Preventing A Total Mudpit

[Wax_Crayon]

Hello, originally Wax Crayon was mostly the boyfriend in our relationship, with the girlfriend occasionally encroaching on the account.
Now the tables have turned and this is the boyfriend's first go as Wax Crayon for a while.

The Great British climate has turned a corner - the cold half of the year has passed, and the rainy half of the year has begun.

With it, our hens have begun to turn our fairly small garden into a total mudpit. Grass is receding and a big muddy expanse is emerging.


I don't think I have much chance of planting new grass, as our girls would devour the seeds in five minutes, but I would like to do something to hold the surface of the garden together a bit.

I was thinking of putting woodchip down or something.


Has anyone dealt with this kind of thing? What works?

 

[Bickerton]

Pallets

 

[Marigold]

Do they have an enclosed run as well as the garden? They would be more secure in there, and you could roof it, with a gutter to a water butt, so the run stayed dry. You could then fix plastic tarp or corrugated plastic panels to the most exposed sides which would help keep out rain winds and snow. If the run was big enough, with perches, dustbath and of course their coop, and with a dry deep litter floor to dig around in, the girls would be perfectly happy in there, dry and sheltered, and when the weather was nice enough they could be let out into the garden. Mine live like this, and whilst it must be nice to have enough space and grass to let them out all the time, its not essential and if I were a chicken I would be grateful for dry sheltered conditions as all chickens hate rain and wind and mud. And you could have your garden back.

 

[Anthony 1974]

What's your set up?
Do your chooks get let into the garden from the run or is the garden the run?
I have just re-designed my run and raised the coop on legs and then enclosed the legs in plastic sheeting providing a sheltered dry area. I have also built a covered dust bath about 18" high covered with ondulin - whether my new girls will use it is another matter.
I have found that my chickens have pretty much destroyed my garden - wood bark being scratched all over the place and any grass in a run is swiftly scratched up.
Wood chippings are supposed to be best I have read I think.
I think ultimately unless a covered area is provided, mud will be the consequence.
Hope this helps - not an expert in any way just sharing my experiences.

Good luck,

Ant

 

[Hog]

Our garden is suffering with the weather to , the lawn is very short. I don,t need to get the mower out the hens have kept grass short , I have at to keep them in there pen to day to let the grass recover.they normally Rome the garden. I am thinking of making my chicken pen a bit bigger, at the moment it is six meters long by only four foot wide . I will just have to wait till the weather gets a lot better .O ya we have six hens two old hens and just got four nineteen week old girls we have had a week now.

 

[Chuck]

This is the worst winter/spring I remember for many years. Two big pens had to be taken out action completely due to the mud. I have been spreading bales of hay (mine) in the hope of drying them up a bit and usually the seed from the hay gives me a lot of new grass but I can't see it happening this year. More rain and gales forecast for this week .................

 

[Margaid]

Pouring rain and high winds overnight so it's back to water lying on the fields in places. I'm lucky that my birds can free range, over 36 acres if they want to. Even so some areas are pretty muddy, particularly the first bits to emerge from the snow and any low lying areas. The Cream Legbars love scratching in the mud. I think the fields look a little greener than they were but the grass isn't really growing yet.

Managed to get the big field shelter made and with the heavy showers we've had over the past two days, they have been rushing for home and congregating in the shelter and under the raised house which is next to it. I will need to re-arrange things to get the house away from the mud and get the shelter on fresh grass in due course - if I can find enough man-power to shift things!

 

[dinosaw]

You could try ground reinforcement mesh/lawn mesh, would stabilise your ground, going rate is about £30 per 10m2

 

[alfred315]

Depending on your soil type:
If it is clay - sticky, holds water - first add about 2 inches of sand. Then 6 inches of pine shaving. If it's not clay, then just proceed with the pine shavings. Do not use hard wood as it grows mold easily. Do not use cedar as it is poison for chickens. Do not use saw dust.
Straw or hay will also work but you have to use a lot of it as the bottom portion quickly becomes part of the soggy mess and then it decays and you have nice bog.
Better to provide a roof over a portion of it and make sure the land slops away from the covered area.

 

[Wax_Crayon]

Ah, don't use hardwood - okay. Pine shavings it is then.

Thanks guys