help me save my chicken's feet

[KeithTalent]

We have 3 girls in a large homemade run with a house on legs inside it.

The floor is chicken wire sunk into the ground, and the whole of the run apart from the area directly under the house is muddy, sodden, and the chickens are up to their ankles in mud and poo after a week of heavy rain.

I was thinking about getting woodchips on the floor of the run, to give them a dry layer so their feet are ok. I have also seen that some of you have hemcore, but I thought woodchip might be better so the can root through it?

They are at our allotment so are only out of their (massive) run about 1/2 hour per day.

Help!

oooh you are so right to get this sorted as it's extremely bad for their health to be wading in mud. Is there any way that you could organise some sort of overhead cover in order to keep a bit more of it dry?

I use hardwood chips from b&q in my covered run, as they seem to last longer. However, the larger area which mind range in under our trees is now muddy, and although they are not sinking in it, I didn't think it was very pleasant. I went to b&q today and got some woodchips 3 for £12 for giant bags. I'm not sure how long it will last, but I hope it'll get me through the worst of it. I also bought some roll edging to stop them kicking most of it through the fencing. They've already dug and cleared big areas in it to hunt for stuff, but the majority of the area is now better for their feet - don't want them going down with bumblefoot.

Thank you Bramblebooks, have bought 3 big bags of bark chippings and will take them up later.

Of course, the last 2 days we have had sunshine blazing here, but better get prepped for April showers!

Good stuff. My girls have had a delightful time sunbathing in their new bark chippings. They like to see how much they can kick out from the area, but it's so much better than it was and looks tidier to the eye too.

as well as the chips, which will absorb the mud!, it might be worth getting something to make a rain shelter.
either a table, so they can go under it (that maes a good sun shelter in the winter too) or some plastic see-through onduline (the stuff that looks like corrugated iron but see-through) on the top of the run.

it means that even when it's really muddy and rainy, there'll be part of their run that is dry.

lots of ramps as well, and wooden surfaces they can run along.

our run looks like an obstacle course!