What to do in the wet weather?

[krazykoop]

We just added clear vinyl roof panels around our run! I add grass clippings and fall leaves periodically to it. The chickens love it and it is keeping the ground dry and their feet clean. We also have half sand and half pine shavings in their coop, which the sand cleans their feet if they do get mucky.

 

[aart]

There's no way to magically make a wet, smelly, poopy run stay dry. What your commenters have offered so far are cosmetic fixes. With climate that only occasionally produces wet weather, this is workable. But places like UK that get sloppy weather as a regular feature, you need to do some engineering to create a run that has better drainage.

When people build anything, they often forget to consider "where is the water going to go when it rains?", not just the rain from above but from runoff.

Whether you are situated on flat ground or sloping terrain, you need to see to it that the run and coop are a bit higher than the ground around them or the reverse - trenches. I like to get into my rain gear and stand outside in the rain watching where the water wants to go. I let it tell me what I need to do in order to direct it away from the run and coop.

Rain may soak the run, but with proper drainage, the run will dry out much faster after the rain stops. Even with the deep litter method of coop and run management, you still want to avoid having rain water collect rather than be diverted by means of good drainage around the run.

Also, there's nothing so vile smelling than wet chicken poop. An option is to keep it picked up.

This times 1000!!!
The harder the rain the better....it'll be easier to see.
You have to look at the 'big picture'...all around the coop/run at how the land slopes(or not).

 

[Howard E]

This times 1000!!!
The harder the rain the better....it'll be easier to see.
You have to look at the 'big picture'...all around the coop/run at how the land slopes(or not).

X2,000!!!!!!!!

One of the universal principles of building construction is to always consider drainage. That applies to houses, barns, pup tents and even chicken houses. If a building is involved, you want water to move away from it, not towards it. The easiest way to do this is to use what we know works. Gravity works. If the building site is elevated above the surrounding lands, water will move away from it. So that is always the goal. Anything beyond that in the form of drainage systems is a plus, but elevation is a winner right off the bat. **

After that, in a wet climate, with driving rain from winds, if a roof isn't enough to do it, consider solid sides facing the direction of the wind.....which hopefully is not to the winter sun.

A covered run, protected on three sides from driving rain, open to the winter sun, with a deep layer of coarse litter on an elevated site is going to be dry enough for birds, no matter where it is.

** Old school books on chicken houses addressed this in a straight forward manner. They simply said if you had no place other than a poorly drained site facing north......don't even bother with trying to raise chickens. It will be a failure.

 

[6littlegirls]

I have 2 inches of gravel with another 2 inches wood chips as well as we put some plastic on the sides to prevent rain and snow coming in. Every 2 months I take a leaf rake and give it a rake. The girls help as well.

 

[ChickNanny13]

It rains alot here all year around & it does get hot & humid when the sun comes out. In the past I cooped my chickens (4 - 6) in the "brooder" in the patio at night, during the day they're roam the yard (fenced). They grubbed the yard at times really tearing up the lawn, therefore researched BYC threads. On the highest part of our backyard built our RC (run/coop), chicken wire all the way around (no major predators problems), dog house for nest box & wrapped shower curtains on EMT rods, DLM, poop board over the dog house, under the roost, sprinkle DE & PDZ = Fast & easy cleaning.

 

[ChickNanny13]

PS...This is my brooder, work table enclosed.

 

[6littlegirls]

Looks good. I think they will be happy.

 

[ManawaGirl]

We have a combo of sand and wood chips. Then, every time we mow the lawn we dump the lawn clippings in the run. Mine is wire on 3 sides (coop on the 4th) and we do have a metal roof over the run, but between nature and the hens, ours manages to stay fairly fresh. I do use DE in the coop once a month just to have in there.

 

[AlleysChicks]

We had so much rain last month that we had minor flooding in my area. My backyard where the chicken coop and run is at had 1" water standing. (Doesn't sound like much but it was enough) The chicken run was a muddy mess. I went to TSC and got 2 bags of straw to spread in the run. I didn't end up using quite half a bag and just added more last week. I fluff it on Saturday mornings usually and move it to one side of the run so they have big piles to dig through. The top of my run is covered by a tarp. It stays pretty dry now with the straw to keep the mud from taking over.

 

[6littlegirls]

My girls don't mind wet weather. Their run is covered if they want to stay dry but they perfer the fir tree that is in their yard to stand under or have a dirt bath. This week we got snow after I shoveled away the snow to reveal grasss they came out to check out the white stuff. They decided it wasn't to bad and went about doing what chickens do.