help! garden/run flooded for the third time this month. hens in the house to keep dry

[dawg53]

oh crist, now I have 3 confused tired hens sitting in my kitchen wondering why the cannot get to their beds, and they wont be able to return to their beds at least for another 2 weeks as everything is covered in raw human effluent. Scottish water have still not attended but the council have been out as it is now running down the main road. actual lumps of poo. IN THE ROAD. happy sodding new year here.

Scoop up some of that slop and put it in a bucket, then take it to the mayor and explain what's going on...expound on health hazard for children etc...
I wish you the best.

 

[enola]

If sewage is flowing down the street, now is a good time to call the media.

 

[Xtineart]

I've tweeted my local members of parliament and they've asked me to email them.

 

[Xtineart]

my poor wee babies are sleeping on the kitchen floor with their faces pressed up against the glass of the door. I dont know what they'll do when it's laying time tomorrow, I can't possibly risk letting them out to the coop. I dont even know if it would be safe to use that coop again, or how long till the garden is safe for them to free range in or the run for them to be in after the water subsides, a week? two? does everything have to be disinfected, or burnt? I dont know. I'm calling the Vet for advice in the morning and to see if I need to have them screened for anything or if it would be safe to eat the eggs if they've wandered through any before I caught them and brought them indoors.

I might have to buy a new coop and move them to my parents house and garden for a few weeks till I can be sure the drains have been fixed and the garden made safe.

horrible horrible horrible.

 

[Xtineart]

I've managed to dry the conservatory out and bleach the life out of the place as the sewer water has now mostly drained away. The garden is still un-useable and totally submerged so they still cant go back to their coop or run but I have managed to make some space for food and water bowls in the conservatory and put in a pet carrier with some straw in for them to use as a nest box. 2 of them have laid this morning but both eggs were very soft and broken as soon as they laid them, so I think the stress has really affected them wee souls. At least I can keep them in there a few nights and stop them messing up the whole house. I already need to replace the kitchen wallpaper where one girl roosted on the table and did her poop all down the wall, and it has actually stripped the pattern off the paper when I tried to wash it off. Everything smells so bad and my girls are so confused. I know I'll probably have to replace the conservatory flooring when I finally get a chance to move them back outside.

Phoned the vet today who helpfully told me that they would probably be fine as human sewage germs shouldn't really affect the birds too badly but to keep them out of the garden for a week or until it dries up a bit and just keep an eye on their general health. That at least makes me feel a little better for them.

 

[PulletNewbie]

I am so sorry you are dealing with this! The risk to health is beyond belief and to have so little support from your city council is even more exasperating.
As a member of the media (newspaper editor in Oklahoma) I can testify to the power of a sympathetic reporter and a well-written article.
My suggestion is to approach a reporter whose work you admire (be sure that you actually READ -- even better is to SUBSCRIBE to the local newspaper) and share with them the problem and how you have tried handling it on your own. This can effectively be done through a log of who you have contacted when, including their phone numbers, email addresses and other contact info, and what the outcome was of each contact. Not only will this serve as background material for the reporter, it can also help in the event of a lawsuit.
So, a few tips:
1) Get familiar with the newspaper and its staff by reading it, noting who it is that covers local news beat, animal issues, health and medicine, — any of those areas of responsibility might be interested in taking on this subject.

2) Keep a log of any and ALL communications, including date, time, place, subject matter, outcome, etc. -- using as objective phrasing as possible (we have to keep emotion out of our reporting, it helps if you can too). I suggest you keep a notepad by the phone, the computer, your writing desk, wherever the communication originates, to simplify the record-keeping process.

3) Always include a CC: or 2 (or more) when communicating. Whether this be to your veterinarian, attorney, husband, the other neighbours impacted by this sewage runoff AND the council member representing your district. It helps to convey that more than just one person cares about this issue and the noise level is going up fast and loud.

4) When you've done a little homework on the newspaper (they have the page space, time and ability to REALLY tell the story -- not just confine it to a 30-second bit as radio or TV would be restricted to) then send an email to the managing editor stating briefly the situation, including a pic or two, and asking if the power of the press can be brought to bear against a reluctant city council.

5) Throw in a few compliments about the newspaper, that you subscribe and rely on it for accurate information, etc. That will help separate you from the crowd of folks clamoring for a story to be done on their pet peeves. It also warms the hearts of those of us feeling like we are losing a battle to Facebook.

6) If at first you don't get a response then quietly and respectfully request a meeting with a reporter directly. Invite them out to see (and smell) the damage. Host a neighborhood meeting and invite the reporter to come and just listen...

Hope this helps. Sounds like it is guerrilla warfare now.

All the best from this Oklahoma news desk.

 

[Xtineart]

thanks pullet, I've 'tweeted' some of the images to the local newspaper so hoping they pick it up before I even give them a call tomorrow. The water authority have really annoyed me and my neighbours now by sending their 'emergency response clean up team' which consisted of one man in a set of rubber gloves who spent less than 5 minutes picking up the larger items, such as sanitary pads and tampons from around the top of the drain and dropping them back down the manhole, then left. I was then sent an email informing me that 'the problem has now been resolved' . I went absolute apesh*t on the phone to their call centre afterwards and they have promised to send out 2, yes, 2 men tomorrow morning, so have told the neighbours to take more photos and wait to come out and back me up tomorrow when I give them a piece of my mind.


The wee hens are sleeping in my conservatory under my dining table, when all this is over I'm going to have to redecorate all that too and replace the flooring. Going to cost me a fortune to clear up.
Can't believe that they seem to think this is acceptable, when it's a complete health hazard not to mention eyesore.

 

[TalkALittle]

Could you place sandbags or dig drainage ditches to divert the sewage water? Of course, you shouldn't have to do anything--this should be handled by your town or municipality. I wonder if you would get a better reaction from the council if you wrote and told them that you and your neighbors were contacting a hazardous waste removal company to remedy the situation and that you would be sending the bill to the council.

 

[Xtineart]

starting to get back to normal here, the hens are still living in the house and really confused about where to lay/sleep for the night and have decided that my fur coat is the best egg laying place so far.

The water board sent in 2 contractors to take away most of the top layer of contaminated ground/grass/dirt from my garden so it's all bare earth now. They put down loads of disinfectant and I gave everything another wash down today. the garden smells so much of chemicals now. It will need the rest of today to air and dry a little, and the contractors have promised to pay and supply a new layer of stone chips and bark as it's way too early in the year to lay down new grass, so it will give me some ground cover to make it all look better than scraped bare earth. This should happen sometime this week.

I've moved the coop up onto a raised patio area behind the house which means it gives the ground where it was a chance to recover and keeps them high and dry if anything happened again. Not sure how they will like living on concrete but it will be easy to clean and keep dry at least, so maybe a day or so and I can get them back out into the coop again, just need to do some minor alterations and repair some chicken wire areas so hope to get the materials from the DIY store this afternoon while it's a dry day.

Wee fluff butts will be fine in here for a day or two more and it's meant to be way below freezing over the next few days so they probably appreciate being in a warm centrally heated house for a bit.

Still going to contact the press and the local government on Monday as the water board are saying it's simply capacity and it's likely to happen again each time it rains as the drains aren't big enough, they need to be forced to replace them and soon.

 

[PulletNewbie]

I've been thinking of you often and wondering how things have progressed. Hope your darling wee fluff butts — and you — are making it through all of this without illness popping up from stress.