City dwellers, what about the sprinklers?

[mamakelly]

This may seem like the dumbest question ever...My chickie babies are almost ready to hatch and I'm starting to plan a coop. But I realized that wherever I put the coop in our postage stamp backyard, it will get hit with the sprinklers. Anyone else have this problem and what did you do?

 

[Tala]

lol chickens stay out in the rain, no big deal. I assume the sprinkler system will only be on when it's summer and warm weather, correct? I wouldn't worry about it - they'll probably learn to love the water.
If they don't, they'll just go into the covered part of the coop while the water is on.

 

[elmo]

Your chickens might not mind it much, but if your run gets wet regularly you might end up with a smell problem, mud, soggy litter, etc. Can you adjust the sprinklers instead?

 

[Tala]

Quote:
Good point. Wet poop = a lot more flies than dry poop!
However in the summer, in MY experience the water soaks into the ground pretty darn fast, so I didn't think the run would be wet all that long. I guess it depends on mamakelly's lawn watering regimen.

 

[elmo]

Oh, and by the way...there really are no "dumb" questions. A lot of chicken lore comes from trial and error, and it seems smart to me to ask about what other people's experience has been.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't think it is a dumb question at all. It just shows you are thinking ahead and considering things that you can better address now than later.

Unless there is a lot of wind associated with it, mine love the rain. As long as they are past the chick phase, don't worry about the chickens getting wet. Down covered chicks can get wet, get chilled and die very easily, but not grown chickens.

You may be able to come up with a way to keep the sprinklers from hitting the coop and run. As long as the coop is waterproof it probably won't matter a lot if it gets wet as far as the health of your chickens, but the coops tend to last longer and look prettier if they are not wet a lot. If you cannot adjust the sprinkler, maybe you can put some type of barrier so it does not spray toward the coop.

If you have a postage sized back yard, you probably have a pretty small run. I don't know what you have for dig-proofing, but maybe put a barrier around the bottom of your run a few inches deep and fill your run with sand. A solid barrier tends to tell the predators where to dig, so I suggest an apron around he coop and run. Sand drains real well, so if you have a few inches of sand in the bottom of the run that is higher than the surrounding area, (so it has a place to drain to) it should stay pretty dry. Sand in the run tends to keep their feet and lower feathers cleaner than wet dirt too so they track less wet mud into the nest to get the eggs dirty. Another advantage of using sand is that they have an unending supply of grit.

Good luck! I think you will do well.

 

[FireTigeris]

can you build a raised coop? then the water can go under if your sprinklers aren't watering the air.