What do you use for your walkways? (it's a soggy mess over here!)

[dearmeghann]

Good morning!

We've been getting a LOT of rain. Our new coop site is experiencing some growing pains. We never had an issue with soggy walkways/paths, and figured a quick fix would be to throw down some leftover pine shavings. That's just made it worse. We use pine pellets in the run, and we worried that if we put those down, it would just make it muddy. We're about to put down some mulch to see if that helps break up the sogginess.

We've also never had to deal with as many flies! Our coop/run isn't the problem; it's the perimeter. We've added barn lime and DE, but we're not sure how much to put down (especially with the barn lime).

What do you do for your wet walkways/paths? We're probably going to look into a french drain or maybe adding some pebbles for drainage. However, I don't want to waste money if there's a quicker or easier solution. Help, please?

 

[IsayOsiyo2U]

Ditto. I hope there are some good ideas come through here. We are up to our ankles in poop soup.

 

[StinkyAcres]

Same here! I am sick of this poop soup. I plan to dig out the mud and put down gravel. A french drain or even just a trench to divert the water away definitely helps.

 

[Penpal]

Until you put in the French drain you could lie a few 2 x 4 boards down. And a 2x 4 roost.

 

[thecatumbrella]

We've used 4-6" of super chunky mulch (it's called playground mulch around here). Rake in some PDZ if you want it to dry out quicker.

 

[rosemarythyme]

If existing drainage at the site is an issue, that needs to be addressed first.

If it's not drainage and it's simply that there's too much rain, then:

- If it's a human walkway only (outside chicken area) then gravel should work.

- If it's inside the chicken area , then the best throw in is chunky mulch, as that allows for drainage as well as provides a dry surface on top for birds and people to walk on. You can also use things like pallets to form dry islands for the birds to stand on if flooding is an issue. Mulch can also be built up to artificially raise the level of the run to keep the top of it out of water. This is an extreme example with flood water:

 

[dearmeghann]

If existing drainage at the site is an issue, that needs to be addressed first.

Ain't that the truth! We were assuming it was just the rain until the sky opened yesterday, and we were out with the girls. We never thought about the grading - such a big oversight! I'm kicking myself for not thinking about it, but it seemed insignificant when it wasn't raining all the time. Thankfully, it's not too late to put in French drains or trenches to divert the rain. We also need a better gutter system!

 

[Debbie292d]

Hubby laid out pavers for me to get to one of the pens, then I threw out straw on the half that's muddy. The other half is sod.

He wanted to do horse bedding pellets and yes, that would sure suck up water dumping a huge bag of those, but then there's the sawdust. We use those in the coop and brooders but I rather not use them for mud.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Same here. So much rain this spring. But even worse is at work. Like 10Xs worse.
I work at a horse barn. We have to clean stalls then push/drag carts full of crap out back and then dump them.
Once or twice a week we use a tractor with a bucket to shove it all into a huge pile.
With the constant growing and shrinking pile and tractor work the whole area is a constant flat dirt area. It doesn't drain for sh!t except one area that becomes like a creek flowing across just to pool up in another area.
It's been a mess forever and this year even worse. Our issue is not only our pathway to the pile but that we're trying to drag heavy carts along too. Cutting ruts, getting stuck, etc.
We've tried different things but all were short lived until months ago we had a pile of junk mulch brought in. It has worked great and yes the one spot sometimes washes out a bit but we throw a little more mulch there when needed and so far once we threw a little more over it all but that's because it's not a very deep layer to began with.
World of difference and so much so I've done mulch at home in my couple worse places.

 

[dearmeghann]

@The Moonshiner Our red clay dirt is a nightmare! Doesn't absorb water at all! And we have so many vines and roots, that digging is the worst! We were thinking about mulch in between our coops because at the very least it might help condition our soil. Thank you for some inspiration!