Solitary chicken - need advice

[likeastar--x]

we recently lined the area outside the coop with bark and the inside of the coop with grass (this is a wooden chicken house, not an eglu). It was all fine when the weather was dry, but in one week while its been raining ive gone out to a disgusting mess!!

 

the wet has made the bark muddy and sloppy and the girls have kicked it all into the coop, making a massive mess and getting it all into their food and drink. theyve torn up the grass which has become brown and sludgey and their food and water has to be changed once a day and when there are 4 feeders to replace youd get sick of it too!! the poor bantams are really struggling and im only able to clean their feet every now and then . also as its winter im cleaning them out less as im trying to find a gap between either rain or frost!!

 

I dont know what to do im probably going to have to replace all that bark but because of the weather its probably going to be a while!! any advice??

[chelsea]

when we first got our eglu in 2006 we did do the perimeter of the outside run with bark so I know how you feel (it doesnt look pristine for long! ).

 

We replaced the bark with stone chippings/gravel (see bottom pic) and its been much much better, looks nicer, doesnt harbour smells, not slippery and you can blast the poos off with the hose.

 

Aubiose/hemcore in the run is fab at absorbing wet and poos.

 

just an idea, but its worked for us.

[chickenanne]

Oh, poor you!!! Bark isn't the nicest, IMO, Hemcore/Aubiose or chipped wood is better. Also well worth trying to cover at least part of the run: I use clear plastic roofing panels, but cheap, clear shower curtains are also popular on the forum! It means that some of the run stays nice and dry, even if part is more open to the elements.

[cordelia]

while you are deciding ..throw another bag of bark in...to help give them some dry ground...thats what Ive done, when I dont have time to clear my bark out...I am trying wood chip next.....to see if thats better

 

You can even just put it in a great pile in the run, and the chickens will spread it for you...

 

just as a temp remedy....

 

(our grass was wrecked within a day or two too.)

[Alfred]

I keep mine on soil which will be my veggie plot next year. It is quite a sandy soil and the run is covered with shower curtains and it is really nice and dry under there. Whereas the grass they were on before was totally muddy after about 4 days.

[emmat]

Mine ruined my grass in days! We re-seeded in the summer but it's mud again now.

 

They have wood chip in their run which is nice and looks ok as their run is sheltered. The borders of my garden have bark pieces which they kick into the muddly lawn area when they free range. It's like one big woody, barky mess right now!!!

 

Oh well! They love it!

xx

[Steve.]

I'm on clay, have tried everything. Bark, woodshavings (disaster) and woodchip.

 

The poor sausages are walking around in constant wetness. I have a builder coming in the next few days to build be a cement base. I plan on trying wood chip, and then maybe stones for them to potter about on. They can stay on bare cement for a few days to begin with so that they can sort out the mud they are covered in.

 

Poor things!

[helenmb]

I had the same problem the last 2 winters as I had my girls in an Eglu and run with 2 extensions with Hemcore as they had made a mud bath of the lawn (found this worked quite well so long as I had a decent cover on quite a bit of the run).

 

However, I now have a covered walk in run (covered with clear corrugated plastic roofing) and it it sooo much better. The woodchip on the path outside the door is squelchy but the bedding and earth inside the run is pretty dry. It was worth the expense and time for us to make it and its going to change their lives in the wet, as we too have very heavy clay and a very high water table (our garden floods sometimes in places).

 

Tip that might work - when walking on the ground near the eglu runs - I used to put down old scaffolding boards (you can sometimes pick them up free from some scaffolding firms if the boards have got damaged a bit). These are quite easy to walk on, you just have make sure that you keep them mud free so you don't slip.

[Sandychick]

I'm on clay, have tried everything. Bark, woodshavings (disaster) and woodchip.

 

Clay here too and it's a nightmare. The whole garden is a swamp and it is impossible to keep the run dry. My eglu run is completely covered but the water comes up through the ground as it is waterlogged. I'm using Auboise....loads of it, and it's still a muddy mess.

 

I think the only answer for clay soil is a hard base but I can't do this as they are sat on a maze of tree roots.

[likeastar--x]

I tried shifting the bark myself as my boyfriends on holiday - to complete failure! i got a couple of sacks out before i gave up - the damp made the stuff heavy as a ton of bricks!! theres now a thin layer of it on the floor. temporarily i got so frustrated i just chucked a load of dry disinfectant everywhere (so now its covered in a layer of green sand) and then put loads of woodshavings on top. this will probably make things worse but now at least i dont have to see it!!!! im bathing them all tomorrow if i have time, even if they get muddy again a minute later im worried all this dirt will attract worms or lice!!

[Sandychick]

I think we probably worry about it more than the chickens do. I hate to see them and their run all muddy, but they do still look like a very happy bunch. I think they might actually like the mud

[HENthusiastic]

I have a wooden house and a covered walk in run. I use auboise in the wooden house and woodchip in the covered run. It works fine. I agree that walk in run's make everything soooo much easier.

[likeastar--x]

hemcore and aubiose seem more suitable for the coop rather than the run? im thinking woodchip for outside. i dont mind if it gets wet but does it get muddy??

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Hemcore or Aubiose (or Easibed!) are really good for the run but you have to put a cover on or it'll just soak up the rain.

 

If your run is on soil, I suspect it would get muddy with woodchips (or anything) down as hens just love to scratch and dig .

 

What kind of run do you have? Is it feasible to put some sort of cover on it?

[Lizzie]

thank God there are others having the same problem as us - the garden where the girls are is like a bog, we will be able to grow rice up there before long.

I have put a couple of shortish branches in their run and my husband has made them a little ramp and platform which they like standing on.

I bought a load of chipped bark at the weekend which I was going to contain within their run - hoping that this will make the ground a bit nicer for them to walk on. They don't go back up into their cube unless bed time and egg laying

 

Roll on Spring !

[judith67]

Me too as I am on clay, and because of the awful summer weather it never really dried out. I only got the chickens this summer, and can't belive how wrecked my garden is.

 

WE have a small banking at the top of the garden and the wooden coop and covered run are on there. Its got so bad that the banking is too slippery to walk on and I can't get up the banking! I now have to walk up the edge of the garden and cling to the fence to get to them.

I bought wooden decks pieces ( like paving slabs) as a path up the garden. They have been a godsend. But I also put bark around the edge of the run and down the banking - well they have just kicked it all over the garden, so with that and all the leaves, and no grass left, my garden looks like steptoes.

I am at the end of my tether and have even considered giving my girls away

[Steve.]

I'm on clay ... and my girls did tidy up the edges and then proceeded to make a mess - so they are confined to quarters for now.

 

I put some lawn-edgiing (about £1 a roll from Wilco) around the edge to keep some of the bark in.

 

Although as it's Boggy Creek in there at the moment that's not an issue.

 

I am sure there is a solution to your banking problem ... as our run will soon be concrete base at the bottom of our garden which has a 25% incline ... we'll also have to find a solution.

 

We may pop some paving slabs down cut into the lawn ... but we'll have to see.

[Blackrocksrock]

chipped bark is fine but you need oodles of it and it eventually goes into compost if you leave it and you then need to move some out and new in and put the old stuff on your borders - lovely stufrf after the hens have been through it.