Is there any hope for me raising spring meat birds in a yard that often floods?

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Yes, we did ducks for a bit and they are messy and don't lay as regularly as chickens.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

Yes, we did ducks for a bit and they are messy and don't lay as regularly as chickens.

Yeah if I ever move to a property with a pond I will certainly get ducks. Until then, probably not.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Luckily, it drains pretty quickly.

That means it is probably sandy or you probably have a low spot for it to drain too. Maybe both. If it were clay it shouldn't drain that quickly. What you can do will depend on the terrain and the soil types.

My first thought is to create a swale, a wide gently sloping ditch so gentle you can mow it. Drain that water to the low spot. If you don't sod it then it might take a while to reestablish grass. I did one of those and should have made it wider and deeper, but still used gentle sloped sides so I could mow.

I tried a narrow deeper drainage ditch from a wet weather spring area. It helped but was a pain when I mowed.

A French drain leading to that low spot could help. I've used pipe under a driveway but was happier with filling the trench with sand in other areas. That can move a lot of water but the problem can be to collect the water so it enters the drain.

If you have clay over sand you can dig holes through that clay (I used post hole diggers) and fill the hole with sand. Do that in the low spots. As long as the sand layer underneath has somewhere to drain to you can move a lot of water that way.

I've never done this but you could dig a sump pit to collect the water and use a sump pump to pump the water to a low spot. To me that is high maintenance getting that pump to work and intrusive with the sump pit and the hose or pipe to carry the water away in your way. I'd have to be pretty desperate to try that. If your soil is sandy that's probably not practical anyway.

I'd still be really hesitant to try a chicken tractor on that area. Wet is not good for a tractor.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

That means it is probably sandy or you probably have a low spot for it to drain too. Maybe both. If it were clay it shouldn't drain that quickly. What you can do will depend on the terrain and the soil types.

My first thought is to create a swale, a wide gently sloping ditch so gentle you can mow it. Drain that water to the low spot. If you don't sod it then it might take a while to reestablish grass. I did one of those and should have made it wider and deeper, but still used gentle sloped sides so I could mow.

I tried a narrow deeper drainage ditch from a wet weather spring area. It helped but was a pain when I mowed.

A French drain leading to that low spot could help. I've used pipe under a driveway but was happier with filling the trench with sand in other areas. That can move a lot of water but the problem can be to collect the water so it enters the drain.

If you have clay over sand you can dig holes through that clay (I used post hole diggers) and fill the hole with sand. Do that in the low spots. As long as the sand layer underneath has somewhere to drain to you can move a lot of water that way.

I've never done this but you could dig a sump pit to collect the water and use a sump pump to pump the water to a low spot. To me that is high maintenance getting that pump to work and intrusive with the sump pit and the hose or pipe to carry the water away in your way. I'd have to be pretty desperate to try that. If your soil is sandy that's probably not practical anyway.

I'd still be really hesitant to try a chicken tractor on that area. Wet is not good for a tractor.

Thanks so much! I actually think our soil is pretty much all clay here in Northeast Ohio. At least every time I've dug I've only hit clay. I do think it drains to the middle of the yard near the fire pit, which seems to be the low point. In fact, I'm beginning to think that the previous owners actually dug this enormous pit not for fires but for drainage.

I have a lot of options to consider. I've decided against the spring meat birds but I have a whole other project on my hands now.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

Hey, I just had an idea. I currently have this prefab coop up for sale...

But now I'm wondering if I should take it off the market and use it for meat birds. You know that more elevated part of my yard by the garden bed that I said never gets flooded? What if I move this coop over there, build a chicken wire run (covered with wire as well most likely), and use it to raise ~6 Cornish X? The run obviously isn't predator proof but the coop is (all doors secured and skirt around the bottom) and I can lock them in at night. My only real daytime predator is hawks. I could pile up some wood chips or shavings and keep adding more as it gets poopy. Does this sound like a decent idea?

 

[FunClucks]

Hey, I just had an idea. I currently have this prefab coop up for sale...
View attachment 3417870

But now I'm wondering if I should take it off the market and use it for meat birds. You know that more elevated part of my yard by the garden bed that I said never gets flooded? What if I move this coop over there, build a chicken wire run (covered with wire as well most likely), and use it to raise ~6 Cornish X? The run obviously isn't predator proof but the coop is (all doors secured and skirt around the bottom) and I can lock them in at night. My only real daytime predator is hawks. I could pile up some wood chips or shavings and keep adding more as it gets poopy. Does this sound like a decent idea?

Please don't do that. Using that for Cornish Cross is in my opinion a very bad idea. But if you must, I'd do no more than 2 chicks, and here's some additional thoughts. If you built a larger run than what's shown here, it might be possible to do more than 2, but I think they'd be sleeping in the run, and would not fit in that coop. Also, I would highly recommend hardware cloth instead of chicken wire, with a 3 foot apron. And you don't want CX to get rained on, or wet, so you'd need to cover the entire top of the run with a tarp or something. No wet feathers, no wet feet, plenty of ventilation, not too hot or cold. If they get wet or heaven help you drenched, be prepared to rush out with towels and a hair dryer, else they might get chilled and die.

On the other hand, if you got something that grows slower than CX, they might work better in that setup. There are other meat chicken options out there - something like the Freedom Rangers might work better for you.

I have 23 CX that I have raised to butchering age right now. Here are the issues I see with that setup. First, no more than 2 cornish cross will fit in the coop. You might get 4 in there, but they wouldn't have room to move around or move out of each others' way, and could get hurt trying to climb over each other. Imagine a chicken the size of a basket ball when full grown, and they get there in 6 weeks. They grow so rapidly, they are really gigantic when they reach butchering age. Also, they will have a lot of trouble with that ramp. Cornish cross need flat ground, with minimal height changes. They could slip a tendon or break a leg, or just plain refuse to go up that ramp because it's too steep, and narrow for them. Their bodies will be brushing the edges of that pop door when full grown. You'd need to make sides/guiderails for that ramp to be sure they don't slip off, and that angle is still bad. Assume their wings don't work, because they basically don't. Their idea of flying is flapping as they run quickly across my 10'x15' run. I think I had one get up on a 12" cinderblock once, and was shocked.

I know folks can free range these birds with an egger flock, but when they do that they also restrict commercial feed, and the CX don't get as large as a penned flock in the same amount of time. If commercial feed is available all day, they will sit besides the feeder all day and eat it. Except when they go get a drink of water, and come straight back.

They waddle, more than walk, due to their wide stance and heavy weight they have to move around, and they sit/lay on their hocks a lot. I have to make sure the water and food is high enough to force them to stand up and eat (to keep their legs stronger), or otherwise they'll eat laying down, and then just sleep there for a while. Sets them up for heart attacks and leg issues. You'll want to put the food and water on opposite sides of the run to encourage them to exercise as they walk back and forth. They won't walk for basically any other reason.

Second, I don't know if you have enough bedding space in that run or coop for Cornish Cross. You may be changing out that coop bedding every day, and you'll need at least a 2-3 inches of shavings. If you change it every night, by the next night it will be seriously soiled and caked. Don't want them to sit in poop or have damp feet, or too many ammonia fumes. Don't expect them to perch. They lay on the ground to sleep in a big pile. You might try a perch that's like an inch or so above the ground, but make sure it's a 2"x4" on the flat or something, and no guarantee they'd use it. They may need more ventilation in that coop for 4 chickens due to the massive amounts of poop and resulting ammonia. Especially in times with little breeze.

You'll want to put at least 6" deep of wood chip bedding in the entire run, and rake it around daily to mix up the poop. It will be a pain to rake under the elevated coop. I bet money your chicks will choose to sleep in that run, or you'll be out there placing them in the coop every single night to prevent that. So I'd make sure your run is Ft Knox secure. 3 ft apron, no openings greater than 1/2", make sure 19 gage 1/2" hardware cloth is what's covering the run. Have secure door latches with carrabeners.

CX don't move out of the way, you will have to push gently to move them about so you can clean, and they will sit under your feet and get stepped on, or get their toes stepped on if you're not careful. Have a plan for what you'll do if they are sleeping under the raised coop - you'll have to physically move them out of there, and if you can't get a good angle on your broom handle, you may have to get under there with a rake, or yourself to move them out.

They're extremely food aggressive, and will climb on each other to get to the food, and slice each other's rears open with their claws, so it's important each chick gets trough space the width of their body in which to eat, with free access, and everyone eats at once. At 5 weeks, a 40 lb bag of feed lasts 5 days for my 23 CX, so with some math that can give you an idea of how much to feed. They were finishing a 10 lb feeder in 12 hours (daily) by 2-3 weeks old. I use a vinyl gutter fed through cinderblocks as a food trough with one gutter inverted above and wired in place to prevent feed raking. I use two 5 gallon buckets with horizontal nipple waterers, and fill them every other day.

When brooding day old chicks, most recommend about 5 days with free access to food 24/7, then restrict food to 12 hours a day. When I turned mine outside, I found they'd stop eating once it was dark, and we have about 12 hour days, so I haven't been pulling the food at night. But your setup may be different - if you have exterior lights, this is something to consider - you may have to pull the food at night, and put it out at first light. They will be extremely aggressive at that point, and may not let you in the run or coop in the morning because they see you carrying the feed.

I ended up putting in two feeders on opposite ends of the brooder - the first feeder would be mobbed, which would let me get to the place where I'd hang the main feeder, otherwise I'd be squishing chickens. Unfortunately, this literally happened once when they were about 3 days old before I figured out I needed to use two feeders. After they gorged for half an hour, I'd remove the first feeder, and everyone transitioned over to the larger main feeder.

I'd go out with a headlamp after full dark to check on them, and they'd wander over and start trying to eat food by the very dim light of my headlamp, so that tells you something about their feeding habits.

The best way to learn is to try it and see. If you really think this is a good idea, you can try it and see how it goes. But I definitely wouldn't try to do more than 4 chicks in that coop, and you might want to consider just letting them sleep in the run.

Are you going to brood them in the coop? In four weeks, I obtained 7 full size trashcans full of poopy bedding (medium pine shavings) from these CX and had to clean out the brooder every single day. For a brooder I had two 2.5'x4' dog crates I zip tied together end-to-end, and by 4 weeks, my 23 chicks covered the entire floor of one of the dog crates when they were sleeping in their pile. Thank goodness most of them were feathered enough to put them outside at that point. I'd like to have put them out at 3 weeks but it was too cold.

 

[Morrigan]

I wish I could recall the name of the thread or poster, but I seem to recall a poster here who raised CX in the suburbs using an elevated coop/run -- he may have even a two stories. He used some type of mulch like soil to handle the droppings. IIRC the set up worked out pretty well for him.

That's the only thing I could think of in your situation -- building some elevated structure with a deep litter of highly absorbent material.

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Maybe in that yard, you could raise fish?

 

[FunClucks]

I wish I could recall the name of the thread or poster, but I seem to recall a poster here who raised CX in the suburbs using an elevated coop/run -- he may have even a two stories. He used some type of mulch like soil to handle the droppings. IIRC the set up worked out pretty well for him.

That's the only thing I could think of in your situation -- building some elevated structure with a deep litter of highly absorbent material.

I think he recommended 1/2" x 1" wire as big enough for poop to fall through but not to small to support their feet. I also think there were earthworms involved somewhere.

 

[FunClucks]

Maybe in that yard, you could raise fish?

I really do think ducks and some aquaculture would be a good fit there... Flooding is no fun.