In pursuit of poo

Today I raked out the floor of Raelene's chook house and bagged up the chook poo/bark mix and took it home. I've put one bag on my small (1 x 1 metre) new raised bed. I just spread it on top of the current layer of mulch. Under the pea straw mulch that was already there I could see plenty of worms, a few slugs that I gifted to my chooks and some utterly sodden soil. Too wet to be forking it over. I grew a zucchini in this spot last Summer and let the zucchini flop over the lawn. This time I'm trying to make a more distinct bed and current (but may change 17 times) plans are for herbs in there. Maybe I'll rescue the strawberries from their sad relationship with the garlic and move them to this garden, maybe not.

The soil everywhere is sodden, including the chook run. So this afternoon I shovelled some river sand onto it (we have a stash left over from filling the sandpit) and then a bale of straw. They had a great time fossicking in the new straw and I'm hoping prevention of a bog will be easier to manage than trying to unbog a chook run bog.