help soak up the muck and hopefully help the smell a bit.

Yes, when you only use leaves, that's what will happen. The same thing is gonna happen with your straw, eventually.

Wood chips or undyed mulch will get you going in the right direction(deep litter), even in an uncovered run. Break up tree branches of different thicknesses and add those also. You can add some leaves to this and it will be fine, just don't add a lot at one time. Add yard and garden waste as you get it. You will end up with a nice chicken run, to keep the chickens busy, not many flies and it shouldn't stink. If it starts to stink, it's usually time to add more wood chips and stuff, because whats in there is breaking down. Think of it as a nice mulched flower bed, with extra stuff in it.

 

[ChickNanny13]

I've got to try that ... A section of my Chicken House tends to get soupy when we get days of continuous rains & with hurricane season coming up want to get started to alleviate the mess I had last year. Need locate pvc poultry netting or something similar. Thank you for sharing

 

[aart]

Yes it is fully covered.
View attachment 1766374

Nice!
Covered makes a huge difference when using sand.

 

[paneubert]

Its not sand it is a new product I found at a local landscape supply store called PrimeraOne Field Conditioner.
Calcined Clay Soil Modifier
PrimeraOne Soil Conditioners provide solutions to maintenance problems on baseball infields and athletic turf fields. PrimeraOne Calcined clay products are manufactured specifically to condition fields to improve drainage, reduce compaction and manage moisture.

PrimeraOne Field Conditioner has the unique ability to absorb its own weight in water and slowly release this moisture over and over again. PrimeraOne conditioned fields result in less rainouts, less missed practices, and less field damage. PrimeraOne Field Conditioner is manufactured to work season after season.

Infields
Maintaining a quality infield is the most important responsibility of a groundskeeper. Incorporating PrimeraOne Field Conditioner into the skinned infield will prevent rainouts in the spring and hard compacted infields in the dry summer.

Turf Applications
PrimeraOne Field Conditioner incorporated into you turf will add valuable pore space in the soil, preventing compaction that will destroy turf. PrimeraOne Field Conditioner will increase drainage and manage moisture, allowing turf to thrive.

Packaging - 50 lb bags (40 bags/pallet)
Ingredient - 100% Calcined Fullers Earth (also known as Calcined Clay)
Bulk Density - 35. lbs. / cubic ft. 19 bags (50 lb) = 1 cubic yard
Application Instructions - Complete use directions are listed on the back of the bag

https://primera.coop/field-conditioner/

This gives me flashbacks to my freshwater planted fish tank days. That stuff is used as an inert substrate for many really nice planted tanks. Always funny to see how people use products "off label".