Mud Management
Mud Management for chickens
Mud Mud Glorious Mud as the song goes is something that a lot of chicken keepers end up with. The problem with chickens is that they are the worlds most committed excavators. They will dig and scrape looking for tasty morsels in the ground. If you have some precious plants, or that lovely rose that dear departed Auntie May gave you, then you will need to protect the roots from the attentions of your chickens. Chickens will uproot almost everything they find, apart from nettles and brambles annoyingly. Such is their dedication to extreme garden remodelling.
It’s not all bad
The ground your chickens’ run sits on will become a moonscape of barren earth in a short space of time. They quickly create dust-bathing pot-holes and they fervently dig for insects, worms and other goodies. However, there is a plus side. If you have some ground you need clearing, veg plot, allotment, jungle, greenhouse, then team chicken are the ones to call. Add chickens to any unruly wilderness and you will have ground clearance par excellance. Sit back with your cup of tea and watch diligence in motion.
Why does it turn into mud and why is it a problem?
Chickens’ feet are also great at padding the ground and compacting it despite not being very heavy creatures. The combination of compaction, and lack of greenery means the soil now won’t be able to soak up any water without a bit of help. Surface water creates mud, thick, gooey, welly sucking mud. Mud is great at growing nasty bacteria and other pathogens as pathogens just love moisture. Pathogens make smells to add insult to injury.
So now we have a job description of chicken destruction, we now need to find a solution.
One Solution
So how do you stop mud in a chicken run? You could do some sort of rain dance but this will certainly entertain your neighbours. The top and bottom of it is your run or the chicken area needs to remain dry. Dry earth is less likely to harbour or grow nasties that will harm the health of your chickens. Compacted earth doesn’t allow the rain to soak in so digging the area over will keep the drainage good. It also gives the microbes in the soil some much needed air. Microbes in the soil are your friends, so keep them alive. This in combination with a roof covering is going to make it a winner all round.
If you tackle the mud issue then you will have a nicer area for everyone. No smells, no disease and no slipping in mud.
Voila!
So there we have it!!! Microbes are your friend and chickens will uproot anything that is remotely green, even poisonous plants. Who’da thought it? It didn’t take us long to realise that the chickens had to have their own area, so segregate them. You get your own garden and the chickens can have theirs. That is where sanity lives but because I am a chicken nut our human area is very small because the girls just gotta have fun.
We have much more information on this very topic on our online course and also many more useful nuggets of useful info if you wish to know more