Coop/run at bottom of slope - prevent muddy/water pooling in run?

sheisaeval

Hatching
8 Years
Jun 15, 2011
9
0
7
So the blue rectangle below is where I'm planning to put my chicken coop/run. We are building our own but it will probably roughly look like this.

Anyway, the blue rectangle is the only area I can build the cook because in my city, the coop has to be x feet away from every neighbor's house and that's the only area that can do that. However, there's a slight slope (so slight it's hard to take a picture of it but you can definitely feel it as you walk on the grass) away from the house towards the back of the yard, so I'm wondering if there's anything I should do to prevent muddiness or water collecting in the run? Right now the area is covered with leaves from trees and it doesn't seem to get any more muddy after rains so far, but just wanted to see if I need to do anything just in case?

Pretty much just wondering if I should put the run directly on the ground or use something or elevate it or something? I'd like to have the chickens free access to the ground so they can get all the bugs they want but just wanted to hear other people's opinions.

Thanks


 
I raised the area of where my chicken coop is. I just put more top soil where we placed it. And then dug out around the coop so water will go out where the soil is lower.
 
A possible "solution" per se might be to install a french drain between your house and the coop (closer to the coop than the house).

In this case, the french drain would simply be a trench 12in wide and equally deep running the length of the area you are trying to protect from the downhill flow/drainage (preferably at least 10ft or the length of any accompanying run). If your landscape also has a slope left or right (along the path of the trench), then you should dig the trench sloped in the direction of the lower area (to promote drainage of water which collects in the gravel trench).
 

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