Ladylucan Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 Hello Girls,... i am back yet again,... i have a serious problem with MUD. . at the mo, Let me explain.... The run was covered in bark, which was great,.. then we had all that rain and it seems to have buried allthe bark and left me with really wet soggy mud, at the mo so i can get in and out i have had to put in a couple ofpallets to walk on but even they are getting muddy now, the poor girls just dont seem amused, and nor am i, What can i put down to help combat this!!, any suggestions will be greatly recieved.... Thanks girls ( and fella's ) and its nice to be back again xxxx I will say, one half of the run is covered in sheeting to hopefully keep half of it dry, and am not sure if that has helped at all??, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 Is the Eglu up on slabs? I find that does help, and I cover the runs with plastic right down to the skirt bit, to try and prevent rain blowing in sideways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkysmum Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 Hi Our run is on slabs AND is lined with pond liner (we didn't buy it especially but it works!!) Our bark/chips/hemcore is on top of the liner. Whilst it's not completely dry since the rain & snow still blow in it's not muddy and it is dry under the platform that the eglu is sitting on. I don't especially like bark & felt it stayed wet. The hens seem to prefer hemcore (but it blows about in the wind which is ferocious up here) si for the moment I'm using woodchips. Hope you find something which wirks for you. Allison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HENthusiastic Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 There is a two page article in Practical Poultry this month all about MUD! If you can't get hold of it, I will happily post you a copy of the article if you want to PM me your address. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ladylucan Posted February 4, 2009 Author Share Posted February 4, 2009 Well the cube isnt on slabs, but we did have a few slabs in there, but where the girls scratch around so much they are covered.. I did consider covering the whole area with slabs, but again, i know the girls like to scratch and felt that they would miss out so didnt do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 Mine have scratched happily on the layer of Aubiose in the run. In fact they love it, especially when it is fresh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abwsco Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 We've covered around 95% of our run up and have a really thick layer of bedmax shavings in as it's cheaper than aubiose etc. It's lovely and dry and they have great fun scratching around in it. Ours isn't on slabs it's on soil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ain't Nobody Here Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 Ours is on soil with hemcore/easibed. Corrugated plastic covers a good bit of the roof and I've got plastic along the sides. It stays really dry except at the door which can get a bit soggy (but not muddy). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madbird Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 Hmm, if it were me and I was looking for a quick fix... I'd rake out the bark chippings and put down bags of small pea gravel onto the mud... then put fresh bark chippings onto. Permenant solution would be to slab the base area entirely, cover your run and use aubiose/hemcore on top of the slabs. Hope you can come up with something... I've just walked the dogs and all three of us have come back caked in mud ('orrible stuff ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poachedegg Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 We have our cube covered with 2 IKEA showers curtains (87p) down to the floor and have trimmed another curtain down for under the cube at the back. It is on soil covered in hemcore - whilst it isn't bone dry, it works really well......and no mud! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenstuds Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 Had exactly this issue in Jan after we got our chickens and put the run down on an old veggie patch. Bought some black anti-weed cloth from the garden centre (£5 for a 10m x 1.2m roll) and put this down under the run with the bark chippings on top. Also put the eglu itself on slabs. Has worked perfectly, no mud in the run and the bark chippings stay loose. Anticipate it'll also be much easier to do big clean as can just roll up the cloth with the used bark chippings inside. Jenny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ladylucan Posted February 5, 2009 Author Share Posted February 5, 2009 Thankyou for all ur suggestions, i did consider slabbing the whole run, but was worried as i know the girls love to rake around and thought that by slabbing it would ruin their natural behaviour, but i cant handle the mud anymore, so may slab a majority of it and leave a little bit for them to rake over, plus i may not put the slabs too close together ... guess this one needs a bit of thinking..... def a summer job i think.. I also only covered half of the roof, guess i many need to cover the whole lot , that may help, oh i dont know.... xxxx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ladylucan Posted February 8, 2009 Author Share Posted February 8, 2009 Thankyou so much HENthusiastic for the article it made interesting reading. . now to find someone who may use [u]Rubber Chippings[/u] to give me their opinion, I was surprised to read about the bark but it makes sense that as the mould can grow on it , it would give the hens respiratory problems, Thankyou again, x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 There is an article about someone who uses rubber chippings in their poultry business in Practical Poultry this month.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larkspurs Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 We have slabs covered with aubiose and our girls Posh and Pecks seem to enjoy scratching around in it. The aubiose is great for drying out their little thankyou parcels i.e. POO which we scoop out daily. Dave ps the chicken run is covered with polycarbonate sheets Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LJ's Chooks Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 we have a serious mud issue too.... poor girls. Our white star is not white today We have escaped most of the winter and moved their run, so they have always had some grass, but its now all gone appart from the odd tuft and i cant wait for spring. Our girls are allergic to hemcore/aubious (we think) too, so cant really do the route of slabs and scratch material. so not sure what else to do.... Hurry up spring!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HENthusiastic Posted February 10, 2009 Share Posted February 10, 2009 Thankyou so much HENthusiastic for the article it made interesting reading. . Pleasure. This thread has made useful reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helenmb Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 I too am drowning in mud to and have had to put pallets and various bits of garden furniture, planks etc in their walk in run as yesterday the whole garden was flooded and today what isn't under water has 2-3 inches of mud underfoot. My goodness its grim . I think I will have to do the slabbing once it has all dried out. My DH this evening said (whilst I was virtually in tears as the girls are so grubby and miserable) "don't worry darling it'll soon dry out" - famous last words eh! Trouble is, I think we are going to need a ton of gravel under slabs to give it a stable base as the heavy clay soil just puddles in the winter and dries to concrete in the summer, so am concerned the slabs will crack if the earth beneath it is uneven. What I'm really worried about is the health implications of them getting so muddy as obviously all the excess water has their poo and the wild birds' mixed in with goodness only knows what. Any suggestions on that one gratefully received. Sorry to hijack your post Sparkysmum but I'm sure you will be thinking the same questions too. Here is a link to the rubber mulch idea outlined in the mag. Have just gone out to check they have all made it back into the cube and to apologise for the quagmire. Amazingly we had 4 eggs today though, still, the nesting box is the nicest place to be right now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
