Keeping the mud at bay within a chicken run

At the Brittany holiday cottage one of my best buys was getting the chickens, the children staying at either La Forge or La Veille maison love collecting the eggs each morning and interacting with the birds.

During the spring and summer the birds are so easy to look after but in the winter months the biggest problem for me is entering the chicken run to either feed the birds or clean the hen house because of the amount of mud in the run, a mix of mud and chicken poop which makes it lovely and smelly to carry back on your shoes to the house.

This year rather than dump all the fallen leaves from the 2 large cordyline trees within the garden i spread the leaves over the worst of the mud and the result was imidiate allowing me to walk in the area without getting caked in mud. I was not keen in buying straw to do the job and found it wonderful to find a free alternative.

The other great tip I would like to share is to use shredded paper as bedding for the hen house, its a great way to get rid of all the waste paper sent in the post and once dirty from the birds goes straight into the compost bin to be used in the veggie garden.