Too much rain in New England and muddy pens!

[Must Be Losing It]

How are my fellow New Englanders dealing with the 85 million consecutive days of rain and the condition of their pens/runs? My pens are a disaster. I hate seeing the birds in mud - no breaks in weather is allowing any drying. I threw tons of shavings down over the weekend but they're already buried in the next bout of rain we received.

How do you guys deal with this? Is they a drying product I'm just not aware of? Does straw work better than shavings?

 

[ems_chick]

alot of people on here say to use sand, it seems to drain well.

 

[Must Be Losing It]

Unfortunately my base is already gravel and sand but its just too saturated!!!!!

 

[TipsyDog]

I feel for you. We are having the same problem here. My garden is starting to turn yellow and everything is just saturated. Now there is plenty more rain on the way. It's also 58 degrees here right now!

My chicks are only 4 weeks old so they are in the coop all day. I feel sorry for them but it's just too wet and cool to let them out. I'm running out of ideas to keep them busy - just took out some strawberries and ricotta. Wow - they LOVE ricotta!

Anyway, I'd just throw down straw over the mud for now. You'll have to rake it out and burn it when it dries up again. That's what I'd do unless you let them free range.

This weather is really getting depressing at this point, isn't it?

 

[EasTurdHill]

I am in MD and was gonna ask the same thing. We have clay soil that does not drain at all.Rainwater just sits and the puddles turn green and slimy. The poor chickens in all that mud out in their run! They don't seem to mind though.
The smell is HORRIBLE ! I shoveled out 5 cart loads of muddy nastiness this weekend and put down some sand....that promptly washed away in the following day's monsoon. The smell improved a bit though.
I am afraid that putting down a dumptruck load of sand will only allow the surface to drain but create more festering nastiness underneath in the clay base. Any thoughts on keeping run smell and mud under control???

 

[ems_chick]

maybe a french drain or something? we have alot of them around here with our lovely georgia red clay.

 

[Must Be Losing It]

I agree, the smell is brutal as well. I'm digging like a crazy woman this weekend! I've even raised the run ground level thinking the water would drain off the sides but no luck. Just solid goo!

And my chicks love cottage cheese!

 

[Buff Hooligans]

My run is pure sand, but even that has had areas of pooled rain. The girls can't dust bathe too much these days.

 

[Judy]

Read here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1642-fix-a-muddy-run

If I had access, believe I'd lay some pallets on the mud til it stops pouring.

 

[mrsgibber]

Ugh, I agree. The rain is brutal!! Very soggy runs!