Having spent last weekend clearing drainage ditches and digging a new one, and thus having had plenty of time out there with shovel in hand contemplating the bunch of "help my coop is flooding" "what do I do about all this mud" posts that winter and early spring will bring, here is a quick public service announcement
--
NOW is the time to do something about it. BEFORE you have problems, and when the ground is still relatively dry.
Does your coop roof slope towards the run? Install gutters, and lead the downspout output well away from the area to a lower area. Hint: nonperforated black corrugated drainage pipe is a good and cheap 'flexible downspout', whatever length you need.
Is your run built on clayey soil? If you are contemplating adding sand or gravel to reduce mud, you need to apply it BEFORE the ground gets muddy. (For some it may already be too late til next year
). If you put it on dry ground, to a reasonable depth like 4" or more, it will stay pretty well high and dry and work well for a long time. However if you put it onto already muddy ground, it tends to just disappear into the mud surprisingly quickly and you will have wasted all that time and effort and money. Also it is much easier to GET the sand or gravel TO the run when the ground is still firm!
Is your run in a bit of a low spot, or on the path of water draining down from higher ground, or for any other reason does it have even the SLIGHTEST tendency to get puddle-y? Dig a shallow drainage trench all the way around the coop and run, preferably 2-3 shovels wide (for most people, it does not have to be very deep). Ideally you also want an outlet ditch leading the collected water to a lower spot. If you have abundant energy and want it to look all spiffy, skim the turf off what you dig out, discard the underlying dirt (use it elsewhere, like in garden or compost) and pat the turf back into place so you have a roughly-returfed swale rather than a bare dirt ditch. The grass will fill back in to cover the messy spots.
Finally, if you suspect you might be in for high water, or even if you don't specifically expect it but just want to be well prepared, stockpile a few pallets (get them free from stores discarding them) so that if worst comes to worst you can stack them in your coop, covered by plywood or old carpeting or even just layers of cardboard, to raise the chickens up above flooding. It is much easier to do this if you have the pallets already around than to wake up on a floody February morning to find your chickens hock-deep in water and say 'gee, I wonder where I could get pallets in the next thirty minutes'
There, now you can't say you weren't warned <vbg>
To help you understand my interest in the subject, here is a pic of me clearing an ice-clogged ditch in the backyard last winter during a thaw:
Pat
NOW is the time to do something about it. BEFORE you have problems, and when the ground is still relatively dry.
Does your coop roof slope towards the run? Install gutters, and lead the downspout output well away from the area to a lower area. Hint: nonperforated black corrugated drainage pipe is a good and cheap 'flexible downspout', whatever length you need.
Is your run built on clayey soil? If you are contemplating adding sand or gravel to reduce mud, you need to apply it BEFORE the ground gets muddy. (For some it may already be too late til next year
Is your run in a bit of a low spot, or on the path of water draining down from higher ground, or for any other reason does it have even the SLIGHTEST tendency to get puddle-y? Dig a shallow drainage trench all the way around the coop and run, preferably 2-3 shovels wide (for most people, it does not have to be very deep). Ideally you also want an outlet ditch leading the collected water to a lower spot. If you have abundant energy and want it to look all spiffy, skim the turf off what you dig out, discard the underlying dirt (use it elsewhere, like in garden or compost) and pat the turf back into place so you have a roughly-returfed swale rather than a bare dirt ditch. The grass will fill back in to cover the messy spots.
Finally, if you suspect you might be in for high water, or even if you don't specifically expect it but just want to be well prepared, stockpile a few pallets (get them free from stores discarding them) so that if worst comes to worst you can stack them in your coop, covered by plywood or old carpeting or even just layers of cardboard, to raise the chickens up above flooding. It is much easier to do this if you have the pallets already around than to wake up on a floody February morning to find your chickens hock-deep in water and say 'gee, I wonder where I could get pallets in the next thirty minutes'
There, now you can't say you weren't warned <vbg>
To help you understand my interest in the subject, here is a pic of me clearing an ice-clogged ditch in the backyard last winter during a thaw:
Pat
