Mud

[crazy chicken ladies]

We've been getting a lot of much needed rain here in Southeast MO.
Unfortunately, we've also gotten a lot of mud. Our poor girls were over ankle
deep in soupy sludge. The only solution I could come up with was putting rock
on the ground to cover the mud. The girls weren't exactly happy with me dumping
rock in their area, but once I was done they seemed to like it.
And, not only did we have mud, but we had an awful stench from all the wet poo.
Oh my gosh, it was bad. But, doing some cleaning and adding the rock seems to have
helped with that, also. I just keep learning. I can only hope that I am doing things right.

 

[FunClucks]

What was your base run material before you added the rocks? Was it wood chips? Rocks provide elevation, but don't help compost the poo - if you use wood chips, grass and leaf clippings, etc that can help you cold compost in the run. If you need higher, add more wood chips or change your run location to higher ground. Another option, quick and pretty cheap, is pallets. Add several pallets to the run, that will keep them out of the mud until it dries. You'll need to knock the poo off the pallets, you can shovel wood chips on top, and they'll scratch the poo off for you, especially if you put some scratch with it.

That being said, I used 1-2" gravel as a support to level one of my run frames, and the chickens have dug it all out and scratched it about. It can be good for them to scratch rocks sometimes, helps wear down their toenails, which may otherwise need clipping after a while.

 

[crazy chicken ladies]

What was your base run material before you added the rocks? Was it wood chips? Rocks provide elevation, but don't help compost the poo - if you use wood chips, grass and leaf clippings, etc that can help you cold compost in the run. If you need higher, add more wood chips or change your run location to higher ground. Another option, quick and pretty cheap, is pallets. Add several pallets to the run, that will keep them out of the mud until it dries. You'll need to knock the poo off the pallets, you can shovel wood chips on top, and they'll scratch the poo off for you, especially if you put some scratch with it.

That being said, I used 1-2" gravel as a support to level one of my run frames, and the chickens have dug it all out and scratched it about. It can be good for them to scratch rocks sometimes, helps wear down their toenails, which may otherwise need clipping after a while.

Before the rock was added, it was just hard packed dirt with sand thrown in on top. The sand worked great for cleaning, but with all the rain we got it all turned to a thick sludge. I'm doing a lot of thinking, trying to "start over" with the entire base part of things. We're putting a larger, fully enclosed run over their coop so they have more room. We have 6 girls (3 leghorns and 3 white rock) and they have gotten so big that they constantly run in to one another. We are tearing down a playset and I plan to use some of the wood from that to raise their coop off the ground. Then I'm thinking of just using the pine shavings on their floor.
Thoughts?
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge.

 

[FunClucks]

Before the rock was added, it was just hard packed dirt with sand thrown in on top. The sand worked great for cleaning, but with all the rain we got it all turned to a thick sludge. I'm doing a lot of thinking, trying to "start over" with the entire base part of things. We're putting a larger, fully enclosed run over their coop so they have more room. We have 6 girls (3 leghorns and 3 white rock) and they have gotten so big that they constantly run in to one another. We are tearing down a playset and I plan to use some of the wood from that to raise their coop off the ground. Then I'm thinking of just using the pine shavings on their floor.
Thoughts?
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge.

I love your coop! It is the cutest thing ever!!! It's absolutely adorable including the upgraded roof and the KFC sign! I can tell you care about your chickens.

However, as you've figured out, your coop/run is way too small for 6 chickens. Almost every pre-fab manufacturer out there takes advantage of the fact that new chicken owners don't have a sense for how big chickens get and how much space they really need to be healthy and happy in a backyard setting. Manufacturers use the commercial chicken raising space recommendations to sell their coops, but those only work well under commercial conditions (debeaked birds in small square wire cages that never go outside their cages, or in commercial chicken houses). If you have bantam chickens, the prefab cages are a better fit, but even then you have to be mindful not to take them at their word for how many chickens the coop will hold.

Recommendations on this site, which I've found to be accurate, are a minimum of 4 square feet floor space in the coop, 1 square foot roost length in the coop, and 10 square feet minimum of floor space in the run for standard large fowl chickens, which is what you have. You take the floor space, subtract out any space taken up by feeders, waterers, nesting boxes, etc, and then you have the total available floor space for the chickens. Perches help, but not as much as you'd think when chickens are figuring out how much space they need and how much they need to fight to get it.

I live in North Alabama USA where I get maybe 3 days of winter, so I don't actually have a traditional coop, I have a 200 sq ft totally covered run, and put my perches and everything in there. (We also don't free range at all due to predators, so they stay in there year round). My girls get 15 sq ft per chicken. For a while we had 10 sq ft per chicken, and I still haven't totally fixed the feather picking and bullying that arose from them not having enough space. I had to rehome and remove several chickens before they had enough room, but the difference was obvious once I'd done so. They were so much calmer once they had enough space, with much less pecking/fighting/dominance issues. In my climate, the birds need 3 square feet minimum of open ventilation above their heads per chicken, which meant I basically had to remove the top 1/3 of my shed (prospective coop) walls, so I just stuck with the open air covered run concept (Woods Coop sort of) and rehomed some chickens so they had enough floor space.

So I guess I'm encouraging you to continue with your coop expansion plans - it's good that you're doing that. I'm hoping these guidelines will help you make your expansion big enough that you can finally get some awesome peace in your flock.

And pine shavings on the floor inside the coop is a common choice, and quite effective if you make them deep enough and they don't get wet. You want enough shavings to dry out the poop quickly, and you've got to keep them dry to avoid mold and nastiness.

Have you looked into poop boards for inside your coop? You can put Sweet PDZ stall refresher (zeolite crumbles) on the boards and just scoop the poop every other day, and it keeps your coop less smelly, drier, and you use a lot less pine shavings as bedding. If you design the coop with enough space, this has been a good solution for many folks. The scooped poop gets added to your compost pile as a high nitrogen amendment, and the zeolite is fine to compost also.

 

[crazy chicken ladies]

I love your coop! It is the cutest thing ever!!! It's absolutely adorable including the upgraded roof and the KFC sign! I can tell you care about your chickens.

However, as you've figured out, your coop/run is way too small for 6 chickens. Almost every pre-fab manufacturer out there takes advantage of the fact that new chicken owners don't have a sense for how big chickens get and how much space they really need to be healthy and happy in a backyard setting. Manufacturers use the commercial chicken raising space recommendations to sell their coops, but those only work well under commercial conditions (debeaked birds in small square wire cages that never go outside their cages, or in commercial chicken houses). If you have bantam chickens, the prefab cages are a better fit, but even then you have to be mindful not to take them at their word for how many chickens the coop will hold.

Recommendations on this site, which I've found to be accurate, are a minimum of 4 square feet floor space in the coop, 1 square foot roost length in the coop, and 10 square feet minimum of floor space in the run for standard large fowl chickens, which is what you have. You take the floor space, subtract out any space taken up by feeders, waterers, nesting boxes, etc, and then you have the total available floor space for the chickens. Perches help, but not as much as you'd think when chickens are figuring out how much space they need and how much they need to fight to get it.

I live in North Alabama USA where I get maybe 3 days of winter, so I don't actually have a traditional coop, I have a 200 sq ft totally covered run, and put my perches and everything in there. (We also don't free range at all due to predators, so they stay in there year round). My girls get 15 sq ft per chicken. For a while we had 10 sq ft per chicken, and I still haven't totally fixed the feather picking and bullying that arose from them not having enough space. I had to rehome and remove several chickens before they had enough room, but the difference was obvious once I'd done so. They were so much calmer once they had enough space, with much less pecking/fighting/dominance issues. In my climate, the birds need 3 square feet minimum of open ventilation above their heads per chicken, which meant I basically had to remove the top 1/3 of my shed (prospective coop) walls, so I just stuck with the open air covered run concept (Woods Coop sort of) and rehomed some chickens so they had enough floor space.

So I guess I'm encouraging you to continue with your coop expansion plans - it's good that you're doing that. I'm hoping these guidelines will help you make your expansion big enough that you can finally get some awesome peace in your flock.

And pine shavings on the floor inside the coop is a common choice, and quite effective if you make them deep enough and they don't get wet. You want enough shavings to dry out the poop quickly, and you've got to keep them dry to avoid mold and nastiness.

Have you looked into poop boards for inside your coop? You can put Sweet PDZ stall refresher (zeolite crumbles) on the boards and just scoop the poop every other day, and it keeps your coop less smelly, drier, and you use a lot less pine shavings as bedding. If you design the coop with enough space, this has been a good solution for many folks. The scooped poop gets added to your compost pile as a high nitrogen amendment, and the zeolite is fine to compost also.

Thank you! We love our coop, but it is definitely not big enough.
We've bought a large enclosure that we are putting around the small coop, so they have it to go in to when the weather gets colder. We live in Missouri, where the weather changes daily. But, the Winters can be rough.
I've not heard of poop boards, but I will be now. The whole poop ordeal is the worst.
Right now I have pea gravel on the bottom, some boards across to set the food pan
and the waterer and then a thick layer of shavings. Is there any other type of bedding I
can use, or is it just pine?
I didn't realize the feather picking and bullying was due to cramped living quarters. We
have a bit of that going on in our coop. They chase each other around and act all crazy.
Well, thank you so much for taking the time to read and reply to my post. You have been
extremely helpful.

 

[FunClucks]

Thank you! We love our coop, but it is definitely not big enough.
We've bought a large enclosure that we are putting around the small coop, so they have it to go in to when the weather gets colder. We live in Missouri, where the weather changes daily. But, the Winters can be rough.
I've not heard of poop boards, but I will be now. The whole poop ordeal is the worst.
Right now I have pea gravel on the bottom, some boards across to set the food pan
and the waterer and then a thick layer of shavings. Is there any other type of bedding I
can use, or is it just pine?
I didn't realize the feather picking and bullying was due to cramped living quarters. We
have a bit of that going on in our coop. They chase each other around and act all crazy.
Well, thank you so much for taking the time to read and reply to my post. You have been
extremely helpful.

If you do some research on here, you'll find a number of shredded wood types are good for bedding. Also pine needles and shredded printer paper/cardboard. Also, the wood chips you get from a tree service work well in the run depending on the type of wood chipped (if they're totally dry they work in the coop too, but it can take months for them to totally dry - that's why pine shavings in an elevated coop are a good choice - they're already dry and fluff up pretty good).

Wood chip delivery
https://getchipdrop.com/