Show me your solutions for a muddy mucky chicken yard!

[rosemarythyme]

Save your coffee grounds for your compost pile (unless of course this IS the compost pile).

Stump grindings aren't a bad choice if you don't have branches to chip, though I agree they're usually finer in size. I did get some bigger pieces last time I had stumps ground down but ended up using the resulting chips to mulch paths around the garden since two of the stumps were right next to the area I needed to mulch.

 

[Stephine]

I second rosemarythyme on the coffee grounds - I doubt they’ll do anything for your problem. Wood chips, shavings, grindings are just the ticket because they can neutralize soo much nitrogen. I use large pine shavings and stump grindings in a deep litter and never have bad smells, even when everything gets soggy for weeks....

 

[Brittanymorgan1986]

A natural mulch should work. Get a whole load dumped in a pile somewhere out of the way and cover it with tarp. Cover the coop floor with alot at first it will get packed in the mud if its really bad. Then repeat every time it gets bad again. Should help with the smell too. My grandpa did this for years.

 

[aart]

A natural mulch should work. Get a whole load dumped in a pile somewhere out of the way and cover it with tarp. Cover the coop floor with alot at first it will get packed in the mud if its really bad. Then repeat every time it gets bad again. Should help with the smell too. My grandpa did this for years.

I would love to have a big pile....wouldn't cover it tho(mold growth)...add slowly again for mold growth issues.

 

[Brittanymorgan1986]

Yeah I didnt think of mold issues just remember grandpa using it perhaps if there was a carport type covering would work better or maybe it doesn't have to stay dry at all?

I would love to have a big pile....wouldn't cover it tho(mold growth)...add slowly again for mold growth issues.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Yeah I didnt think of mold issues just remember grandpa using it perhaps if there was a carport type covering would work better or maybe it doesn't have to stay dry at all?

My guess is it may depend on climate and perhaps the type of wood, types of molds in area, etc.

Like we get a lot of rain but no one covers their mulch piles around here. They dry out decently fast, at least on the surface and a couple inches down.

 

[aart]

maybe it doesn't have to stay dry at all?

I see no reason a wood chip pile needs to stay dry....
....better that than trapping moisture and reducing oxygen.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

My thinking with the coffee grinds was for smell reduction, but I see what you guys are saying about it adding nitrogen to an already nitrogen-rich mix.

I'd have asked to keep some of the tree chippings, but there's not a good way to get a truck back near my run, and the idea of THAT many wheelbarrow loads made my back hurt.

 

[aart]

I'd have asked to keep some of the tree chippings, but there's not a good way to get a truck back near my run, and the idea of THAT many wheelbarrow loads made my back hurt.

Is here a place in your yard you can store a pile?
Then you can just do a bit at at time.

 

[trumpeting_angel]

I have a local tree service coming to dump their chips. I need them for the gardens and, after aging, the run. The fellow from the tree service was happy to have a place to get rid of them without dump fees.