Our introduction to keeping chickens, the high's, the lows and pics of our journey.

[Bens-Hens]

Thanks Scott, welcome back anytime.

Today I have stayed home to finish the coop. The six from our first hatch are getting a bit on the big side for the mobile coop.

Was hoping to keep them in there until week 8, but that's another week away. Might make week 7 'day visits' to the large coop. Can't do anything until it's finished anyway. Should be sorted by Sunday afternoon.

 

[Bens-Hens]

A busy day plodding alone on my own today and I managed to get it all done.

Brace yourselves hahahaha, here come the pics!





Nesting boxes got a second coat, and added the lip so the straw does not spill out when the kids open the door. Also evened up the two doors chains.


All closed up. We have had a bit of rain, I went down to checkl if water got in, everything was dry inside, happy days!


Inside, changed the drop down edge latches to bolts, another coat of paint and closed off the nest boxes...don't want them getting any early ideas of alternate places to sleep.


Doors got another coat, also gave my planer a work out and reduced some un treated pine to shavings.


Once again my lawn needs mowing, but it is almost to a point where I am happy with it. real test will come when the chickens move. Might have to make another barrier for the passion fruit vines.


Added two sections of 'quad' to the top edge of the roosts, glued screwed and painted.


Also going to test kids playground sand on the floor, too about 30kgs to get a few inches cover all around. We will see how easy it is to manage. Going to use straw in the nesting boxes when the time comes.


That's pretty much it, will get some photo's when the gang move in on Sunday. Our recent hatches will also move from our little brooder to the bigger multi coloured one.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Wrightsx4]

Looks GREAT! It has really come together nicely.

 

[annav410]

Looking great! Great progress.

 

[NovaAman]

OH, If only I could get away with a set up like that here in Michigan. I'd have coons, weasels, the odd fox figuring out how to get in, not to mention the metal... I'd have to worry about one of them being dumb enough to stick their comb to it... like kids do when they are dared to "touch it with your tongue" in the winter. LOL. BUT MAN, I love it. Wonder if it'd be easy to run foam insulation along the insides to keep them warmer... Can't do that open bottom though... to much wind and snow in the winter. Oh wait, its not open bottomed, I just realised that there is, but it blends with the ground color below it! LOL. Hmmm. Now I am thinking... Oh, Maybe I had better stop... I need to raise the level of earth in my run before I spend money on a new coop... Need one though... Need to get the birds out of the garage! lol

Here is my set up... As you can see, we are under water right now. AND with all the woods around, you know we've got the wild animals... SO, protection is key here. Hawks were the worst offender last year... ANYWAY, hvae had so much rain in the last days that my yard has flooded. IT is worse now than in this pic. More rain coming. Needless to say, the run is flooded. All the coops in the compound are all up 2 feet off the ground, so there is plenty of dry area, but so much standing water in there. SO, raising the floor level in the compound 3-5 inches (12x28) is going to take a chunk of change. Also thinking of trenching a few feet away, and leading farther to the back, lining that with landscape fabric, filling with gravel or crushed concrete, then back topping with soil removed... ALSO digging a 10x10 by 5 inches or so where the water will run down to.. just to keep it away from the coop. Can use some of that soil to fill the compounds low areas... just thinking through ideas... not sure how well it'll work, but they are thoughts I need to process.




That yellow building in back, despite being completely surround by water at this time, is completely dry inside. Thinking there is a need to consider turning it into a coop this year. There are a lot of easy access points for coons and possums, so would need to pred proof it, and get a huge dumper to finish the clean out the previous owners mess. They used it as their personal trash disposal. There is nothing organic in there... think, old beds, boxes, broke toys, metal, wood, fluids (cars fluids) etc... Behind it, more... I've gotten it about 1/2 clean in the last few years, but needs a lot more work. There is also a loft in it, so that'd be nice for when the phoenix have their tails...

 

[Bens-Hens]

That's a fair amount of water mate!

We don't have the same cold issues here. I like to play in snow, but not live in it! We do have heat issues, a hot week here seems to really knock around people not used to it.

As for your situation, I did read a bit about flood prevention, some tricks and techniques. Some were costly, others were pretty simple 'labor' type fixes. Digging run off channels, adding gutters with down pipes.

A big bed of gravel like a soak well would be best, but unless you have the coin, or a brother in law who owns a quarry it's hard to do. Sand bagging could be an option if you have the soil to fill them, just make sure you add a pipe to let the water back out if some does get in. The mere mention of sand bags made me shiver hahaha. I was once part of a flood team as a soldier that went to save a country town in New South Wales. We bagged a wall four bags high, and 3 km's long! Saved the town, but lost interest in sand bags lol

I think immediate relief would be to get a pick or shovel, and start that trench to move the water away from the important stuff. Good luck, If I was closer I would come round with my own shovel and lend my back.

EDIT: Hey Nova, not sure if you have read this, but here is the article I mentioned.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-to-fix-a-muddy-run-chicken-coop

 

[salt and pepper]

Awesome thread!

 

[NovaAman]

Yes, I read that. I read it last week! LOL. I was talking to a lady at an elderly home where my route runs me to twice a week, and what she and her hubby did was the sink. I like that idea. Going to be some back breaking work though. And again, a lot of that soil will be able to bring up the level of the floor. Ultimately, bringing up the floor level 4inches would be ideal.

 

[Bens-Hens]

My brother in laws (3) and I put down 7 soak wells for an aunt about a year ago. You can buy the large concrete ones, but we used big blue 44 gal drums with slits cut in them. If you don't have the area to just divert the run off, and want to soil you would salvage a couple of drums.

The method we used was;

Dig a big hole,
slit plastic blue 44 gal drums,
drill input hole in the top with a hole saw for the down spout (these were fed from the house roof gutters)
wrap drums in garden cloth to stop sand washing into the drum,
place a cement paver on the top,
back fill.

Has worked well for her large roof area, you could dig one big sink and put a couple on the same hole. Plastic drums would last forever over steel ones, but won't be able to hold the same weight as a concrete one (so don't drive on them with trucks!

How ever you go, good luck. Hope the place holds out until it dry's enough to make a start.

 

[NovaAman]

Oh, that's a great idea! There are people here who are always selling them. Might even be able to get some from a friends work he's in the frozen food industry here... Gonna drop him a line in the morning.