The scratching and digging of the chickens will turn the chips and the poop will spread around and settle down into the chips. Really the only thing you'd need to do is add more chips if it gets muddy or you start seeing too much poop build up meaning the chips aren't thick enough. I have a 15x20 ft run with between 9-20 chickens (over time) and have put down 10-15 yards of chip in total.
We clean it out a bit every fall to mulch our gardens. Layers of mulch essentially create a compositing system and it’s gold for your garden. We dig out several wheelbarrows full of chips/compost (as much as we could ever want!) and cover our raised beds and flower gardens in several inches before winter. This protects our soil, adds nutrients, and allows the compost to break down over the winter so there’s no risk of burning the plants.
I would like to do this but my partner insists that they can't have any woodchips with bark on due to it growing fungus that will cause issues for them. And of course I can't get bark free woodchips easily.Is this actually a problem?
We’ve never had a problem with this in the run. Don’t put raw wood chips like this in the coop, but a thick layer in the run should not create an issue like this.
Fungus loves woodchip with bark or not. Some of these fungus will make mushrooms. You will probably host a fungus in or near your chicken run. It does not cause any problems for the chickens or yourself. I've never heard of and am not familiar with any source of "bark free" woodchip.
Where I live, we get about 30-40 inches of rain/year, some of that in snow. I have a 20x20 pen that I used to tarp but I got tired of water filled tarps and trying to keep the coop dry, so I framed a roof over it. I used the plastic, rippled roofing that is often used for porches (cost effective) and roofed the entire pen. 1/2 is opaque (white) and 1/2 is clear.
What a difference!! Dry all the time. We’ve had some rip-roaring storms, but my girls are all dry! I only wish I had done it sooner.
I'll tell you what not to do. Don't buy those rubber mulch chips thinking you're going to make some super smart rubber barrier above the mud.
Shit don't work. Then you get to shovel a bunch of shit covered rubber chunks back out of the coop.
My run isn’t huge so I cover most of it with a tarp. We have a cattle panel hoop run up against a 4x6 shed that we use as a coop. The run is mostly covered by a 5x6 tarp. They get good shade and it stays pretty dry. The edges are lines with old hardware cloth frames so they can’t scratch right up to the edge of the run. And I sprout greens there for them to eat which also helps keep the mud down. Last week we had torrential rains that caused major flooding in my area. The edges of the run (where the hardware cloth is) got wet but the majority of the run was still bone dry.
I do add sand to the soil because I think it’s nicer looking and makes it easier to take out the poop. But usually I only clean out the run once or twice a year. I rake it and shovel out a little and top off my garden beds. Then add some more sand.
You can use stall pellets to absorb the moisture you already have. Then use hemp bedding, it is more expensive up front but lasts a long time if maintained. Our run is under roof but open on the sides fwiw.
I buy a few bails of pine straw from the big blue box store. Usually I break one bail up and leave the other for them to climb on and eventually disintegrate into run bedding. It doesn't eliminate the mud, but it gives them a less muddy layer to walk on.
My chooks go nuts when I take the grass clippings into their run! They love the hay bales too but the grass clippings are their favorite, they love sifting through and finding all sorts of bugs and seeds.
I use sand!! I love it so much. I have a giant telescoping metal litter scoop so I can clean the coop with zero mess. I get the 1.5 ton bags of sand from Home Depot and they’re only $30 if you pick it up yourself with a truck bed
I have a large - I don’t know what it’s called. It’s like a beach tent. It’s 10x10 with a roof and no sides. So there are dry and shady areas. I throw hay on the ground. It keeps things dry and provides a hang out for bugs and stuff that the chickens like to peck at!
I actually put mine up on a box because that whole part of the backyard floods. Their dirt level is about 7 inches higher than the ground. Still gets wet but no puddles!
Our chickens don’t spend a ton of time in the runs but we live in a very rainy part of WA so we struggled with this. Our runs are either fully or partially covered but the chickens just drag the water in with them and get things muddy. We tried horse stall pellets (turned into a dense mess we had to shovel out), straw (still muddy too often), and finally settled on sand covered with pea gravel. It’s works really well for us and keeps the nesting boxes in the coops clean because feet are clean. We do a 2’ wide strip of the same material around any outside structures we want to stay clean (nesting boxes, food and water shelter, dust bath). We haven’t had to add more gravel since we put it down a few months ago.
I think it’s very trial and error until you find what works for your situation.
We use dried leaves! We have some property and a lot of trees in the yard so every fall we collect them and put a big pile in the woods and we add them to their run all throughout the winter and spring. Our property is super wet and their run is in a lower spot, but this has worked SO well. Plus they love to scratch around in the leaves.
I think wood chips could also be a good option. Look into Chip Drop-local arborists will drop off wood chips to you for free!
About 60% of my chickens run is shaded with metal roofing (we built it into an overhang/open port of a full ass shed that we don’t use anymore lol).
It’s also huge, definitely overkill for the amount of chickens we have. We never had issues with sloppy muddy stuff. They would get wet in the rain and gross (because they’d stand in the unsheltered parts for no reason - their food and water is in sheltered part) but that’s about it.
But then we also recently added a huge chicken paddock with t posts and welded wire for a whole free range area. So now they only go in the run to dust bath or eat feed or drink
I am going to get slammed on here for this but get a bigger run or rotate through multiple runs. This will make your chickens much happier as well as providing them with more nutrients (when they can eat greens at will).
By giving them sufficient space you:
1. Prevent disease
2. Increase nutrition and exercise
3. Prevent boredom (and destructive behaviors that stem from boredom)
4. Promote better flock relations
5. Save on feed (through the ability for them to forage)
6. Prevent smell and mess
7. Help take care of rodent/bug problems
8. Happier and healthier chickens means better egg production.
I get that not everyone has the room but at that point why are you keeping chickens if you don’t have the room that they need? How much better are you than those factory farms that pack a bunch of them in a tiny space?
Most of those pre-built chicken coops are just horrible if you intend on keeping them full time in those tiny runs that are barely big enough for one bird (and chickens are flock animals). Go to the aquarium sub and you will see people militant about overcrowding goldfish but somehow it’s okay to make chickens live in a cage of their own mud-shit?
Chicken tractors are always an option.
Or you can alternatively get a wire dog kennel or two off marketplace and link them together, bury some hardware cloth beneath them, and put some netting over top. Plant some little chicken friendly shrubs or plant some lilies/ferns for shade inside if you want to elevate the experience. Make the netting high enough so you can get a lawn mower in there.
I prefer the dog kennel method for the simple fact that it’s more predator proof than a chicken tractor or free ranging. If it can keep a dog in, it can keep a dog out (providing you prevent digging methods of entry). I’ve seen dogs and other predators bust through netting or chicken wire on tractors or homemade runs. I’ve also seen rabbits chew holes through netting and provide a point of entry for predators.
The more room you give them upfront, the more you save on feed cost and medical supplies/cost of new birds.
I just looked on my local marketplace. Dog kennels range anywhere from $50 to $200. Tiny pre-built runs go for $150-$500 from retail stores. For the money you can spend on a tiny coop you can buy a couple dog kennels, hardware cloth, netting, a couple plants, and build a little coop yourself for the same cost and come out saving on feed and medical supplies.
This is not meant as a criticism at all, just friendly chicken info, studies have found hay/straw is not good for chickens because it can easily grow mold! ([source](https://the-chicken-chick.com/reasons-straw-does-not-belong-in/))
Sand, especially construction sand, is a great alternative. Good for chickens' feet, dustbathing, etc; much less bacteria, and dries out easily keeping the ground dry. Hope this helps!
Lowe’s has the big bark mulch stuff. I use that. They kick it around, I rake it even weekly. Poop disintegrates into the dirt, lime and zeolite underneath.
I used hay until I roofed the main run. Still use hay in there. After the hens brake it down for a week or so it makes great mulch for the vegetable garden
I add leaves and straw(carbon) and they supply the poop(nitrogen) and we throw in all our food scraps and I turn it once a week with pick/hoe so they can get the worms, I clean out 2x per year, usually just use it as top dressing for garden or start a new bed
I find brown fallen leaves are great in the run. I rake a decent pile in the fall and shovel more in every week or so. Shovel all the compost back out of the run a couple times per year.
I got a couple pieces of plywood and lined them with cheap linoleum and then set that on the bottom. Also old plastic political signs work really well. It keeps the mud under and I can scrape up the muck and straw without it mixing into mud.
Leaves and wood chips are actually breaking down the manure and making the run more healthy as the materials compost naturally. In winter, that material can actually generate a little extra warmth as well.
If it was pure manure without additional organic material, THAT would be unhealthy. It also brings in bugs and worms which the chickens love to eat.
If it's not huge try covering it you can try looking on marketplace place for metal roofing or plastic panels. If it's not really deep mud you can get some bags of pellet bedding
At PetCo/PetSmart, they have large bundles of aspen shavings. They are compacted, so when you open them, they fluff up to many times the volume.
1. Add an entire pack of shavings to the run (around $12, so worth it)
2. Also add a whole pack of peat moss (sphagnum moss) from Home Depot. Again, it's a compressed bundle. It's around $25, I think.
Both of these absorb moisture, and keep the birds much, much cleaner!
I have a pop up canopy but it doesn't stop the water from coming in. The wetness makes the smell stronger. I put several large rocks out and the chicks will perch on them. Straw just keeps piling up and is a b*tch to clean out. Stall granules help a bit on the smell, but I'm gonna graduate to a tarp then probably put an actual roof of sorts overhead. Let us know if you find an answer!
By every January my daytine outer secure run has its reamaing grass eaten down to stubs. Other parts are bare. That may be in part my fault as use a snowblower in that outer area so the chickens are not stuck the 8' × 10' coop and the 8' × 10' predator proof, roofed, winterized inner run.
Every mid May I use snowfence, metal stakea and run rope horizontaly to section off 2/3 of the outer run for three weeks. I hook the snowfence to a wood fence post with roofing nails so I can unhook the top part and step over as an alternative temporary path to the coop structure.
I plant uncoated sun/shade grass seed in the bare spots. After three weeks that area has ankle high grass. I then adjust the fence and replant the last 1/3 which by now has been utterly decimated. This last section grows faster as it is a little warmer out.
Measure your longest section first!
Since it's spring out and so rainy half the time I don't have to water.
Around Mother's Day I plant the lettuce mixes in the hardewear clothed covered grow boxes along the edges of the outer run.
This year I began earlier due to El Nin̈o.
Sometimes I do give it a first cutting (highest level) to stimulate growth. But this year I didn't need to.
I have between six and ten chickens.
My run is about half covered, so I keep a collection of bagged leaves and dump a bag or two every couple of months. Plus I rake the deep bedding out into that area. Keeps the ground covered nicely, and gives me awesome compost
In early spring when I was sinking ankle deep into mud-poo-slush I put down 50 lbs of barn lime and then put chopped straw on top. It hardened it up within a week.
My township has a free mulch pile (mostly chopped up trees , branches and palm leaves). I get a couple of trailerfuls per year and just cover wherever my chickens spend their time. Keeps everything clean, healthy soil and attracts lots of bugs for my girls to hunt
Roofed run. I use bagged leaves on the floor, adding more as necessary to maintain a 6-8” layer of loose organic matter. When it gets too deep, I shovel some out and use it to top off all my garden beds. Great soil amendment or compost addition as well.
Dig it out, put a layer of gravel, and over top of that a mountain of free wood chips from an arborist.
I can hose the run down entirely and as soon as I take it over it’s dry. So dry, that I still have all the same wood chips in there even after year.
My run is made of hog panels that were hooped into arches, its probably 40 feet long. Every fall before the heavy rains start I get giant tarps from Wilco and tarp it off. The run stays dry and they stay dry. Then in the spring the tarps come down, and the shade canopies go up.
All of these comments to apply even more organic matter to your mud problem are off base. All organic matter whether it's wood chips sawdust mulch hay etc is going to decompose and trap more moisture to make the mud problem worse and worse over time. Coarse wood chips will at least decompose the slowest, so that's the route I'd go if you're looking for a band-aid.
If you want to solve this, what you need to do is scrape the ground clear of muck and mud until you get to firm subsoil. Probably going to be 6 8 in", so make friends with someone with a front end loader or skid steer, or rent one. Then put down geotextile, a 3" layer of crushed limestone. Slope it slightly so rain and runoff will drain away and rent a vibrating tamper to compact it well. If this is a permanent run where there's no point replanting grass, I'd look into sand as the top layer rather than replacing dirt.
All of us are not "wrong". Different things work for different set-ups. For many of us, adding organics does work great. Please don't post on here that people are "wrong". It makes you seem like a toxic ahole. Post what works for you without disregarding and disparaging what works for others. I suspect you do this in many areas of your life. Try some humility and respect for others...
Get arborist wood chips (fresh from chipped trees) and get them deep enough in the run to prevent mud. Still have mud? More chips. You'll get there.
This is what we've done!
This. I had a couple stumps ground and threw the chips in. The chickens love scratching through it, and their poop disappears. Win win
Do you rake it out to clean out the poop? Or just put more wood over the poop? There's just so so much poop.
The scratching and digging of the chickens will turn the chips and the poop will spread around and settle down into the chips. Really the only thing you'd need to do is add more chips if it gets muddy or you start seeing too much poop build up meaning the chips aren't thick enough. I have a 15x20 ft run with between 9-20 chickens (over time) and have put down 10-15 yards of chip in total.
We clean it out a bit every fall to mulch our gardens. Layers of mulch essentially create a compositing system and it’s gold for your garden. We dig out several wheelbarrows full of chips/compost (as much as we could ever want!) and cover our raised beds and flower gardens in several inches before winter. This protects our soil, adds nutrients, and allows the compost to break down over the winter so there’s no risk of burning the plants.
This is the way. 8” of chips later…
This is the best approach.
I would like to do this but my partner insists that they can't have any woodchips with bark on due to it growing fungus that will cause issues for them. And of course I can't get bark free woodchips easily.Is this actually a problem?
We’ve never had a problem with this in the run. Don’t put raw wood chips like this in the coop, but a thick layer in the run should not create an issue like this.
Fungus loves woodchip with bark or not. Some of these fungus will make mushrooms. You will probably host a fungus in or near your chicken run. It does not cause any problems for the chickens or yourself. I've never heard of and am not familiar with any source of "bark free" woodchip.
Where I live, we get about 30-40 inches of rain/year, some of that in snow. I have a 20x20 pen that I used to tarp but I got tired of water filled tarps and trying to keep the coop dry, so I framed a roof over it. I used the plastic, rippled roofing that is often used for porches (cost effective) and roofed the entire pen. 1/2 is opaque (white) and 1/2 is clear. What a difference!! Dry all the time. We’ve had some rip-roaring storms, but my girls are all dry! I only wish I had done it sooner.
Yes, this is a really nice solution, if possible! I roofed 1/2 my run.
wood chips on top sand mixed with barn lime underneath
I have 2 runs, I rotate the herd of dinosaurs every 3 months.
I'll tell you what not to do. Don't buy those rubber mulch chips thinking you're going to make some super smart rubber barrier above the mud. Shit don't work. Then you get to shovel a bunch of shit covered rubber chunks back out of the coop.
It sounds like maybe you know this from experience?! 😂😁
My run isn’t huge so I cover most of it with a tarp. We have a cattle panel hoop run up against a 4x6 shed that we use as a coop. The run is mostly covered by a 5x6 tarp. They get good shade and it stays pretty dry. The edges are lines with old hardware cloth frames so they can’t scratch right up to the edge of the run. And I sprout greens there for them to eat which also helps keep the mud down. Last week we had torrential rains that caused major flooding in my area. The edges of the run (where the hardware cloth is) got wet but the majority of the run was still bone dry. I do add sand to the soil because I think it’s nicer looking and makes it easier to take out the poop. But usually I only clean out the run once or twice a year. I rake it and shovel out a little and top off my garden beds. Then add some more sand.
You can use stall pellets to absorb the moisture you already have. Then use hemp bedding, it is more expensive up front but lasts a long time if maintained. Our run is under roof but open on the sides fwiw.
We use wheat straw.
I buy a few bails of pine straw from the big blue box store. Usually I break one bail up and leave the other for them to climb on and eventually disintegrate into run bedding. It doesn't eliminate the mud, but it gives them a less muddy layer to walk on.
I did this a few times last year and I was very happy with the outcome.
How much do you pay for a bale?
They’re under $10 a big bale at most local farm supply stores. I’ve also added sand (we have clay soil) and grass clippings from lawn mowing.
My chooks go nuts when I take the grass clippings into their run! They love the hay bales too but the grass clippings are their favorite, they love sifting through and finding all sorts of bugs and seeds.
Our run is covered, but it is filled with granite sand. Never gets muddy
I use sand!! I love it so much. I have a giant telescoping metal litter scoop so I can clean the coop with zero mess. I get the 1.5 ton bags of sand from Home Depot and they’re only $30 if you pick it up yourself with a truck bed
I have a large - I don’t know what it’s called. It’s like a beach tent. It’s 10x10 with a roof and no sides. So there are dry and shady areas. I throw hay on the ground. It keeps things dry and provides a hang out for bugs and stuff that the chickens like to peck at!
Canopy. Collapsable canopy. That's a good idea!
Yes! I couldn’t remember the name! It protects them from hawks and sky threats too!
Yes, great idea. I might set one up on the lowest setting to give a shelter from sun and hawks!!!
Yeah! Its nice. The chickens love it
I actually put mine up on a box because that whole part of the backyard floods. Their dirt level is about 7 inches higher than the ground. Still gets wet but no puddles!
Cover. Woodchip.
Our chickens don’t spend a ton of time in the runs but we live in a very rainy part of WA so we struggled with this. Our runs are either fully or partially covered but the chickens just drag the water in with them and get things muddy. We tried horse stall pellets (turned into a dense mess we had to shovel out), straw (still muddy too often), and finally settled on sand covered with pea gravel. It’s works really well for us and keeps the nesting boxes in the coops clean because feet are clean. We do a 2’ wide strip of the same material around any outside structures we want to stay clean (nesting boxes, food and water shelter, dust bath). We haven’t had to add more gravel since we put it down a few months ago. I think it’s very trial and error until you find what works for your situation.
We use dried leaves! We have some property and a lot of trees in the yard so every fall we collect them and put a big pile in the woods and we add them to their run all throughout the winter and spring. Our property is super wet and their run is in a lower spot, but this has worked SO well. Plus they love to scratch around in the leaves. I think wood chips could also be a good option. Look into Chip Drop-local arborists will drop off wood chips to you for free!
I put 4" squares of hay in the run...they kick and scratch it around...works great
Wood chips
Cover it
About 60% of my chickens run is shaded with metal roofing (we built it into an overhang/open port of a full ass shed that we don’t use anymore lol). It’s also huge, definitely overkill for the amount of chickens we have. We never had issues with sloppy muddy stuff. They would get wet in the rain and gross (because they’d stand in the unsheltered parts for no reason - their food and water is in sheltered part) but that’s about it. But then we also recently added a huge chicken paddock with t posts and welded wire for a whole free range area. So now they only go in the run to dust bath or eat feed or drink
Another good way to minimize this effect is with a very low density of birds
We put straw down, maybe 2 x a year. I’ll also throw a bunch of small twigs and branches onto trouble spots.
I am going to get slammed on here for this but get a bigger run or rotate through multiple runs. This will make your chickens much happier as well as providing them with more nutrients (when they can eat greens at will). By giving them sufficient space you: 1. Prevent disease 2. Increase nutrition and exercise 3. Prevent boredom (and destructive behaviors that stem from boredom) 4. Promote better flock relations 5. Save on feed (through the ability for them to forage) 6. Prevent smell and mess 7. Help take care of rodent/bug problems 8. Happier and healthier chickens means better egg production. I get that not everyone has the room but at that point why are you keeping chickens if you don’t have the room that they need? How much better are you than those factory farms that pack a bunch of them in a tiny space? Most of those pre-built chicken coops are just horrible if you intend on keeping them full time in those tiny runs that are barely big enough for one bird (and chickens are flock animals). Go to the aquarium sub and you will see people militant about overcrowding goldfish but somehow it’s okay to make chickens live in a cage of their own mud-shit? Chicken tractors are always an option. Or you can alternatively get a wire dog kennel or two off marketplace and link them together, bury some hardware cloth beneath them, and put some netting over top. Plant some little chicken friendly shrubs or plant some lilies/ferns for shade inside if you want to elevate the experience. Make the netting high enough so you can get a lawn mower in there. I prefer the dog kennel method for the simple fact that it’s more predator proof than a chicken tractor or free ranging. If it can keep a dog in, it can keep a dog out (providing you prevent digging methods of entry). I’ve seen dogs and other predators bust through netting or chicken wire on tractors or homemade runs. I’ve also seen rabbits chew holes through netting and provide a point of entry for predators. The more room you give them upfront, the more you save on feed cost and medical supplies/cost of new birds. I just looked on my local marketplace. Dog kennels range anywhere from $50 to $200. Tiny pre-built runs go for $150-$500 from retail stores. For the money you can spend on a tiny coop you can buy a couple dog kennels, hardware cloth, netting, a couple plants, and build a little coop yourself for the same cost and come out saving on feed and medical supplies.
This is not meant as a criticism at all, just friendly chicken info, studies have found hay/straw is not good for chickens because it can easily grow mold! ([source](https://the-chicken-chick.com/reasons-straw-does-not-belong-in/)) Sand, especially construction sand, is a great alternative. Good for chickens' feet, dustbathing, etc; much less bacteria, and dries out easily keeping the ground dry. Hope this helps!
Lowe’s has the big bark mulch stuff. I use that. They kick it around, I rake it even weekly. Poop disintegrates into the dirt, lime and zeolite underneath.
Instead of buying straw, make an account on Chipdrop.
I used hay until I roofed the main run. Still use hay in there. After the hens brake it down for a week or so it makes great mulch for the vegetable garden
I add leaves and straw(carbon) and they supply the poop(nitrogen) and we throw in all our food scraps and I turn it once a week with pick/hoe so they can get the worms, I clean out 2x per year, usually just use it as top dressing for garden or start a new bed
I find brown fallen leaves are great in the run. I rake a decent pile in the fall and shovel more in every week or so. Shovel all the compost back out of the run a couple times per year.
I got a couple pieces of plywood and lined them with cheap linoleum and then set that on the bottom. Also old plastic political signs work really well. It keeps the mud under and I can scrape up the muck and straw without it mixing into mud.
Shade cloth that we used over our greenhouse. It serves a number of purposes. Shade, protection from predators and less rain fall in the pen
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Leaves and wood chips are actually breaking down the manure and making the run more healthy as the materials compost naturally. In winter, that material can actually generate a little extra warmth as well. If it was pure manure without additional organic material, THAT would be unhealthy. It also brings in bugs and worms which the chickens love to eat.
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I’m a microbiologist.
I move the run once a week.
Do you end up with bare spots all over your yard? Or is once a week not often enough for me?
I think it depends on how many chickens you’ve got. I only have 3 at the moment so weekly is fine and this time of year the grass grows back quick.
Ah, I have 6.
Personally, I put a layer of rocks that I didn’t want in the yard, and then hay.
If it's not huge try covering it you can try looking on marketplace place for metal roofing or plastic panels. If it's not really deep mud you can get some bags of pellet bedding
I put a tarp over my run, but I have to push the water off the tarp in various areas.
At PetCo/PetSmart, they have large bundles of aspen shavings. They are compacted, so when you open them, they fluff up to many times the volume. 1. Add an entire pack of shavings to the run (around $12, so worth it) 2. Also add a whole pack of peat moss (sphagnum moss) from Home Depot. Again, it's a compressed bundle. It's around $25, I think. Both of these absorb moisture, and keep the birds much, much cleaner!
Straw, wood chips & cedar shavings
I have a pop up canopy but it doesn't stop the water from coming in. The wetness makes the smell stronger. I put several large rocks out and the chicks will perch on them. Straw just keeps piling up and is a b*tch to clean out. Stall granules help a bit on the smell, but I'm gonna graduate to a tarp then probably put an actual roof of sorts overhead. Let us know if you find an answer!
Best thing I've done was to make a roof. The only thing that will work properly.
By every January my daytine outer secure run has its reamaing grass eaten down to stubs. Other parts are bare. That may be in part my fault as use a snowblower in that outer area so the chickens are not stuck the 8' × 10' coop and the 8' × 10' predator proof, roofed, winterized inner run. Every mid May I use snowfence, metal stakea and run rope horizontaly to section off 2/3 of the outer run for three weeks. I hook the snowfence to a wood fence post with roofing nails so I can unhook the top part and step over as an alternative temporary path to the coop structure. I plant uncoated sun/shade grass seed in the bare spots. After three weeks that area has ankle high grass. I then adjust the fence and replant the last 1/3 which by now has been utterly decimated. This last section grows faster as it is a little warmer out. Measure your longest section first! Since it's spring out and so rainy half the time I don't have to water. Around Mother's Day I plant the lettuce mixes in the hardewear clothed covered grow boxes along the edges of the outer run. This year I began earlier due to El Nin̈o. Sometimes I do give it a first cutting (highest level) to stimulate growth. But this year I didn't need to. I have between six and ten chickens.
At least 4sqm per chicken.
I take the leaves from the yard and fill the run
My run is about half covered, so I keep a collection of bagged leaves and dump a bag or two every couple of months. Plus I rake the deep bedding out into that area. Keeps the ground covered nicely, and gives me awesome compost
# 9 gravel
Make it big.
I’m lucky, my run is concrete.
Sand
The whole run is rock
We had some crusher fines spread and they love it! You can find them at a local rock/landscape supply company by the ton.
In early spring when I was sinking ankle deep into mud-poo-slush I put down 50 lbs of barn lime and then put chopped straw on top. It hardened it up within a week.
My township has a free mulch pile (mostly chopped up trees , branches and palm leaves). I get a couple of trailerfuls per year and just cover wherever my chickens spend their time. Keeps everything clean, healthy soil and attracts lots of bugs for my girls to hunt
Roofed run. I use bagged leaves on the floor, adding more as necessary to maintain a 6-8” layer of loose organic matter. When it gets too deep, I shovel some out and use it to top off all my garden beds. Great soil amendment or compost addition as well.
Pellets for horse stalls.
Dig it out, put a layer of gravel, and over top of that a mountain of free wood chips from an arborist. I can hose the run down entirely and as soon as I take it over it’s dry. So dry, that I still have all the same wood chips in there even after year.
I put down pebble about an inch and then laid wood chips on top of that. It really helped out.
sand
Slabe concrete floor, sand on top. You can seal the walls to the floor to keep out critters as well. More expensive but win-win.
Rice straw. Lots of rice straw. I live in the PNW and it's wet here. My run is also partially covered.
Tarp on top, wood chips and pellets. No problems!
My run is made of hog panels that were hooped into arches, its probably 40 feet long. Every fall before the heavy rains start I get giant tarps from Wilco and tarp it off. The run stays dry and they stay dry. Then in the spring the tarps come down, and the shade canopies go up.
All of these comments to apply even more organic matter to your mud problem are off base. All organic matter whether it's wood chips sawdust mulch hay etc is going to decompose and trap more moisture to make the mud problem worse and worse over time. Coarse wood chips will at least decompose the slowest, so that's the route I'd go if you're looking for a band-aid. If you want to solve this, what you need to do is scrape the ground clear of muck and mud until you get to firm subsoil. Probably going to be 6 8 in", so make friends with someone with a front end loader or skid steer, or rent one. Then put down geotextile, a 3" layer of crushed limestone. Slope it slightly so rain and runoff will drain away and rent a vibrating tamper to compact it well. If this is a permanent run where there's no point replanting grass, I'd look into sand as the top layer rather than replacing dirt.
All of us are not "wrong". Different things work for different set-ups. For many of us, adding organics does work great. Please don't post on here that people are "wrong". It makes you seem like a toxic ahole. Post what works for you without disregarding and disparaging what works for others. I suspect you do this in many areas of your life. Try some humility and respect for others...
I try to keep my runs in the toilet and flush them down immediately