We have had continued torrential rain for a while now and the chicken enclosure is turning into a quagmire. The umbrella was fine for light rain but with heavy downpours the water soon gets underneath it. The chickens have their dry, roofed, patio area but I was worried that they didn’t have enough dry garden area to scratch and dust bath in and have constantly got muddy feet.
Today we had the first bit of sun in ages and my husband suggested we put the umbrella down so the chickens could enjoy some sun and the mud might start to dry out. But no, it was not to be. The chickens didn’t like this change in the shape of the umbrella and spent the day on the patio. They wouldn’t go near the folded umbrella and missed out on what little sun there was. In despair at their chicken refusal of going near anything different, I put the umbrella back up and normality returned.
We went off to the D.I.Y. store to see what we could come up with as a partial cover to keep some of the garden area dry. We found some clear, waterproof, plastic sheeting for £8.00 which seemed quite reasonable. We thought we would put it over the corner part of the enclosure. My husband said we could take off the wooden batons covering the chicken net, drape the plastic over and nail the batons back in place to secure it. He then came up with the idea of using our bamboo canes for the inside edge, to hold it in place. We threaded the bamboo canes through the weld mesh, then through the plastic sheet and weaved them through the chicken net. I then used garden wire to secure the canes to the plastic by threading it through the plastic and round the poles at intervals all the way across. We tried to secure it as best we could so that the wind wouldn’t whip it off. We are not sure how well this will stand up to the elements but feel that at a fairly small cost it is worth a try.
This is a bit temporary and not very robust but I just want to try to get some dry earth back instead of mud. Only time will tell how well this will work.
A bit of waterproof covering
Plastic sheet over the chicken net
It remains to be seen how well this will work. Here’s hoping for a bit more dry area
Click here to see the history of my flock.
When it’s raining you should check how much water pools on top of the plastic sheet. Water is heavy and you don’t want to ruin your run…
Yes, we thought of that. Richard said if we get snow, that would be heavy and we don’t want that to cause problems. We thought we would monitor it and remove it if and when it’s likely to cause a problem. It’s a bit of a temporary reprieve, a case of for a short time, let’s see if it helps. It’s a bit trial and error at the moment. I will keep you posted.