Chickens wearing water wings

BabyBantam

BabyBantam

Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2011
Messages
498
Reaction score
0
Location
Devon
We're at the highest point in the place, with a sand based soil, but garden is a swimming pool and the girls are living in a damp water world. Just been in the garden sploshing about to check all is well and it's completely crazy out there.
Hope everyone's ok, thinking of joining ChrisM in France if this goes on...
 
It's very wet here as well BB -local river is a raging torrent. Soil is also sandy but still have puddles. All the runs are covered and on a slight slope so they aren't too soggy. We've been having half an inch a day on average. Work on the enclosure is somewhat hampered because it is rather dangerous using wet hand tools which have very sharp edges. Set up the gazebo and thrown a 5 metre square tarpaulin over it and tied it down to nearby trees so I can work underneath. The Wyandottes were opened up at 8.00am but didn't come out until 10.00!

When I left the UK I emptied the cellars completely, removed the pump and left all to flood. I finished the last woodwork for the bedroom sash windows standing in 6 inches of water using my saw bench, which was then shoehorned into Rosie's car and brought back here to start coop building. So I know its worse in the UK. Having said that the ancient roof tiles can't cope and the humidity in the bedroom can only be kept below 80% with a dehumidifier on all day. Just swept the chimney again, because the wood for the fire is getting wet just from the droplets splashing up from the ground.

But it is mild and the chickens are the healthiest I have ever seen them. The TNN's are still laying and several others are showing signs of being about to. Our daylight this far South is at least an hour more mid-winter than the UK. So they get opened up at 8.00am and shut in at 5.00pm at the moment. The little Leghorn Bantams haven't needed any heat yet so are still in their coop and run, not the greenhouse I have erected for them. Too cold to put the chicks out at the moment but Chrismas Eve is forecast 16 degrees daytime, so they will be going out for a few hours then. Just cleaned the cockerels out and put them outside in a rearing unit for the first time for 10 minutes -they were a bit puzzled by it to say the least.
 
I'm in NW Surrey, halfway up/down a hilly road and awash, all the garden squelches, and as for the chicken run with all those busy muddy feet well.....!!
I did put down pallets, and it has worked to a certain extent, saves me from being ankle deep in mud, and of course, the girls use them. The ground is uneven, so only some of it has been "palleted".
I just feel so sorry for the girls, they have great weatherproof large huts, but still prefer to be out of them in the daylight hours. Never seen so many wet feathers. and such woebegone looking girls.
At night they all (they decided) roost in one hut, huddled together, lined up like soldiers, 5-a-side!
They have two huts in the pen, strong, spacious and well fitted. They suddenly melded as a flock, dynamics I suppose, and decided, one hut is for overnight with friends, and the other for eggs, and generally trotting in and out of, laying, and re-arranging the bedding to your liking, perhaps in case of an sleepover with a friend.
These are my 10 new girls replacements after the fox, and bought in the same week, 4 stayed a close foursome, 5 a fivesome, and one. Maybe the extremely cold weather told them to get together at night. I went to close both huts, and the smaller one was deserted, the large one bursting at the seams, and that is the way it has stayed!
Apart from the Legbar hybrid (Columbine,) Starry, my granddaughter's Bluebell, Sky, my Leghorn Whitestar, Summer, none of the others have been named as yet. I don't know if I can bear to name them after my other hens who are still sadly missed.
 
Raised run has saved me alot of hassle with field runoff..

2012-12-22185934.png
 
Yep, that's seriously waterlogged Bickerton. Just like the rest of the UK I suppose. Will ring our neighbour and ask how much water is now in our cellar, which had been dry since the floods in November 2000, just after we moved in.
 
i stupidly dug some of the run over the other day and wish i had not now i sink if i miss the slabs but its only a very small area so i dont mind the rest of the run is quite good as they are on the highest side of the plot and the tree rots help soak up the rain but my bantams are swimming but at least the membrane keeps them of the mud so although they have wet feet they dont have muddy feet , i'll take a picture later of the section of run that i blocked of boggy marsh land eat your heart out :lol: :lol: :lol: i want to get out there today and take the roof of the new run ready for thursday but i need the ladders and they will only sink in the mud and i dont have anyone to hold them for me so i dont know what to do if i can get the panels of and its not raining thursday then at least the beams will get put up and all i'd have to do is put the panels back but once the girls are in this new run then i'll be a lot happier :D
 
chrismahon said:
Yep, that's seriously waterlogged Bickerton. Just like the rest of the UK I suppose. Will ring our neighbour and ask how much water is now in our cellar, which had been dry since the floods in November 2000, just after we moved in.
Click to expand...

Am going thru the motions with the council at the mo trying to get them to sort the drainage in the field as its split level and I'm at the lower point and with all the clay soil it fills up and runs into all the gardens in my corner! Will be putting in french drains or such like in the spring as well as redo the fence at the back with gravel boards which should also help somewhat .
 
this is why i wanted to block the girls of
 

Attachments

  • muddy run.JPG
    muddy run.JPG
    65.8 KB · Views: 2,147
this area is just holding water an wont dry been like this for a few months now now you know why i wanted the girls of it at least were they are now its just an inch of mud not a foot deep i know its that deep in places as i have almost lost my boots in it , i dont know how to sort it once the banties and favs are in the new run then all this area will be opened up and once dry next summer will have even more soil added an then turned into raised beds . the water tap is on the right side of the run which come of the main pipes underground but not actully any drains .
 
What kinda soil is it lower down, assume clay? Could sink some gravel and some lengths of perforated drainage piping leading to a soak away at the lower point.not perfect but may be enough to keep it dry.
 
Freak weather today, seems its all on the ground as its not rained all day!
I'd go raid a skip for some pallets karminski and the girls can float above it all for a while anyway...
 
That's dreadful Karminski. Hope you get it sorted soon.

In France they are prone to incredibly heavy downpours. They have heavy drainage channels everywhere. That's the approach needed in the UK as the long term forecast is heavy wet weather for the next 10 years,
 
:lol: i dont need to raid a skip i can get pallets galore from work and i live opposite my works so its not even a hassle to go get them my only prob is storing them as we can only burn from nov to april on the site and if i am done with after april i then stuck with storing them until we can burn ,i am just so glad the girls are fenced of from all this makes a whole difference to them now i can see thier legs :) next year thier run is being roofed as well but i doubt i'll get any free roofing sheets for that .

our weather doesnt surprise me anymore which is one of the reason i want to get the girls under cover as now we cant even get good summers .
 
That's pretty awful Karminski. You could almost float a walkway on that -couple of polystyrene slabs and a plank. Trouble is chickens eat polystyrene I've been told. I know they eat polytunnel insulation foam!
 
I hope you don't either.... that said, if you do, we require pics for "megalolz"
 
we think we have it pretty bad well someone i know rents a small piece of our horses field which is behind thier house , they have a little garden then a stream and then this bit of land which houses about 30 birds 4 coops with runs normally its a cute bit of area to keep birds but at present tis about 4ft under water and the stream is a overflow for the thames which has already burst its banks in places god knows where the birds are now they cant keep them in the houses as its been like this for almost 2 weeks and it the water wont be going down for some time yet they have no way of getting to them that i know of as the bridge is completely under water poor guys i hope they have managed to move the birds to somewhere else for now .
 
Hope they are alright Karminski. If that happened to us they would be in the spare bedroom, or dinning room or sitting room or wherever in the UK. We haven't a spare bedroom here but if it flooded I would expect to see Noah passing below us in an ark.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top