Wet Run. Humour me. Chicken dad needs help!

[EggWalrus]

@MattyBowman Before you ever put down any material in the run, it should be crowned and have good drainage. By crowned I mean it should be built up and not have any low spots for water to puddle.
Pull out all the material on run floor and make sure that it is high and dry. If you have to, Shovel dirt from the outer area around the run to the middle of the run. The floor should be crowned/built up so that if any water get in the run or even next to it, it will drain out and away from the run. Once you have that fixed, use the deep litter or sand method.
If you have built your coop and run in a low spot that holds water, it's time to move it. If it can't be moved, tear it down and start over on high ground or you will have problems forever more. Not amount of material (other than lots of dirt) can fix a bad foundation.Even with the deep litter method, if water is not draining under it, it will be like throwing a bag of leaves in a swimming pool, and then trying to walk on it.

Good luck!

 

[MROO]

Some hay is fine, but I second the idea of mixing in some materials that handle moisture differently. I've found pine needles and fallen leaves are great additions to low muddy areas in my chickens' yard. This time of year they should be readily available where you live.

I forgot about pine needles! We cut boughs off of our live Christmas tree & layer them across the bottom of the run & coop. If your run is big enough, you could put it in the whole tree. Our biddies love to scratch through them, which makes everything smell wonderful! We definitely make sure we don't leave any hangers on the branches ... and we no longer use tinsel, just so we can watch our chickens "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree!"

 

[MROO]

@MattyBowman Before you ever put down any material in the run, it should be crowned and have good drainage. By crowned I mean it should be built up and not have any low spots for water to puddle.
Pull out all the material on run floor and make sure that it is high and dry. If you have to, Shovel dirt from the outer area around the run to the middle of the run. The floor should be crowned/built up so that if any water get in the run or even next to it, it will drain out and away from the run. Once you have that fixed, use the deep litter or sand method.
If you have built your coop and run in a low spot that holds water, it's time to move it. If it can't be moved, tear it down and start over on high ground or you will have problems forever more. Not amount of material (other than lots of dirt) can fix a bad foundation.Even with the deep litter method, if water is not draining under it, it will be like throwing a bag of leaves in a swimming pool, and then trying to walk on it.

Good luck!

Yup, Yup, YUP! You don't need a huge, obvious crown, but it definitely needs outward drainage, and that mounded middle definitely helps. Another advantage to adding a good base layer is that you can put a good defense barrier underneath, while you're at it. An apron of galvanized hardware cloth or a section of chain-link fence works wonders, as will pretty much anything that will allow water to drain while keeping potential chicken-take-out diners out.

 

[aart]

It is a metal 8X8 caged run with a tarp over the metal roof to keep off the rain, as it is now getting into rainy season.

Pics, please?
Tarp might not be enough, if the runoff from said tarp(and surrounding area) is making it's way into your run and puddling there. There can be many ways to divert any water from making it's way into the run depending on the surrounding area.
Gutters, berms, trenches, swales.
Look outside the 'box' of your run first.
Best way to 'see' this is to get your rain gear on and go out when it's pouring to see where the water goes.

That said, I'll repeat wood chips are much better than hay.
My runs have semi-deep litter(cold composting), never clean anything out, just add smaller dry materials on occasion, add larger wood chippings as needed.
Aged ramial wood chippings are the best base material, IMO.

 

[MattyBowman]

Pics, please?
Tarp might not be enough, if the runoff from said tarp(and surrounding area) is making it's way into your run and puddling there. There can be many ways to divert any water from making it's way into the run depending on the surrounding area.
Gutters, berms, trenches, swales.
Look outside the 'box' of your run first.
Best way to 'see' this is to get your rain gear on and go out when it's pouring to see where the water goes.

That said, I'll repeat wood chips are much better than hay.
My runs have semi-deep litter(cold composting), never clean anything out, just add smaller dry materials on occasion, add larger wood chippings as needed.
Aged ramial wood chippings are the best base material, IMO.

@aart I will take some pictures tonight, going to move the entire compound to slightly higher ground when I get home and see what I can do about addressing the water run off. The tarp covers the top, but doesn't overhang at all, so I can see your point about not preventing direct run off. Stand-by and thank you.

 

[chickens really]

Sand in the Run is my best friend...It dries fast and the chickens love to dust bath in it. I just till it with a hand tiller and fill back in the holes.
My Run is covered in wire mesh with a tarp over that on a slight slop so no water will pool on the top..

 

[MattyBowman]

@aart I will take some pictures tonight, going to move the entire compound to slightly higher ground when I get home and see what I can do about addressing the water run off. The tarp covers the top, but doesn't overhang at all, so I can see your point about not preventing direct run off. Stand-by and thank you.

@aart Here is an update photo from last night. You can see I moved it up about 5 feet up the yard to a higher part of the yard with much more natural drainage. It’s quite a slope down to the lower per you can see the old footprint behind.

 

[chickens really]

That Coop is very tiny......

 

[EggWalrus]

Whether building chicken coops, skyscrapers, or relationships, you can't go wrong starting with a good foundation.

You got it looking good, high and dry now.

 

[MattyBowman]

That Coop is very tiny......

It’s a start. Only had the girls about a month. It’s becoming more that it was supposed because I love it. The next step is building a larger permanent coop. That’s why I attached a bigger run to it right away. This is just my first steps in. But the coop was labelled 3-4 chickens. 5-6 bantams. So I bought it.