Sooo much pooping

[Henergy]

There has been lots of useful discussion on here regarding solutions to stop your run from becoming muddy with woodchips, aubiose etc. However, my problem is with my fenced off area.

 

The chickens live in a cube with large covered run which is reasonably dry. However, during the day they have free access to a fenced area of our garden which is completely theirs (about 6m by 6m). The problem is that during spring & summer there was lots of grass, However, now as autumn has progressed the grass has diminished and now the ground is sodden & puddled and getting worse day by day. I used to regularly sweep up poo but now its so wet that I can't tell poo from mud. My worry is that it'll get wetter & wetter. Should I allow them on it or are they destined to spend winter in their run (which is a cube plus run & one extension) ?

 

All help gratefully received.

[Snowy]

We have a similar problem. If I let them out every day (which they love) my garden would be a quagmire. Freeranging is limited in winter therefore. They do get short periods out, but spend most of their time in the walk in run. I'm about to give it a deep clean (waiting for freecyclers to come and collect bags of run litter ) then I will top up with fresh aubiose/woodchip and some leaves and branches then they will be ready for winter.

[Plum]

Guess it'll just get muddier. I would put some garden lime down occasionally to neutralise poo and kill any nasties and just let them out for an hour a day.

 

Or you could put down branches or similar so they've got islands of dry. In spring you can divide area in two and reseed half at a time. I've head that putting down leylandii clippings keeps them off the mud.

[Minnie&Moose]

Hi Henergy, we have what sounds like a similar arrangement of space for our 6 hens - I've split our free range area into 2, let the birds have half of it at any time and let the other half 'rest' for 6 months. The area the birds are in is filled with hardwood chips (expensive but seems to last well). Their feet stay cleanish (ours love to dig) and the pen stays mud free and doesn't smell. I do sprinkle Stalosan F powder around the run sometimes but that's all I do to it.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

My free range area is just the same . I dig it over with a fork sometimes, to break up the impacted soil/poo and chuck some Stalosan around.

[Henergy]

Thanks everyone - this is my first winter & I did wonder if I was doing something wrong !

[Tutti Frutti]

Our girls have a "playground" attached to their secure 4x2m WIR. The playground is fenced off from the garden but doesn't have a roof (so only for evening/weekend supervised FR but they love it!!!).

Edited April 8, 2016 by Guest

[Chicken deficient]

I've seen a tree surgeon's website that says they are always looking for places to offload green wood chippings for free.

I was thinking about trying some in my walk in run / play area this winter.

Otherwise, when I clean the Hemcore / Rapport out of the Cube run, if it is more damp than dirty, I spread that around in the roofless walk in run and that really helps.

[clucker1]

Should wood chip be changed after a certain length of time? We have a 9x12 run quite deep (depending on where you stand ) which the girls are spending most of their time in now. Did a mega clean of everything at the weekend with Nettex ground sanitising powder...but not sure if I need to change the woodchips ever. We have had them now for 6 months and they are fab...the chickens love them and no mud..yippee!

[Chicken deficient]

Woo hoo! Just rang the tree surgeon and they are doing some work nearby soon, so they are going to drop off a huge pile of wood chips for me for free! Yay!

 

I don't know about how often it needs to be changed, but I'll see how it is looking / smelling after the winter.