The heavy rains lately, combined with freezing temps in the morning (ice dew) have left the chicken pen wet and mucky. I can literally sink two inches into the ground out there. And during that time, unsurprisingly, I had a cocci outbreak. The pen just NEVER dried out. Despite only having about 15 birds in a 17 foot by 21 foot pen, it STAYED muddy. Every one is okay. Antibiotics were already on hand, and I have separated the few that showed signs of the infection. They're all still alive, and thriving though. And they are all responding to treatment very well. Tonight, the temp is expected to fall to 8 degrees. It's still kinda muddy, but it's going to freeze over. So a lot of the organisms will die. But I still want to let them all out for a while, rake out as much muck as possible, toss some pine shavings in, and TRY to disinfect it even more. The incubators already went through the dishwasher with bleach. The brooder sat in a bleach water in the bath tub and soaked for a while. Now it's time to worry about the big pen - and I want to do it before the chickens are done with antibiotic treatments. So my thought is to use one of those one gallon pump-pressure garden sprayers with a 50/50 bleach water mixture. I figured I would spray EVERYTHING in the pen, including the three-sided laying shelter (inside and out). And I figured I would spray the ground itself until it was soaking wet (again) but with bleach water this time. After that, I could give it a few days to dry (or rinse itself away with more rain if it goes that way) and then put the chickens back in. Does this sound like it would work? Unfortunately, I can't shelter the pen just yet, due to lack of a job. But soon I plan to invest in a 10' x 20' canopy to cover *MOST* of the pen. We're looking at about 2 months for that to be done. But in the meantime, does it sound like the bleach treatment will keep everyone safe and cut down on the germs enough to stop further problems until I can get it covered?
I'm not sure bleaching the area would do too much. It sounds as though you need to divert rainwater away from your coop, cover the coop and run with tarps, or move it to higher ground with good drainage. Is there anywhere you can keep them dry while getting this done? A basement or garage?
Check a craigslist or free cycle list in your area if you have one to find a free tarp. I'd keep the chickens out of that area until you can cover it. Bleach is like an antibiotic, it kills both good and bad germs. So in addition (after bleach) or even instead of the bleach you might want to spray the area with probiotics. Spray it regularly for a few weeks or even longer. You can make your own for pennies, but it will take about a week: Note, I would use the concoction made in this video for cleaning or gardening but I don't know if I'd want to eat it! I tried it, it works.
