How To Fix A Muddy Run Chicken Coop

I put sand over perforated drain tile in my hens yard and will never go back to anything else. Im in Wisconsin and see the whole gamut.

Great info! Another issue with muddy runs is that you can slip and fall. We always make sure to put lots of leaves and safe weeds in the chicken runs/yards. It makes it easier for us to walk on as well and provides a nice cushioned landing if we do trip on something. The added benefit is that it keeps the eggs clean as well, because clean chicken feet yields dirt free eggs. Our ladies have their own large private yards and they love digging through the leaves and creating little seats for themselves as well.

Straightforward list of to-do's filled with proven solutions. Love it!

Oh my gosh. I live in South Florida or either blazing hot or raining with hurricanes. This is one of the best articles I have ever read thank you so very much for this information. I am a newbie and getting my checks tomorrow so thank you for everything.

Very helpful advice, thank you.

Very helpful, thank you! First time poster here.....I live in a 4-seasons-in-1-day location, with a lot of heavy rain in winter. As I'm a newbie to the region, our run and coop has been a work in progress. There was a LOT of mud over winter! The only shelter being a tarp which was no match for the "roaring 40s", the renowned westerlies in this part of southern Australia. We now boast a partially covered, fully wired (lots of predators in these parts) run and timber coop. As we come into warmer weather, I will be implementing some of the advice, namely raising the coop...There's a lot to be said for dry feet...(chicken and human)

Good read. Fortunately, we're on a hill so with the tarp over ours, our babies were high and dry with the deluge all Tuesday, Wednesday and all night last night! I had to go out and clean their waterer and got caught in the downpour, so I actually took shelter in their run until it slacked off a little.

lots of good info

Parts of my run and coop are muddy, I was needing some suggestions and this arrival is enlightening.

Very helpful, practical tips, with details that make a difference. Thank you!
To those folks who are flummoxed by the author's "big whack" of organic material: he means a large amount of whatever kind of straw, wood chips, pine straw, leaves, or other organic material you are adding to lift the chickens up out of the mud. This is colloquial middle American English.

Very important information. I like this article very much! Muddy runs and coops affect the whole well being of the flock! The flock suffer a lot, and they are living beings! Thank you for bringing this important information.

Good article. We're fortunate in having soil that drains well. We also have interconnected runs that are pretty large (for nearly 40 birds). One is totally denuded, but the two others are full of weeds -- and that's where the birds like to hang out, in the cool shade and shielded from raptors.
To build up the soil (and provide the birds with some fun), I've raked huge piles of leaves into the bare run, dumped mulch hay there, or even dumped old littler from their coop, the latter containing lots of wood shavings. Going the sand/gravel route, while a great idea, would be expensive for us because of the amount of material required.

I've tried most of these, but a couple give me hope again! I also live in rock and clay. The henhouse is elevated, but the pallets rot in no time from the wetness. Pavers get covered with dirt by the hens. and they all make holes around the perimeters of a large fenced area with a wire roof. (lots of raptors in my area) You've got me thinking about more possibilities!
I have had 2 roosters that got bumblefoot. For one, I fed him medicated chick feed and it cleared up slowly! He couldn't even roost at first, but you can't tell anymore after a year.

A great post with very useful info that is so topical at this time of year in Australia - Thank you. Funnily enough, I was out at my coop last night filling it with grass cuttings as the spring rain was coming today.

That was well done.

We've had good luck laying down a piece of permeable landscape fabric and then covering it with inches of coase gravel. Without the landscape fabric the gravel will just be squished down into the mud when people walk on it. The fabric sort of makes the gravel "float" on top of the mud. With coarse gravel (two inch chunks) the birds can't scratch it away very well and do not dig down to the fabric. If the coarse gravel is hard on the feet then put smaller gravel, roof chip or sand on top to fill in the voids and make a smooth surface.

Sometimes, doing the work in the dry season makes it difficult to know if you have done enough. If you can build up the floor well enough to be dry when working in the wet season then you'll be good.... at least for a while. If the traffic eventually makes it muddy again we just repeat with a second piece of fabric and a second layer of gravel. The more layers you add the more stable it will be.

Thank you for this!! This is my next project as soon as the rain stops.

Excellent, useful, practical information.

Helpful info! I'll be implementing a few of the temporary solutions (bark! why didnt i think of bark instead of itty bitty wood shavings!) during snow season now, and will be ready to start digging a trench when we melt out in spring. Thanks!

How is this information supposed to help anyone “So add a good big whack of whatever you can readily get.” What does that even mean? That is not helpful at all. What’s a “good big whack”? And how does whatever that is help mud?