Flooded runs

if you need to keep your houses dry use onduline and leave a massive overlap my new big 8'4 house has onduline roofing and its overlaped about 1 foot all the way round and not one single bit of the house gets wet i can even stand under it at an angle and stay dry but now because i have coverted it into a 4'4 house come other side 4'4 dry shelter / feed area i get somewhere to sit when its pouring :lol: but as for the ground well i give up , have just been out and dug the chicks section of the run and started the bantams side but gave up as surprising the ground is still pretty hard so i think i am going to say sod it and get some good membrane and playbark and put that back down again especailly for the bantams .
in time i will be making some of the runs smaller to 9 ft wide and then adding 10ft pvc corrugated sheets to make proper roofing but that wont be until just before winter as i need to find the man power to help and that aint going to be easy.we have at least another 2 weeks of this wet weather which aint good but just be thankfull we dont live in russia we have it nowhere near as bad as they have it poor sods or should i say we dont have it no where as bad as anywhere else in this world either , but i have to admit when i have watched the news i have wondered the same thing about how people are coping if they have chickens or other pets in their gardens but thing thing they never show is a propety with chickens in the garden ??
 
Next doors chooks walk on pea & the bigger gravel, also slate chipping (which they seem less able to dig & fling about) if that helps.
Been sunshine & 20+ today, not a breath of wind and chooks now happy sunbathing. They are also sneezing less and seem none the worse for the floods. The ark has also baked in the sun, so a lot happier today. The waters also gone from the garden, but have rivers on both sides which are in full flood. B&Q completely out of gazeebos, so fingers crossed the terrible downpours are over. Completely crazy weather!
 
are you like me though and only panic when it is wet an yukky and stand there thinking omgggg i need to do this and that and what can i do to make things beter for them but not even give it a second thought when its all dry and sunny .
 
Well I'm sorry to bring bad tidings, but tomorrow (Tuesday) we are due for some very heavy downpours and the unsettled weather will continue for another 5 weeks. So I suppose if you are going to takle any remedial work today would be good or Thursday, which is meant to be fairly dry.
 
good job my hay is being delieved tonight then :lol: ohh and our hosepipe bad has been lifted as well .
 
i know my friend is getting ready but hes just been given 200 bales from last year to make room at his friends place as they share but i dont know what my friend will do this year as his largest barn was blown down in that last lot of very bad weather .but i am sharing 30 bales with my farrier as we share the same shed my old chicken shed :lol: i pay £3.50 but i have paid £6.50 and i know of it being £8 plus :o :o
 
I've got thursday off, so planning to make plans then. Had torrential showers today, but as they are showers, don't seem to have made it into the ark - although could have a problem with the girls digging their way out - electric fence soon going to be to warn them off, not the foxes :D
 
BTW - Lots of conflicting info about feeding pasta on the forum. I know it's fattening & not much good nutritionaly, but is it good for an occasional or one off treat to keep them warm overnight.
Thought it might help overnight in the cold & damp, planning to give them chopped spaggetti with no added salt?
 
mine get home made pure italian pasta the real healthy stuff :D none of this shop pants stuff with added everything got to admit though they havent had any lately think i need to have a word with thier auntie pina she makes wonderful food and cakes ;) ;) . i now have had enough and although i am looking at extneding my run and making it into 4 equal sqaures so i can rest 2 use 2 i am going back to using membrane and playbark this time not chips or bark of the tree surgeon .
 
BabyBantam said:
BTW - Lots of conflicting info about feeding pasta on the forum. I know it's fattening & not much good nutritionaly, but is it good for an occasional or one off treat to keep them warm overnight.
Thought it might help overnight in the cold & damp, planning to give them chopped spaggetti with no added salt?
Click to expand...
I tried 3 pieces of macaroni on my new hens , the all grabbed one and ran off, and hid while they gobbled them down , seemed like the best treat yet
 
We have 3 fields which were supposed to be cut for hay but there's no chance of that now. We need at least a month of dry weather before thinking about putting machinery on the fields. The cows have been moved into one field and are trampling it down quite a lot as well as eating it, but at least that helps protect the ground a bit.

The kittens have also been playing in the long grass and there's quite a big flattened area - amazing what 3 small kittens can do.

The grass around the buildings is also going to suffer - the pockmarks from the escaped cattle are bad enough but we were hoping for some dry weather as the roof will be going on the barn in 4 weeks - half tonne ridge beams and huge panels which need a material handler to lift them. We'll get some cheap OSB to try and stop it gouging huge ridges, but the ground is really soft.

i can't get the girls here unitl after it's all done and I've decided to resite the electric fenced enclosure away from where it gets very wet - part of it will now be a fairly steep grassy bank. Probably a daft question but presumably that won't be a problem for the hens will it?
 
a steep grassy back i dont think they would notice the difference besides it will strengthen thier leg muscles :lol: and yours
 
The only place at the moment that is big enough and DRY enough to trial-assemble and paint coops is the main bedroom. So that's where they are. We've moved into the spare bedroom. Creosoting and final asembly will still be done outside though.

The good side to this wet weather is that washing chicken stuff before packing is easy. Just drying is a bit of a problem.
 
i could imagine margaid , i was going to do the old washing up liquid tick for red mites inside one of my coops this afternoon but i think i will leave it tell a proper sunny day we have nothing but jet back skies at the mo , but as for runs flooding the front end of my run is completely under water if and when we get a proper break in the weather i think i am going to have to really rearrange the run etc and make it 30 ft long not 33ft and miss out the worse of the flooded section the rest of it i can cope with , i have decided on making 4 equal sqaures when most of the crops are out as i cant really start thinking of extending the run just yet but i am going to somehow get corrugated roofs put on them but if i cant get any help then that aint going to be easy only way i might be able to cope on my own is to make the completely flat on the floor then just slide them up into place and bolt them to the main top beams that way .
 
I wasn't thinking about the wet Karminski, more the fact that I'm not fit !! It's impossible to get up it at the moment as we can't strim the grass so it's long and wet and very slippery.
 
only thing is is to put everything to hand i.e feeders etc at the highest point for you and jsut let the girls so as they please and minisie your going up and down but as for the girls it wont bother them at all , when i went and picked up my last lot of ex batts the place where they were held at was on sloping gorund and all the birds there seemed very happy but all houses etc was on the highest bit nearest the top.
 
Thanks for the advice - there is a large flat area at the top of the bank where I thought I'd put the house, feeders etc. It's also flat at the bottom of the slope and the enclosure would finish at the edge of the path to mum-in-law's cottage, so I can walk down the cottage drive to get to the other side. It will make use of an area that otherwise we can't do much with and it's one of the few places where they can get some shade - from the apple tree and damson bushes on the bottom flat bit.

It may not be their permanent site as we're going to keep the small field next ot the cottage for our use - part of it will be the swim pond, and there's plenty of space for the electric enclosure (I have 100m of netting). That would free up the top flat bit for raised vegetable beds. It's still all in the planning stage, but it avoids the waterlogged ground near the mobile home which was my original idea for the enclosure.
 
sounds like like heaven to me even if its only in planning stages but for me now with the way my feet ands legs are going { omg only 38 on thurs } i would make myself a sit on pully system to get up the hill and a slide to go down :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
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