Chicken bald back

[infinitymum]

Okay ... our efforts over the past few weeks to keep the girls coop as dry as possible have failed miserably and now one half of their 20 foot run looks like a mud pie competition has been held there!! The girls still love to go wading in it though .... bizarre!

 

They have branches and shavings up the other end (near the coop end) but we fear their constant walking around will just spread the mud bath up the drier end now.

 

Is anyone else in this situatation? And any ideas on how to dry up?! The grass is beyond repair I fear too I don't really want to put downs gravel as the girls love scratching up the dirt during the summers months .... it is just all this rain

[kerryegg]

Hi. I've had the same problem and the last few weeks it has been difficult to safely walk in the run.I have put £17 worth of Band Q playbark on the main walkway. It's about the lengh and width of the Eglu run and Eglu which is inside the WIR. So far so good. I can't believe how much they found to eat in the bark and are obviously enjoying kicking it around. If we have a very wet winter I may have to top it up but all hobbies cost money and £17 was worth for me to walk safely.No sign of any of us getting trench foot thank-goodness. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Oh and if I win the lottery my first purchase will be coloured rubber chippings.............and a cube.

[KennandHelen]

We have just constructed out raised bit with bark chippings for our eglu.

 

Before the chooks were in a Wooden Ark with a run we built for them...same position but it was total mud. The bark chippings makes it look alot better on the eye for us, but more importantly, from what I have read the chickens prefer it.

 

Next phase for us it to reseed the grass area where they have destroyed over the past 6 months...which is the entire garden!

[Redwing]

woodchips are better than bark IMO, they drain better, last longer and dont harbour any spores

 

B&Q sell them

[Macfoy]

Mud and chickens go together like..........well yes, at this time of the year it's inevitable. The chickens don't seem to mind too much, it's more a human thing. You can put down, shavings, gravel, whatever, but at the end of the day a few dry days and a good stiff wind will dry it up more than you ever can hope to.

 

Re-seeding whilst being a brilliant idea will not be the sucess you hope for because chickens can destroy a grassed area far quicker than it will ever re-grow

 

To achieve a happy medium you need to consider providing a fairly well covered spacious run with something like gravel as a base. Gravel will wash down nicely with a hose every so often and if it's straight onto earth should drain too. Keeping the birds on the gravelled area will save the grass. The birds can then have limited time on the grass which they will enjoy more as it will be premium grass not trodden in muddy and regularly pooed on.

 

Depends what you want really. If you want a nice garden and chickens then you have to restrict their access. If you don't mind a mud bath then it will dry up in spring, but the grass will always struggle.

 

Macfoy

[Squawk]

Hi

 

We used to have the same problem but it was easily solved by making a roof for their run out of corrugated plastic sheets and laying a thick layer of wood chip on the floor.

 

The chickens love to dig in it and it's easy to clean by raking the woodchip and hosing it down once a week. Also seems to help minimise the smell of their poo!!

[KennandHelen]

B&Q sell them

 

B&Q is on the other side of town for us, and if you have ever been to Reading, it is Traffic Light Central. Takes a good hour or so to traverse it to get there and back.

 

Homebase on the other hand is a 5 min walk from home and sells bark chip which, according to our Omlet leaflet, is fine for the chooks.

[Jools]

Homebase on the other hand is a 5 min walk from home and sells bark chip which, according to our Omlet leaflet, is fine for the chooks.

 

I'm afraid that's not a generally accepted view in the poultry world. It's thought that bark chippings are more likely to harbour fungal spores that lead to aspergillosis in poultry. That's the reason most people recommend wood chip, not bark chip.

[Mazzarina]

When I let the girls out this morning I put some straw at the food end of their eglu run because it was so muddy. By the time I had got back inside and looked out the window (and it's not a long walk!) they had already kicked most of it out of the run and onto my lawn.

Well I did try...

[Lavenders_Blue]

I am tipping wood chip down in the garden like "Ooops, word censored!"ody's business at the moment as I am getting fed up with squelching through mud. Between us, the chooks and I seem to be trampling the chippings into the mud at an alarming rate but as they were free from a local tree surgeon, I am quite happy to top up the chippings every few weeks as necessary. It certainly does make the garden a bit more pleasant for the girls as they can scratch about looking for delicious bugs and not risk getting trench foot!

[Saronne]

Homebase on the other hand is a 5 min walk from home and sells bark chip which, according to our Omlet leaflet, is fine for the chooks.

 

I'm afraid that's not a generally accepted view in the poultry world. It's thought that bark chippings are more likely to harbour fungal spores that lead to aspergillosis in poultry. That's the reason most people recommend wood chip, not bark chip.

 

I've used bark chip when I couldn't get hold of wood chip. Both are fine and I've had no problems....touch (chipped) wood.

 

Saronne x

[beulah59]

I started with bark chips, but they seemed to absorb the rain ... so I raked them out and mulched the flower beds with them and replaced them with a load of woodchip from a local tree surgeon ... they're about 4 inches deep and seem to be doing the trick. But with all this rain ...

 

Will it ever stop?

 

I'm sure in any 'normal' winter, bark would have been fine. But now I have a source of cheap woodchip, I shall carry on!

[infinitymum]

Thanks all. I will look out for some offers at our local stores

[bevvy1]

We have just bought a rabit hutch and put it on stilts for my 3 to go into and keep out of the mud, we have put their food and water in and some straw and they have now decided to lay their eggs in there.