[Flossiej]

After a few days of heavy downpours and our run has got quite muddy underfoot. My girls seem to have turned into mud wrestlers. I know they like dust baths but they all look like they need a bubble bath now! Is it normal for them to get so muddy or are they just having fun in the rain?

[Raven81]

What do you have on the foor of the run?  I am no expert but my run has just a dirt floor, every morning there is pools of water on the ground (our soil has a lot of clay which isn't particulalry porus).  I turn over the soil which not only gets rid of the waste but also the less-wet soil underneath comes to the top. Also, all the worms and bugs come to the top and they love eating them!!  It only takes a couple of minutes to do aswell!!
My ladies love standing in the rain, they always have access to their coop but only tend to go in if it gets really really hard or a bus passes!!!

[Flossiej]

Hi I have got a layer of ComfyBed on the floor of the run which they seem to love to scratch around and peck in. It's  a finer bark used for horses. I scrap it all off once a month and replace it with dry stuff. I have done that this morning and they are busy spreading it all around the run and rolling in it. They seem a lot cleaner this morning, lord alone knows what they got up to in the mud yesterday whilst I was at work but they looked a right sight last night. Although I have to say they seemed very pleased with themselves! I will give it a turning over every couple of days now I think to get the dryer stuff up but the weather sounds like it will be dryer as well which will help. Lots of dust bathing instead. Thanks for your tip, I don't know what I would do without all the brilliant advice on this forum as I am very new to keeping chickens.