mud , woodchip winter flooring

i have dug my run over again today while i was doing it i was wandering wether it was better to just leave it as soil over the winter but then to add the woodbark for the summer , last summer the bark lasted so much longer an didnt smell half as bad but now its all wet an digusting from the rain an snow ,getting any woodbark delievered over the winter months is near on impossiable as the tracks into the allotments gets to boggy . i cant tarpaulin the roof as if and when it snows the weight will just bring the whole lot down .

what do u guys reckon bare soil winter months only ??

I didn't realise how badly the site I chose for our coop would drain. Once the grass had gone it was bare earth but after heavy rain it was a boggy mess, which clearly wasn't good for the birds.

We have lots of conifer hedges here, which I hadn't trimmed for a while as I couldn't be bothered to take the clippings to the dump, there are too many for the green bin and a bonfire wasn't an option. I took the opportunity to give them a severe cut a few weeks ago and with about five barrow loads of clippings I covered our 3m x 3m run with a nice deep layer. Once they are soiled I'll trim another boundary and do the same. I had previously tried wood chippings, kindly donated by a neighbour but they just sank into the mud.

Obviously you don't want to put the clippings on your crops after cleaning out the run (too acidic) but they are free. If you don't have conifers then look around your local area for someone with them - you can offer a free trim and take away the clippings.