rabbits run really muddy

My rabbits have a very large hutch and run with 24h access. The run has turned into a quagmire right now and they are spending most of their time in the hutch. I let them in the garden too at least for a few hours a day, so they do have plenty of exercise. I did think of straw, but that will just get soggy, then I thought of wood chippings, but I'm not sure if that will get really hot in the summer? Another thought was a couple of wooden decking tiles. Any ideas? They do have a tarp.

Back when I had outdoor bunnies, they had a shed with an attached aviary style run. The run was effectively a raised bed with a layer of crushed brick with a thick layer of soil on top, this got very wet so we topped it with playbark. It drained well and I just used to top it up with new playbark periodically. It needs to be playbark rather than ornamental bark as playbark isn’t treated with chemicals. The run was fairly shady but the playbark didn’t get too hot in summer.

I keep topping up the rabbit run area with bark. It does help with the waterlogging, and isn't an issue in Summer.

Would you say the play bark does not get hotter than the soil would in the summer?

bundit said:

Would you say the play bark does not get hotter than the soil would in the summer?

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I would say it is cooler than soil but I don’t know the scientific answer. Children roll around in it and run bare foot over it in playgrounds.

bundit said:

Would you say the play bark does not get hotter than the soil would in the summer?

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I expect it would be cooler (than even semi-compacted dirt) as the air content is higher