Show me your solutions for a muddy mucky chicken yard!

[Doug in Colorado]

Our backyard was lawn. The chickens roam freely and it didn't take long for them to "scratch and eat" all of the lawn. Rather than restrict the backyard, I gave in and covered the grass with 18 tons of 3/8" pea gravel (one wheel barrow at a time!) It is 2" to 3" deep and the chickens LOVE it. They scratch and dig holes. After a few hours there are holes all over the back yard. At night we easily cover up the holes smooth so that they can do it all again the next day. They have the side yards that are still lawn. An area of about 18'x25' on each side of the house. They have an area that is treed and terraced that is just dirt. They scratch through dirt and assorted leaves and pine chips. This area is about 30'x100' so they still have plenty of room to dig in dirt for worms and roost in the low spruce tree limbs (ground height).

 

[Doug in Colorado]

Here's what it looks like without the snow falling.

 

[Sylvester017]

Can't even identify with NE or Midwest weather cycles since our So Calf is so bone-dry and in the 100's about 2/3 of every year -- but we do get our sudden thunder and lightning downpours every once in a while and the chicken yard does get mucky.

Chickens are great lawnmowers -- there isn't a living green thing left in their half of our suburban backyard. I have tree saplings planted to hopefully give them some shade in coming summers and meanwhile we have to put wire cages around the saplings so the hens don't strip them down to sticks before the trees have a chance to grow into decent shade trees -- a lemon tree and a couple pomegranate trees -- I figure if I'm going to plant trees they might as well have fruit on them that I like LOL!

Because our hard clay type soil in rain turns to heavy muck that doesn't release your boot when you step in it these are the steps I took once we endured 3 years of dealing with mud and muck. First of all, we made a slab floor roofed patio for the latest chicken coop. If chickens are confined to a coop and pen, having a slab floor can handle straw bedding and not get all drenched from any muddy ground. Our slab floor run doesn't have straw because our girls "free-range" their chicken yard all day long but it's an option should we ever want to do that. (My old chicken coop was mounted on slab stones but the middle of the coop run was dirt -- rain water still seeped in so I vowed never to have a dirt floor chicken run again!)

After we built our new slab/roofed patio for the chicken coop I started a project of paver-stoning all areas where I had to walk during wet weather. Remarkably, our hens seem to appreciate the paver stone walkways during rainy or stormy days -- especially the feather-footed hens. For rainy days I bought a 4x4 raised cedar garden bed and filled it with kids' play sand and erected a permanent 10x10 pop-up canopy over it so the girls could still take their dust-baths in a dry area during rainy weather. I paver-stoned all around the sandbox. The paver stones might get wet from blowing rainy wind but the sandbox stays remarkably dry.

Then I started noticing pockets of mucky mud in the chicken yard and saw the hens' dinosaur fossil footprints in the mud and decided there should be more paver stonework to do. I couldn't live with myself if a hen got stuck in that mire! The hens stay out of pouring thunder and lightning rain storms but they come out to play when the storm stops and the dirt is just mush everywhere! I have dug a drainage canal currently down the center of their half of the backyard and have a backyard drainage pipe leading out underground to the front yard street drainage canals. The rain water drains off fast and doesn't leave behind pocket lakes of water to turn the soil mushy.

Here are some pics of a long on-going project to make our chicken yard weather-safe:

AFTER SANTA ANA WIND AND RAIN STORMS WE GOT TIRED OF DEPENDING ON TARPS AND BEGAN AN EFFORT TO REMOVE CHAINLINK FENCES AND REPLACE WITH BLOCK WALL AND BEGAN LAYING OUT PAVER STONES TO MAKE WALKWAYS

OUR FIRST TINY COOP WAS PURCHASED CUSTOM READY-MADE AT OUR LOCAL FEED STORE. IT SERVED US WELL FOR 3 YRS BUT RAIN WATER STILL SEEPED INTO THE DIRT FLOOR AND THAT'S WHEN I DECIDED NO MORE COOP DIRT FLOORS!

THE NEW COOP NOW ALMOST 5 YRS OLD AND WELL PROTECTED ON A SLAB FOUNDATION WITH A PROTECTIVE PATIO ROOF OVERHEAD -- THE NEW COOP IS IN THE SAME EXACT LOCATION AS THE OLD TINY COOP WE HAD -- THE CONCRETE SLAB WASHES DOWN WELL:

SO NICE TO STEP FROM THE SLIDING KITCHEN DOOR AND WALK UNDER A PATIO ROOF TO THE NEW COOP WHILE STAYING DRY DURING RAINY DAYS -- COOP, EGG BOX, AND RUN ALL UNDER A ROOF!

OUR OLD TINY POP-UP CANOPY REPLACED WITH A MUCH BIGGER POP-UP WITH FRAME LEGS BURIED A BIT UNDERGROUND TO KEEP FROM PARA-SAILING AWAY IN THE WIND, A CEDAR RAISED GARDEN BED FILLED WITH DUST-BATH SAND, AND A NEW BLOCK WALL FENCE AROUND THE YARD!

OUR SANTA ANA WIND STORMS TEAR UP CANOPY TOPS BUT AT LEAST WE DON'T HAVE TARPED CHAINLINK FENCES ANY MORE LOL!

WE JUST BUY NEW TARP TO COVER THE POP-UP CANOPY FRAME WHENEVER A BAD SANTA ANA WIND STORM HITS US -- ABOUT 2X A YEAR!

PHOTO TAKEN FROM THE CHICKEN YARD SHOWING THEIR COOP UNDER THEIR PATIO (IN BACKGROUND) WITH GREEN TARP FOR SHADE -- NOTICE ALL THE PAVER STONES LAID OUT TO PREVENT ME FROM WALKING IN MUD ON RAINY DAYS

FENCE POSTS AND FENCING DIVIDING THE CHICKEN YARD FROM THE PEOPLE YARD:

VIEW OF THE SIDE PAVER-STONE WALKWAY LEADING FROM THE DRY SANDBOX TO THE COOP IN THE REAR -- THE SANTA ANA WINDS SCATTERS DEBRIS EVERYWHERE!!!!

THE GIRLS LOVE THEIR DRY SANDBOX AFTER A STORMY RAINY WIND

MUD AFTER A STORM -- AND WIRE CAGES AROUND TREE SAPLINGS -- CHICKEN FOSSIL FOOTPRINTS TOLD ME TO LAY OUT MORE PAVER STONES

FOR ALL THE DIRT IN THEIR YARD, THE HENS STILL PREFER TO WALK ON PAVER STONES TO KEEP THEIR TOOTSIES DRY

DRAINAGE CANAL DUG OUT IN CHICKEN YARD SHOWING THAT IT WORKS TO KEEP THE REST OF THE YARD DRY -- WORK STILL IN PROGRESS BUT THE RESULTS ARE SATISFYING

We've had more rain forecast for tonight and more coming by the weekend -- very unusual for us in So Calif to have this much rain this time of year but I count my blessings! Our state's drought of 6 years has been officially declared OVER!

 

[gimmie birdies]

Chick nanny when is your hurricane season?

 

[Sylvester017]

Oh I forgot to mention -- I'm 75 years old, have a disabled walk, but keep myself busy doing paver stone walkways and patios and raised bed gardens too -- I have a lot of potted plants to tend also. Keeps the old arthritic limbs limber LOL! The fruits of my labor make it nice in winter when I have paver stone walkways to walk on instead of mirky mucky mud during rainy days:

There's one of our hens over on her side of the fenced yard (lower righthand side of photo).

 

[Celticdragonfly]

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.

Do you that stuff by itself, or under chips as a drainage layer?

 

[Michael Propst]

Do you that stuff by itself, or under chips as a drainage layer?

I previously used allot of sand. I did shovel out a little of the sand but left it as a base layer and then added a couple inches of the PrimeraOne to the top. One thing I have found I love about this product besides its ability to handle water is how easy it is now to clean my run. I attached some hardware cloth to a stall fork and it acts just like a kitty litter scoop. I can provide a picture of it later if anyone is interested.

 

[dkkirby]

I use the deep litter method. Start with tree trimming wood chips 3 - 4 inches deep, if you can't get them, use untreated mulch. To that add dried leaves pieces of thick and thin tree branches, yard and garden waste when available, pine needles, some straw. What you want to accomplish is a nice mix of different stuff, this will keep everything loose. The poop will filter down through the litter, decompose, not give off bad odors and will not draw flies. Add more stuff as you get it, to keep it freshened up.

Here's mine after adding yard and garden waste, before the chickens got to it. My run is covered, but this method also works with an uncovered run.

View attachment 1765021

Isn't that hard to walk in when it rains?

 

[aart]

Isn't that hard to walk in when it rains?

My run is covered,

Might want less 'green' stuff if exposed to rain in an uncovered run

 

[blackdog043]

Isn't that hard to walk in when it rains?

No it shouldn't be. I use more wood chips than anything else, it's like a mulched flower bed with extra stuff mixed in with the chips.