Need Emergency Coop Modification help due to flood! I have wet hens!

[guesswhatchickenbutt]

I am in desperate need of some advice from some seasoned coop designers...

Quick synopsis of the situation:

We live in Central Florida and have 3 hens. They're about 3 months old and are living in a warm-weather coop that some friends built for us. The coop has a wood floor that we covered with linoleum tile. We put hay down on the tile for bedding. There is hardwire cloth around the entire outside area and the hens always roost in this area on 2 perches (that are not in the picture... but they're there now). It's in the 90s with 90%+ humidity so they need an airy coop so they don't overheat. They pant in this thing sometimes so we can't close it in. They have a separate outside run/tractor that I put them in during the daytime that is just chicken wire with no floor. (Not pictured)

So... we've had a week now of insane rains. We've had about 12 inches of rain now and the flooding in our area has been insane. Our yard is a complete lake now. The coop has turned into a soupy-poopy mess. The hay just floats on the tile and there is so much standing water in the coop. It's horrible!!!

We know we'll eventually dry out, but we also know we get some pretty severe rains in Florida all summer.

What can we do to keep the floor area of the coop dry so that the hay remains dry? It was raining sideways for a couple of days and the food (that hangs from the roof) even got super wet.

There is an upper enclosed nesting area, but they never go in it.

HELP!!

They are miserable in that gross wet hay. What can I do to keep the coop dryer? Any ideas for me? We had thought about putting a tarp over it, but that will make it too hot and i can't run out there everytime we get a severe storm in the summer and toss a tarp over it. It holds up fine in a light rain, but torrential downpours are NOT working with this coop at all.

Thanks everyone! Any advice is appreciated!! (I've got video and pics of our flooding on my blog - link in siggy - if you're interested in what we're dealing with). I just want to keep my girls happy and healthy and all this wet hay can't be good.

Edited to add: The coop is up on concrete blocks so it's not flood water coming in - it's rain water coming in.

 

[ranchhand]

Wood pallets! Sometimes they are listed in the Classifieds or on Craig's List for free. Stack them if you have to. Heck, at this point, pay for them if you have to!

Hope you dry out soon, it's been a bad week in FL. Watch out for gators.

 

[ranchhand]

And when you get a dry day, extend the eaves/overhang. It will help keep the sideways rain out.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

I would drill some small holes in the bottom of your coop to help drain out the water. Or maybe on the side. You can always fill them or cover them with hardware cloth after the water is gone.

 

[ThePamperedPullet]

Hello in Florida
I am west of Ocala.
You could take a tarp and attach one side to the house, go ver to coop and use rope and stakes to stretch it out from the other side. That way it makes for a larger roof area but still leaves the sides pretty much open for air circulation.

 

[patandchickens]

Yup, pallets pallets pallets.

Then, to prevent rain getting in without interfering with ventilation, get some plywood and 2x4s and make overhang 'rooflets' on the upwind sides, starting a third to a half the way down the side wall (depending how wind-blown your rain is). Angle the porch roof type things you're building so that rain and spray are deflected away from the run, maybe a 20 degree angle? You can attach them to a 2x4 screwed across the outside of the run wall, and run diagonal supports of more 2x4 to support them at the desired angle.

So a side view of your coop, with the additional new rooflet added on just one side (dunno how to draw it added to more than one side using just ASCII

) would be something like:


========existing roof ==============
|
|
|
|
/
/ |
/ | <-- new angled rooflet with support
/ \\ | (roof is solid, not louvered as diagram
\\ | implies, my ASCII drawing skills are
\\ | just kinda rusty

)
\\ |
|
|
ground ground ground ground ground ground ground ground

Does that make any sense?

The reason for having them attached partway downt he wall, not at roof level, is that it protects the floor better (as that's the portion most vulnerable to rain angling in). If you get too much rain and some still blows in on the section above where the little roofs are attached, attach tightly-stretched shadecloth on the vertical portion of the run wall above the new rooflet you've built. It will still allow *some* airflow while blocking *most* of the rain that wants to blow in (a mist will still come in, but nothing like a downpour).

Good luck,

Pat

 

[annek]

Temporarily you could put up one of the summer shade tents up over it, it would last a year or two. If it were me I would built another roof over it (maybe 2' higher) that would extend a few feet beyond it all around. Kind of what they do with trailers down in FLA to protect the roofs from heat and damage. You could always screen it in and give your chicks a little larger run on nice days.

 

[orchidchick]

Boy,do I know what you mean! It been a soaker of a week! This is what I have done for this kind of weather. I call them my "storm shutters". You can't really see it, but there is about an 8" span left open (covered with Hardware cloth) at the top covered by the overhang, and gaps on the sides as well.

Fpr the most part, the 18" overhang and the lattice/hardware cloth is ok for most of the year. I haven't had to put the shutters up this week, but I usually do the weeks pre and post hurricane weather.

Good luck, and hope we dry out soon!

Orchidchick

 

[guesswhatchickenbutt]

patandchickens - thank you for the great advice! I checked out your ventilation and muddy run pages and they're excellent! I've saved them so DH and I can look at them in detail. We're definitely going to extend the roof. . . it's a nice shingled roof now so we're going to look into that rooflet thing you drew out! Super super helpful! Can't thank you enough!!

orchidchick - what kind of plastic is that? I can see it's not a tarp... is that from home depot or lowe's or something?? BTW, I love the lattice/hardware cloth combo you've got - and your nest box setup too! Very nice.

It's funny - when I got our coop, I thought it was perfect. Now we have chickens living in it AND have horrendous flooding weather I realize it has a lot of modifications that need to be done. It's very hard to plan a coop that will keep chickens cool in insane heat and humidity, but also keep their bedding dry in tropical storms! I have a lot to learn!

Thanks everyone for your kind words and advice!!

 

[orchidchick]

Hi, and thanks! it works out well here.

Those are those SunTuf Roofing panels. You can get them at Home Depot and they come in different colors as well as clear and a shaded grey and you can cut them to fit. Very easy to manage as I have a really bad back! and they store easy , too..

Orchidchick