Poo help please!

[AmberSky]

With the recent bad weather i am fed up with the mud bath in my outside WIR, i cant afford any sort of roof yet and to be honest not even sure how i could do it to make it look half presentable to keep the OH happy.

 

So i have ordered some 20mm pea gravel to aid drainage in the top part of the WIR and hopefully the girls then will not get so muddy feet and i wondered if anyone else had a similar problem and what have you done to keep down the smell and the mud?

 

 

[crankycookie]

My WIR has a roof, but I've laid down concrete tile as a base to prevent predators from digging in and to make cleaning easier. It also keeps the girls off the mud, and if it's covered by pine shavings (or in your case, bark chips since your run isn't covered) it still gives them something to scratch through.

[AmberSky]

My WIR has a roof, but I've laid down concrete tile as a base to prevent predators from digging in and to make cleaning easier. It also keeps the girls off the mud, and if it's covered by pine shavings (or in your case, bark chips since your run isn't covered) it still gives them something to scratch through.

 

 

Wow i did not realise it rained in California! we have had real rainy weather recently and it is supposed to be summer!

 

My poor girls!

[beulah59]

I use woodchip from a tree surgeon. It gets muddy after a while, but allows for drainage. And you can keep it fresh by raking in some Stalosan from time to time. When you change it, it makes a brilliant mulch for the garden, or left in a pile will rot down into compost because of all the chicken poo in it.

 

Let us know how you get on with the pea gravel.

[AmberSky]

Well the pea gravel arrived today and it took a good 2 hours to move the 1000kg of gravel around the back to the WIR and then rake it even, lots of drama with chickens getting in the way and such like, but there was enough to give good coverage of just over half of my 42' x7' run so hopefully it should keep the mud down.

 

i had to rush off to work after so did not get a chance to take a picture but i will do tommorrow, but so far it looks great, nice and clean and a lot better to look at than bare soil.

[AmberSky]

As promised here is a pic in glorious sunshine, it looks good at the moment though how long it will stay that way is up for debate, the gravel stops at the paving stones and then they have bare ground and a apple tree to victimise! so its not gravel all the way down, its only about half the length of the run.

 

[Plum]

Looks good, mine adore chucking gravel around. They will be happy chickens

[AmberSky]

Looks good, mine adore chucking gravel around. They will be happy chickens

 

 

Thanks Plum, the girls are already trying to dig hollows to see what's underneath, but it smells a lot better and looks 10 times cleaner. Now i just hope it will tell the test of time and still look as good in a few weeks/months time.