4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Julia W]

Please can anyone help. I live in a pretty damp part of Hampshire and with all the rain we've had lately my chicken run is very muddy and my poor girls are ankle deep in mud. I'm sure this can't do them any good. Can anyone suggest what I can put in the run to help with this please. I thought of perhaps putting a few concrete patio slabs in there and then putting wood chippings in to soak up the water. It was suggested that I use wood chippings rather than bark chippings but I don't know what the difference is or where to get them. Also someone suggested I use hempcore which is used for horses bedding I believe, would I have to change this every day or something. I am really at a loss with this problem and would be very grateful if anyone out there could help me for the sake of my lovely girls.

 

Thanks,

 

Julia.

[Chillicat]

Hi

A large bag of Easy Bed or Aubiose will help, but you may have to wait for the mud to dry a bit otherwise it may end up like soup

My first run area was covered in woodchip. I phoned a local tree surgeon and he was happy to dump his tree cutting waste onto my drive............for free (it also saved him the expense of taking it to the local tip!).

OK it was ungraded so we had to take out the green bits, but it did the job and was just what I needed. Worth a try maybe.

[Old Speckled Hen]

If you can put the whole lot onto paving slabs it will keep everything dry. Then you need some sort of bedding.

The choice is wide but most people use Wood Shavings, Aubiose or Hemcore (which are hemp based) or RoyalSpan Flax. All these are horse bedding.

I have tried all four and I've found that Aubiose keeps freshest for longest and that The RoyalSpan composts easiest.

 

You need to put in a layer of bedding to be comfortable for your chooks.

I use about 2 inches and poo pick daily then change the whole lot every month or so. It depends, mine free range all day so do not make much mess.

If yours are in the run all the time then you might consider sprinkling a little Stalosan( powdered disinfectant) on the slabs and making your litter layer deeper so that you don't have to clean it so often.

Good luck for dry feet

[The Dogmother]

Julia, you don't mention whether your run is covered I'd always recommend that a run is covered with (depending on the size of the run) either some clear shower curtains/tarpaulin or some clear polycarbonate.

 

You're quite right - chickens don't like being wet and would prefer to take cover if they have the option. I let my girls out to free range each moring, but in the recent wet weather they've taken to sheltering in the run. Try Aubiose in the run - it's a shredded hemp horse bedding and it stays really dry. Dig the soil in the run over first, sprinkle with garden lime and then pop a few bucket-loads of Aubiose in.

 

Wood chip will get wet and stay wet - Aubiose or Hempcore will dry out really quickly if it gets wet and you only need to renew it every 6-8 weeks or so deopending on how many chooks you have.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Hi Julia . Someone else asked the same thing very recently. You may find their thread useful .

[Julia W]

Wow, thank you all very much for your suggestions. I do have the run covered with both the small shade and the large shade and these are stretched across the run so there's only a little bit at the front where the rain could get in from the top but the rain comes in through the sides too and also soaks up from the ground so I'm 'got' all ways. I shall take all your suggestions on board and see which works best for my poor girls. Thank you all again for your wonderful advice. So nice to know there are so many lovely people out there willing to help.

 

I shall report back later on.

 

Julia.

[poachedegg]

Probably the cheapest way to completely cover the run is IKEA shower curtains at 85p each and a couple of bungee cords.

[Egluntyne]

Have a look **here**.

 

Found this when browsing the site of the Kill Pluck, Gut and Bone Course.

 

Looks fascinating.

[The Dogmother]

A good, clear tarp or shower curtain will do the job. Two people asked this on my course yesterday - the main thing is to use a clear cover so that plenty of light gets through - this will help to keep them laying.

[Blackrocksrock]

The rubber run management looks good but wont the hens eat it!

[Ain't Nobody Here]

You need to be mindful of the weather in your neck of the woods. I put plastic sheeting over my run held on with cable ties through eyelets. It ripped during the first strong winds, then came off totally during the next . That's why I've gone for the corrugated plastic sheeting and bungees. There's no way the wind could destroy it .

 

If your weather is more gentle, plastic shower curtain or similar would probably be just fine .

[Julia W]

Thank you all once again for your great suggestions. What we've done is to move the eglu cube and run onto an old concrete base we have in the garden. Fortunately the base is slightly bigger all round than the iglu and run itself even with the extension. Then we bought four bags of pine chippings but actually only needed three of the bags, but the pine chippings are a bit bigger than bark chippings and so don't get through the mesh quite so easily, though no doubt my girls will find a way of kicking as much out as possible. Now all I have to do is get some corrugated plastic to put over the top to keep the rain out, I did toy with the idea of a shower curtain or two but decided our winds can be too strong and they might get ripped. Then I can use the winter and summer shades I have to protect them from one of the sides and back to keep them a bit more sheltered. Anyway, I'll see how the pine chippings work out but I would have liked to try the horse bedding many of you suggested but I can't find a dealer around here at the moment and I was getting desperate. I liked the idea of the 'rubber chippings' but I also wondered whether they might try and eat them.

 

Anyway, thanks again for all your help

 

Julia.

[Falkor]

You need to be mindful of the weather in your neck of the woods. I put plastic sheeting over my run held on with cable ties through eyelets. It ripped during the first strong winds, then came off totally during the next . That's why I've gone for the corrugated plastic sheeting and bungees. There's no way the wind could destroy it .

 

If your weather is more gentle, plastic shower curtain or similar would probably be just fine .

 

I have just done a proper clean of the eglu and run. Changed wood chips to Aubiose and stole ANH idea and added two sheets of corrugated plastic with bungees.

 

I am dead impressed with myself and it lets so much more light into the eglu run than the omlet winter shade. Thanks ANH!

[Ain't Nobody Here]

My pleasure . I like to share the joy .

[Dora]

Hi, we had the same problem , their run is partially covered and the ground is clay based so holds the water . when the ground had dried out we dug it over and dug in several bags of building sand , this helped with the drainage and has cleared up the mud problem. It is also easy to poo clear as well. This Spring/Summer we'll do the same again to 'freshen' it up, might also add some fresh home grown compost too. Won't turn out to be too costly either!

[Jenstuds]

Had similar issues with mud despite putting down bark chippings in the run as a layer of mud rose up around the bark chippings leaving a solid and unpermeable surface to the run. Have hopefully rectified it today - spent a back breaking day digging over the patch and putting down some black anti-weed cloth (don't know proper name) and putting bark chippings over the top. Looks much better and hopefully won't lose the chippings to the mud as before. The cloth was only £5 for 10mx1.2m (perfect width for the eglu run) from the local garden centre.

 

Jenny