Chickens digging a dang soup bowl - anti- flooding advice needed

[Dynamissa]

My birds are digging through the dirt floor and creating a massive depression in their run… it already would flood with heavy rains and I’m worried about what is going to happen when snow thaws in the spring.

Mine are literal backyard birds, can’t free range by law. I can’t pick ip
The run and move it with the coop, it’s not only too heavy but there is a ton of paperwork that goes along with it.

What can I do? I like that they make their own dust bath but it will literally be chicken soup if we have a wet winter… we can’t get a tractor or anything into the back yard to help carry things so I have to use bags / buckets or a shovel haha.

Thanks.

 

[KyCoop]

You need to address the issue of how the water is getting into the run in the first place. If you coop and run are not movable then the way to do that is Roofs, Gutters, Ditches, Dams and Drains. You may only need one or you may need all of them.
There is nothing you can just fill the holes with that they won't just dig back out.
Do you have some pictures of your setup?

 

[Dynamissa]

We moved here Recently and weren’t informed that the drainage efforts they put in are t actually working. Our yard sits lower than the surrounding ones and is very flat.
We have two french drains but with heavy enough rains we still have flooding. The land is generally wet.. the run is covered everywhere but I’m not even sure where we could shunt water off to. figured adding something would at least put the birds higher than the rest of the yard so they wouldn’t get flooded out.

 

[KyCoop]

Pictures will help. You can add dirt and sand to the inside to try and raise it but you will still have to add probably at least a ditch and dam to the outside perimeter of the run.

 

[linguini]

In our first year, we had similar problem, wet and muddy run. I added bags and bags of sand in the enclosed run, and eventually added thick layer of mulch. They kept digging and I simply kept pouring mulch when needed. The ground in the enclosed run is now higher, and never gets wet. (run is covered.) I also use mulch on the uncovered run as well. Have infinite supply of free mulch from a tree company!

 

[Penpal]

You could run a gutter down each side of the Run. I'm thinking of making a French drain. On the side that is higher, You can also put in a French drain, leading the water to the other two drains. Or, you could build a little dam on the high side to move the water to the drains.

 

[Bawkbok]

In rainy FL we had the same problem. I had puddles along the edge of the run where they would dig and puddles inside due to the lay of the land. We are lower than everyone around us and seem to be the collecting point for rain. I decided to go with the deep litter method using dirt, compost, leaves, some mulch, a couple bags of pellets and mix it all together. No sand since it stays wet under cover and never dries out. It is now at least 4" higher than the surrounding area and is no longer an issue. I added bags of river rock (from TSC) to the outside edges of the run on the skirt all around to eliminate the puddling water on the outside of the run and we added boards to the bottom of the inside all around the run. The girls still dig around the edges but it's along the boards. Problem solved. Even during the hurricanes, the inside only received the rain from above and not anything running in or puddling up. Since it rains sideways here, I tarp out the side from where the rain comes, sometimes it East and sometimes it's from the West. It requires keeping an eye on the weather.