Chickens and mud

[Yorky]

Surprisingly, given the recent weather, our chicken run is pretty wet, definitely not just damp :(
When the girls first moved in we put down sand and woodchips to give them something to scratch in, but there is one corner of the run (the one the kids prefer to feed them at) where they have pretty much dug a hole, and it is now a muddy puddle. About 2/3 of their run is covered, but without walls so not too boggy, but the open part is very muddy. We can't free range them as our garden is not secure, near a main road and with a disapproving neighbour with attached garden!

Will it cause any problems other than muddy feet? and is there anything we can do other than wait for the water table to go down?

We've got the same problem atm, really not much we can do about it all the time we have this relentless rain. Not sure if it will cause foot problems (was a bit scared to find out!) but ours can get up on a branch or sit on top of their coop if they want some respite, also I've been making sure they have very dry bedding and shavings all the time so they can dry out properly at night. Hopefully that will help ward off anything nasty.
Even if I could free range (bridleway full of hungry foxes at the back) the rest of the garden is pretty much underwater too.

Thanks Pixel, makes me feel better that they're not alone
As you say, they can get up on perches, or a railway sleeper (which they've covered in mud!) and their house is dry
So far their feet seem to be holding up OK :)

if it is very wet and muddy and the poo soaks in because you cant clean it as well then there is a higher risk of infection. they get little cuts and scrapes on their feet all the time and if they happens it is more likely to get infected. we lost one only this week due to this. its desperate trying to keep areas dry and mud/poo free at the moment.

Oh dear, what can we do though? Would dunking their feet in a bowl of water with dettol in occasionally make any difference? Or is there something we could coat their feet with to protect them?

When I was young, the only people who kept chickens were farmers with plenty of space! Your poor birds! This fad is really not fair on the chickens. Our chickens never had any problems because of wet weather. They always had somewhere to scratch around during the day and were shut in at night. My neighbours birds are in a disgusting state. Mud, filth and yuk! Battery hens would be happier!

MMM I am at this comment. go and have a look around a battery hen farm. your neighbours birds might be in a disgusting state but don't tar us all with the same brush. do you just cruise around different chat forums looking to say something controversial? and yes I am on a farm but I cant let my chickens wander around in some idyllic 1950's idea of farming because of the bloody foxes and no doubt you don't agree with shooting them either. this is a chat topic for people who actually keep chickens and love them. not somewhere to tell them they are all dirty, don't care, anti animal, anti welfare types.

I'll have you know that while the ground might be muddier and dirtier than I'd like at the moment due to this rain stuff you might have noticed, the actual coop is spotlessly clean and they have dry woodshavings and fresh hay in their nest box (in actual fact it's the same hay I feed to my horses and the person who 'made' it won an award!). They get fresh water and greens every day as well as pellets, leftovers, corn, mealworms etc. I don't think many battery hens would even know what that was.
Under normal conditions their run is clean and they have woodchip and sand to scratch and dig in, and plenty of space to flap their wings and run around. You only have to look at them to see they are very healthy birds.
Anyway I didn't get them because of a 'fad'. I kept ducks when I was growing up in a garden half the size of this one. We had a pair of khaki campbells for 15 years before the fox got them. Having asked around at poultry shows and farm shops to try and find out how long they would live for I know that we never got an answer because no farmer had ever had them anywhere near that long.

well said pixel. the way you keep your hens couldn't get further from battery ones. and no, I haven't heard of 15 year old ducks either.

Thank you . I loved my ducks. I was still at primary school when we got them as tiny ducklings and they lasted until I'd gone to college and left home, hence the fox getting them because my dad forgot to put them away at dusk .

MillyMollyMama My chickens aren't a 'fad'. They are my pets just like my dog & guinea pigs. They are treated very well, interacted with everyday, by all of us.

If you think it warrants it, report your neighbours, don't use this thread to vent & let it go on. I would say you are worse then your neighbours, because while they obviously don't care, you know there is an issue, you are saying you care here & yet STILL not doing anything!

Don't brand us all the same!

*than

Mine is in the same state - really muddy. I do have 3 runs though and they do have somewhere dry to have a mooch and a scratch without getting muddy feet.

Could you put some concrete paving down? Just a couple so they can get out of the mud? I hear sharp sand is also good.

I put 5 large bags of woodchippings down in september and it looked lovely but now they've all disappeared into the mud!

MMM have you ever seen rescued battery hens? I've got 8 and they were in a wretched state when they came. Don't compare loved hens to those that are intensively farmed and then discarded when their laying days are over.

We did have some slabs down but the little madams insist on burying them when they are digging about. They also had a tray full of sand to scratch in but they've emptied that out (hence plenty of sand there somewhere) and upended it so I'm going to have to buy some more. I had a deep tub for sand but my mum kept saying they couldn't get in it (they could, I'd seen them) so I replaced with a shallower one which lasted about five minutes. Back to the deep one I think!

'When I was young, the only people who kept chickens were farmers with plenty of space!'

That's absolutely twaddle, for a start.
Keeping hens in runs is nothing new. You'll have seen the free range ones because they were, er, free ranging, but it doesn't mean the ones with less space didn't exist.

I have only 3 bantams and they are very much pets. They eat better than we do! My winter set up (bearing in mind 3 small bantams) is a covered 3m run on our patio which is lined with tarp. We use aubiose as substrate and for the most part they are lovely and dry. This recent stormy weather has blown a lot of rain in and we changed all the aubiose today but under normal winter conditions it works well. The aubiose wicks up the poo and I only need ti replace it monthly (or longer). Hen house is mucked out weekly and poo picked daily. As I said, Ive only got 3 bantams so this works for us. At the moment they are soggy and scruffy looking as they've spent all afternoon digging up my plants! I,m not going to dignify MMM with a response as my ladies are neither a fad or neglected.

Actually my 3 hens are ex battery hens I rescued from the chop & to see them plump up, grow feathers & be so happy despite the current mud is fab. They are not a fad, they are happy & members of the family. One of them was damaged by rough handling & can only hop not walk but she gives us an egg every day & loves a cuddle. They have the run of our whole back garden which is secure & a clean dry coop to go into whenever they want to. Hardly neglected!

My nan & grandad had chickens & a turkey or two in their long back garden. In Birmingham! 60 years ago! And when I was little my best friend's parents had laying chickens & rabbits (for eating - sob!) in their back garden in Leamington Spa. That must have been 40 years ago. Hardly a new fad then is it?

We used 'mud management' a company that sells rubber chippings - these were laid down on a mesh base - with underlay. It says how to do it on their website - fab solution as we have ducks & chickens and it stopped the mud! Xxx

Ive always wondered if the rubber chippings are any good.

Did we have foxes?? Yes but they were hunted and controlled. Interesting that it is me who has to report the sorry chickens next door to me. The owners have nothing to do with it of course. How did their state come to be my fault?

All I was really trying to say was that chickens need space. In a battery they do not get space and are abused. I am well aware of the plight of battery hens but that does not mean they can be kept inappropriately in small spaces because that is not fair either. I think people are trying to replicate former times by keeping chickens by the way. Several of my neighbours have chickens and less than 10 years ago no-one did. It is clearly a hobby that has caught on and there is nothing wrong with it but you need a bit of space. Years ago people knew this. That's all and you can hurl abuse at me again if you want because any traditional farmer will tell you that space is a wonderful asset for animals so you do not compromise the quality of the ground. It makes sense when you think about it.

"Hurl abuse"? Oh dear ........ Bye then!

I don't disagree with everything MillyMollyMama says. It's much easier to keep them happy and healthy if you have space, and there is a vogue for backyard chicken keeping at the moment. It's just that 1. farmers aren't all perfect and they don't all take space that seriously. When a farmer friend saw my chickens she said, 'Oh, you should get geese!' which IMO would be INSANE in a garden my size. 2. Backyard chicken keeping comes and goes in suburban areas - it's trendy now, it was popular in the 70s and in the war and of course more consistently before that, but in some areas it never went away.

I have space. I also have a lot of mud thanks to chooks not wanting to leave a single bit of it untouched. Mine spend a lot of time on perches because they’re nosey. They have pebbles and stones to walk on and some straw to play with. We regularly change the soil they have so they can scratch around in new stuff. They also have a sprout top to peck at and they attack anything green.

They also have their feet checked every single day at the moment as well as generally being checked to make sure they’re healthy.

Do not tar us all with the same brush. I am nothing like your neighbours. I absolutely adore my chickens.