its always this time of the year when the hen run gets up to the neck in sludge.
anyone out there know how to keep it fairly dry over the winter months?
not nessarcelarly the easyist or cheapest option but the best .
dont want to lock them away all winter ??? ??? ???
we've just put a straw bale in ours, they scratch it to bits and it cleans their feet, part of it is covered but still gets muddy ???
mind you, the run is 44x22' wide, we sometimes get some wood chip from the council yard, that seems to help ;D
Not a lot you can do Kes our lass is fed up of telling me about my muddy boots when i come back from the hens. Can get hold of some woodshavings, wonder if they would be any good? Give us a shout if you want some.
put a roof on part of it?
we get the wood chips from our council i put good foot of them in my run acts has a deep litter bed and it keeps the run dry best thing for me ,,,, and they are free give them a few years to rot down then i will move my run ;D weed free ,compost with added chicken muck well good
hi,
I have suffered with the same problem, i moved there ark but before I stabbed loads of holes in the ground first to help the drainage then covered the ground with wood bark, they seem to like this and it helps the muddy problem now all I have to do is when I do my weekly clean I just rake the bark back over evenly where they have scratched it, normally round the edges!
Jono
One of our plot holders who has chickens regularly forks over the chicken run in winter, this improves drainage and also turns up worms which the chickens love; doesn't completely get rid of the problem but it helps
Mrs C recently bought 2 hens and an Egloo.
I move the run every week onto a new part of the veg bed.
The hens eat up all the greenery (including weeds),
they constantly scratch the ground, so I hope they're finding weed seeds.
When I move the run to another part of the bed
I just rake over the scratched & trampled part
and I hope I'll never need to dig again!
Morning,
The only downside to keeping chickens on your veg plot is that their dropping are to strong for a lot of veg and normally need to be composted with other green and brown matter.
We've put a good layer of sharp sand and gravel down across the area we walk on up to the hutch. It keeps this area mud free and doesn't bother the hens.
At this time of year ( and specially up here ) the plot tends to get very wet and boggy. Our chooks have the run of the allotment this time of year so they have plenty of ground to cover. In thier run I have a lot of tree logs and raised structures they can perch on which also helps.
No problems with mud this morning. Ice!!!!!!!!!!! Frozen ground, water and poo.
Not tried them but there are rubber chippings on the market which might help.
I create some covered areas in the runs. E.g. with (empty) compost bins where they can have dry dust baths as well.
HI gardentg44
You dont say how big your chicken run is. would it be possible to lie two-
pallets down one side of the run, and move them about each week. To allow part
of the run to dry out abit also chucks can jump on them aswell to dry their feet.
Or use one pallet if run too small...........hope you find an answer...........
jim.... :)