Chicken bald back

[Lulabellx1]

Hello fellow hen keepers.

 

Is anyone else’s garden resembling a quagmire at the moment?

 

With all this rain we’ve been having, I’m worried I’m gonna lose a wellie in the sinking mud.

 

The chickens seem to be having a whale of a time in it!

 

It is a chore keeping the feeding and water stations clean though… I’m hoping for a dry weekend so I can open the walk in run up and give it a good scrub and an airing.

 

I have been letting the hens free-range a lot, so they have some time away from the mud-pit too .

 

The joys of autumn!

 

Loops x

[gavclojak]

I agree, I am slip sliding all over the place at the moment. We have a lovely day today but for the last week has been consistent rain!

I have today rakes all the wood chips in to the driest area and hope it dries out a little. I too am letting them free range as much as possible but am fighting a loosing battle tying to stop the dogs indulging in there chicken poo eating habit....that's a real nightmare! Are my two the only ones that do it? Dirty boys

[Chickabee]

My dogs eat poo too, but they are labs and yes it is muddy everywhere. The girls are loving the grass though. It's still growing. Much to my husbands disgust

[redsunset]

Yup, same problem from only one day of what I can only describe as non stop tropical rain a week last Monday which turned a section of my back low lying garden into mud, and yes the chooks thought it was great and proceeded to tear any any remaining grass in that section and scratch for Scotland! Been dry for last ten days but said area still looks terrible so am dreading the next rains. Not a lot I can do about it, but plan better drainage for next year????

[Lulabellx1]

I remember this time last year it was awful too, after a very wet summer! At least the summer was dry this year, so the rain we are having is not falling on already sodden earth.

 

It does smell like a farm in my garden at the moment though. Luckily my neighbours don't mind

 

The hens are happy however, and one of the ex-bat's has gone in to moult so with all the mud and feathers everywhere... the garden doesn't look very pretty! LOL

 

Loops x

[Mrs_B]

I don't know if this helps, but I had some terrible mud problems last year before I had the WIR so I used a 'mud management' method by Newland Poultry.

 

Basically an area of ground has some weed protecting membrane and plastic turf protector put down which stops the mud coming up but allows water to go through. It also doesn't hurt the chickens' feet and the plastic protector stops the chooks shredding up the membrane. I put wood chip over the top and it was such a relief as I was having to wash my chickens every few days which distressed them, so it's been a lifesaver for me!!

 

Here's the webpage: http://www.newlandgrange.com/CHICKEN-RUN-MUD-MANAGEMENT(1720020).htm

 

I also use it in my WIR now and it's really helped me and the girls as they don't FR and the area they're always in remains dry and mud free. As well as being easy to sanitise/disinfect - I also hose it every so often to stop any build up of poop

 

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