After 12 inches of snow+rain+thaw=flooded run..

[Rebechenson75]

IMO you need to add more organics and in a variety of coarseness. Personally I think arborist wood chips are perhaps the best starter material for runs that aren't sand and cleaned daily. I would also add the straw, some shavings, leaves, hardwood pellets, or whatever other organic materials you have access to. For locations where the surrounding terrain gets saturated, you need enough material in the run to elevate the ground level above the water. In winter the bedding can be moist, it may heat up a tad and keep them warmer in the winter too, but it will break down from moisture and in the spring you may have some good soil there to transfer into a hot composting setup...or just leave it and keep topping off with more organics over time. The run bedding will essentially be similar to a forest floor with high organic content; if moist it will attract insects and worms for the flock to forage through when they're stuck inside a cage all day. Good luck.

I find this to be very helpful for my situation. It would become a permanent solution. I appreciate the explanation on how to accomplish this.

 

[perkolator]

I find this to be very helpful for my situation. It would become a permanent solution. I appreciate the explanation on how to accomplish this.

Glad it helped you get inspiration. Saw your thread about wet run, I think this will help a lot. Raising the terrain with enough porous materials would likely resolve any standing water issues, like in a low area.

If I couldn’t get arborist chips at this time of year, I’d consider buying chunky bark mulch from a landscaping supplier or even the bagged stuff at a nursery, maybe in addition to shavings, which are not that coarse but for sure more coarse than sawdust from wood pellets. If it’s an issue of water runoff, also try some shovel work to redirect it’s path on the exterior of run. Good luck.