Wet Run, low area, need your thoughts for my idea.

[SchwartzLakeFarmNC]

I have a problem with heavy rains and drainage with little options at the moment. Our coop is in the city limits so we are limited in size and where we can install, so I'm within all my limits at the moment and cannot relocate. With heavy rains, about 1/3 of my run which is a 9ft by 16ft becomes a small pond. I have tried to come up with ideas to limit the water runoff, we have gutters on the coop and run, no way to install a french drain, would be considerable expense and all the permits to install. My plan is to build up the area around the coop slowly with top soil to divert some the runoff away but my main idea is the raise the floor of the run, at least the 1/3rd that floods by adding a wooden floor/decking boards. The floor would be 1.5 -2.5inches above the ground enough to be sure the water doesn't penetrate.

When we add the decking boards, I'll need to add a type of covering, my thoughts were a mixture of soil,sand, wood chips, grass clippings and things of this sort and use this for my raised garden beds the next growing season. Has anyone else raised the run floor and what worked well and what didn't work as well, would love to have anyone's input as this is the first time we've been faced with a run not 100% of sand.

 

[perkolator]

If you accumulate enough bedding material, such as wood chips - you can easily raise the ground level above flood-level with a nice and porous material. There's pics here of some peoples' chicken runs basically being an island during a flood, due to accumulated bedding over time.

Wood chips and other decomposed organic matter should greatly improve the soil so water can penetrate it better and improve flooding issues too -- and over time you'll be able to harvest the decomposed material for use in your garden....and it's usually a free material from arborists.

 

[SchwartzLakeFarmNC]

If you accumulate enough bedding material, such as wood chips - you can easily raise the ground level above flood-level with a nice and porous material. There's pics here of some peoples' chicken runs basically being an island during a flood, due to accumulated bedding over time.

Wood chips and other decomposed organic matter should greatly improve the soil so water can penetrate it better and improve flooding issues too -- and over time you'll be able to harvest the decomposed material for use in your garden....and it's usually a free material from arborists.

Thank you for the advice. Would it be your opinion to try and build up the interior with composting material rather than raising the floor at this time? One of my concerns would the level of wetness in the run, but I do understand raising it over time would give me a nice area of garden material too.

 

[NanaK]

Welcome to BYC!

It appears you are in NC? So am I.

My plan is to build up the area around the coop slowly with top soil to divert some the runoff away but my main idea is the raise the floor of the run, at least the 1/3rd that floods by adding a wooden floor/decking boards. The floor would be 1.5 -2.5inches above the ground enough to be sure the water doesn't penetrate.

I have been in NC all my life (59 years). Wood, even treated wood that close to the ground has a very short life. If you cover it with soil, grass clippings, etc it will hold water when it rains and speed up the break down of the wood.

Another consideration is it gets very hot and muggy here. One of the ways chickens cool themselves and get rid of bugs is dust bathing. They have to dust bath to stay healthy. Plus they love to dig for bugs! The method your considering will not let them get down into the cooler layers of the soil.

When we add the decking boards, I'll need to add a type of covering, my thoughts were a mixture of soil,sand, wood chips, grass clippings and things of this sort

Instead of the decking, dig a small temporary trench to drain the water away and add the soil, sand, woodchips, etc in a pile in the run. Your birds will have a blast spreading it out for you. It is awfully fun to watch them do this too!

 

[SchwartzLakeFarmNC]

Welcome to BYC!

It appears you are in NC? So am I.



I have been in NC all my life (59 years). Wood, even treated wood that close to the ground has a very short life. If you cover it with soil, grass clippings, etc it will hold water when it rains and speed up the break down of the wood.

Another consideration is it gets very hot and muggy here. One of the ways chickens cool themselves and get rid of bugs is dust bathing. They have to dust bath to stay healthy. Plus they love to dig for bugs! The method your considering will not let them get down into the cooler layers of the soil.

Instead of the decking, dig a small temporary trench to drain the water away and add the soil, sand, woodchips, etc in a pile in the run. Your birds will have a blast spreading it out for you. It is awfully fun to watch them do this too!

Thank you! Yes we live in the eastern part of NC about an hour from the coast, it does get very muggy and humid here, so we built a 4x4 covered "bathing" area for the girls to dust in as I knew they would like to have a dry area to take care of business.

I will definitely consider all these options. In our prior runs, we were able to use straight sand and they never had any problems or issues of any kind, so the idea of the deep method is new to me even though we've had chickens for years. Finding wood chips should not be too difficult, getting them to the run will be chore though! We can start with soil, sand and clippings to start with and locate the chips or possibly some natural cypress mulch as we have plenty of cypress trees around us. Have you ever used clean mulch if wood chips are not available?

 

[NanaK]

Nice to 'meet' you. I am in eastern NC too.

Sounds like they have a nice dust bathing site!

We are out in the country and have a few wooded acres so I don't buy or source much for my run. Always have leaves, pine straw, plenty of grass/weed clippings. Some people get leaves/straw in the fall from neighbors.
I do buy pine shavings for inside my coop. When I clean the our they go in the run too. The chickens keep everything mixed up.

Have you ever used clean mulch if wood chips are not available?

I would think that would be fine as long as it was not dyed or treated with anything like herbicides, pesticides, fungicides. I wouldn't choose cedar. Have no first hand experience but have read many times cedar can cause issue for chickens in a coop. I would think the cypress would be good and not break down as fast.

 

[rosemarythyme]

This is from last year. My run's deep litter has built up enough that floodwater up to about 2" will go around the center of the run, and not straight through it. Do note that my drainage is excellent, so not the same issue as yours, but this shows the effectiveness of raising the run level with litter.

 

[SchwartzLakeFarmNC]

Welcome to BYC!

It appears you are in NC? So am I.



I have been in NC all my life (59 years). Wood, even treated wood that close to the ground has a very short life. If you cover it with soil, grass clippings, etc it will hold water when it rains and speed up the break down of the wood.

Another consideration is it gets very hot and muggy here. One of the ways chickens cool themselves and get rid of bugs is dust bathing. They have to dust bath to stay healthy. Plus they love to dig for bugs! The method your considering will not let them get down into the cooler layers of the soil.

Instead of the decking, dig a small temporary trench to drain the water away and add the soil, sand, woodchips, etc in a pile in the run. Your birds will have a blast spreading it out for you. It is awfully fun to watch them do this too!

Thank you! Yes we live in the eastern part of NC about an hour from the coast, it does get very muggy and humid here, so we built a 4x4 covered "bathing" area for the girls to dust in as I knew they would like to have a dry area to take care of business.

I will definitely consider all these options. In our prior runs, we were able to use straight sand and they never had any problems or issues of any kind, so the idea of the deep method is new to me even though we've had chickens for years. Finding wood chips should not be too difficult, getting them to the run will be chore though! We can start with soil, sand and clippings to start with and locate the chips or possibly some natural cypress mulch as we have plenty of cypress trees around us. Have you ever used clean mulch if wood chips are not available?

View attachment 3557258

This is from last year. My run's deep litter has built up enough that floodwater up to about 2" will go around the center of the run, and not straight through it. Do note that my drainage is excellent, so not the same issue as yours, but this shows the effectiveness of raising the run level with litter.

Thank you so much for sending me your run pics, this visual helps out so much. I will take everyone's advice and try to divert the water the best I can while raising my deep method another 3-4 inches to keep the sogginess down as much as possible. If I cannot locate the wood chips, is there another alternative you would suggest, I know pine bark nuggets are out but natural mulch along with my grass clipping, leaves and sand.

 

[aart]

My plan is to build up the area around the coop slowly with top soil to divert some the runoff away

Put this top soil in the run to raise that.

 

[NanaK]

Sounds like you have a good plan.
Mulch will be fine as long as it's not treated with anything.
Different sizes like that work well.