Help my coop flooded!

[Dr who chicks]

Hello everyone! We are very new to this chicken raising thing. We love our chick they are about 4 months old now! We built there coop out of a dog run. Three sides are dog panels and one is back to our shed! We covered the top with tarp and the side! Figured this would keep them dry and out of the wind. They are out free in our yard and up at night, however the last few days we have been putting them in a dog crate in side. The last rain we had flooded the kennel and the tarp leaked so this caused the feed containers to fall spilling food everywhere and it spoiled and soured. So two days out and still trying to get rid of the smell we raked the top layer of the dirt and let it sit over night and yesterday but still smells what to do???? Need help so I can get my babieskennelckean and not cause them to get sick. Picture attached of my scary almost caved in coop!

 

[3riverschick]

Go to Tractor Supply and pick up a couple bags of "equine fresh" stall freshener. these are little pellets of chlorophyll enhanced sawdust. throw it in your run and let it work. When the pellets get wet they will burst open in to sweet smelling sawdust . this will sweeten the Run and help dry out the ground . After the " equine fresh" has done its job and helped sweeten the run and soak up the excess moisture, you can shovel everything out of there and resurface your run.
As I remember, I believe you can put lime in the bottom of your run to disinfect it before you put the new Surface down. but you need to ask another bycer how to do this correctly. You need just the right kind of lime and I forget which kind it is. that's very important.
Best ,
Karen

 

[Dr who chicks]

Thanks so much!

 

[Kiki]

Welcome! We are glad you joined our flock!
Jump right in and make yourself at home.

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[Acre4Me]

Where are you located and how much rain do you typically get? Will this type of rain event be expected, along with the flooding?

If so, you will need to figure out how to solve the very wet run issue and get it to be more of a damp or occasionally damp run.

We live in OH, often wet and fairly flat terrain where we are....in addition to clay soils that don't help with the drainage. We also used an existing dog run that is 10' x 50' and backs up to a pole barn. We built an elevated coop, and are working on the steps and will eventually roof it all with the corrugated type roofing to provide shade and weather protection. The dog run had been completely paved in with 16x16" pavers placed on top of some sand. We removed all pavers except the ones along the fence line. It seems to drain pretty well, but in heavy rains the farther part of the back yard around the run area is "flooded" for a few hours while it all drains out through the farm field behind us as the slope is very gradual. My neighbor had a very muddy/wet run area, also behind his pole building and surrounded by dog fencing. He got tired of muddy eggs and muddy shoes, so he hauled in pea gravel for drainage and then covered the gravel with straw. Hens are happy, eggs are cleaner, and his run is dry. Although a dirt run is considered better by many on BYC (chickens love to scratch the ground, etc), a muddy run still needs to be dealt in some manner, especially if it is a common occurrence.

Good luck with your chicken adventure! You are about a month ahead of us...our chickens are 11.5 weeks old.