I fluff mine up, but only because I am not man enough to un-roll a bale. I think it might go farther fluffed and I feel I am always short on mulch.

It depends on the bale of hay itself. When I have round bales, they are usually the huge ones you can't really unroll by hand, so I peel away layers from bales sitting in a field outside the garden fence. put the layers of hay in a wheel barrow and roll them into the garden.

I usually don't fluff up the layers of hay if the purpose of the hay is to prevent weeds from sprouting. Well, it depends...if I put down layers of newspaper or cardboard underneath the hay first, I might fluff up the hay to make it spread further. If I want it deeper/thicker on the ground to keep the ground cooler in summer, I'll fluff it up more but also continuously add grass clippings and more hay to help keep the ground cooler. In the winter, I tend to let the layers of hay stay flat and more compacted because that helps deny light to weed seed underneath and helps prevent it from germinating.

That is its purpose for winter so I'll.just unroll it and leave it be. Thanks Dawn