Flooding

[nickel chick]

I live in Illinois the ground is frozen and It is raining like crazy. So between the melting snow , rain and frozen ground. My pens are flooded with about 3 inches of water and it suppose to snow some more. My poor peacock has a small island about 3foot round that is above water. I am so worried about him and his feet being wet so much. The Chickens have there coop but he only has his roost. His tail is soaked and I am afraid he will get sick with the cold. I am so over winter and spring can't get here fast enough. I am looking for pallets to put down with some wood on top. But no luck yet. And I feel straw will make it worse. HELP!!!!

 

[DylansMom]

I live in Illinois the ground is frozen and It is raining like crazy. So between the melting snow , rain and frozen ground. My pens are flooded with about 3 inches of water and it suppose to snow some more. My poor peacock has a small island about 3foot round that is above water. I am so worried about him and his feet being wet so much. The Chickens have there coop but he only has his roost. His tail is soaked and I am afraid he will get sick with the cold. I am so over winter and spring can't get here fast enough. I am looking for pallets to put down with some wood on top. But no luck yet. And I feel straw will make it worse. HELP!!!!

I wish I had a good answer for you. We used to have a pen like that, and we ended up tearing it down. When we redesigned our outside runs we raised them way up, for optimal drainage. It got really depressing looking at peas that appeared to have been dipped in mud.

 

[barkerg]

I live in Illinois the ground is frozen and It is raining like crazy. So between the melting snow , rain and frozen ground.    My pens are flooded with about 3 inches of water and it suppose to snow some more. My poor peacock has a small island about 3foot round that is above water. I am so worried about him and his feet being wet so much. The Chickens have there coop but he only has his roost. His tail is soaked and I am afraid he will get sick with the cold. I am so over winter and spring can't get here fast enough. I am looking for pallets to put down with some wood on top. But no luck yet. And I feel straw will make it worse. HELP!!!!

It gets better hang in there.

Gerald Barker

 

[MinxFox]

Is there any way you can get some dirt or sand and put it in the pen to make it higher?
I don't know if you would be able to with the ground being frozen, but is there a way you could make a trench to channel water out and away from your pen?

 

[nickel chick]

That's what I did and day after day with and squeegeeing till my arm just about fell off.As the days warmed it would run by itself. Picasso
loved the little river going through his pen. When all the snow and ice melted I breathed a sigh of relief. And then we got another 5 inches and then another ice storm. and so it will begin again but this time I have a better plan. And this spring should it ever decide to show itself a better plans for coops and runs.

 

[KsKingBee]

Mine didn't get as bad as what you described, but it did get really muddy and the poor little mudballs looked awful! I had some prairie hay to put down in the pens and that made it much better. A couple of the chicks got the sniffles, but other than that they are fine. I made a couple of dust bath pools and they look better too.