Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[Steve.]

Cleaned out the run and cube this afternoon as small children sleeping, the weather, and DW's Morning Sickness + a non-work day were all in conjunction.

 

Run out of chipped bark - though contemplating leaving them on the bare concrete for a bit until the weather clears up ... as the mud and goop they were in was not nice and it meant putting fresh sawdust into the nestbox each day ... oh and ... and ponged a lot ... despite having a fully covered run.

 

Will try and get a load of branches for them to play with instead.

[batcatz]

My run is like that too. I've changed the play bark so often lately that my garden is covered in piles of it. I'm expecting massive plants next year. Stalosan (hope I spelt it right) holds the smell off for a while. I think its just that with concrete there is nowhere for the rain to sink into. Roll on summer!

[Plum]

You've probably read this 100 times but its worth using woodchip rather than bark to keep the smell down. If its amonia type smell then as donavaa says stalosan neutralises it and keeps things more hygeinic for them.

 

They really need to scratch. They may get bored and start to peck again. What about a thinner layer you can clean out each week.

[sandyhas3chucks]

won't bare consret be flippin freezing on their feet too...

in fact might they not freeze to it?.

don't they get sores and corns on their feet from being on concrete, didn't i read someone did this and spent heaps on vet treatmnent to try and sort it? (might be another forum)

stalofan f is brill.

have you tried covering the 2 sides that your normal prevailing wind and rain comes from.clear tarps are brilliant . aubouse is fantastic too.

or how high is your run,?

you could put a gazebo up over it!

[sandyhas3chucks]

just read this, try reading this thread

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=56301

[Steve.]

won't bare consret be flippin freezing on their feet too...

in fact might they not freeze to it?.

don't they get sores and corns on their feet from being on concrete, didn't i read someone did this and spent heaps on vet treatmnent to try and sort it? (might be another forum)

stalofan f is brill.

have you tried covering the 2 sides that your normal prevailing wind and rain comes from.clear tarps are brilliant . aubouse is fantastic too.

or how high is your run,?

you could put a gazebo up over it!

 

The run is totally covered. The problem is that the concrete base is bigger than the run, so all the water just flows off the cover onto the concrete then onto the run. It's not bare concrete - they have a few things to perch on and dust bath. Hope to add to the perch department this coming weekend if the weather is reasonable.

 

From memory the base we had made is 2m x 7.5m.

 

It's an omlet run and is about 5m long including coop. It's a shame that it's not human-height with a decent door as this'd make cleaning out the run much easier and something I can do on my own.

 

A walkin run is planned for next year and to the dimensions of the concrete base ... but we'll have to see how that fits financially as our long-term plans didn't include economic financial meltdown.

 

Stalofan f ... maybe I have a duff bag or expect too much from, or wrong quantitiy as it didn't really make much difference when we tried it.

 

The root cause is probably that we don't change the run bedding often enough ... unfortunately that can be applied to a lot of other things at the moment.

[Plum]

Steve the rain runs off my cube run onto the slab base and into run so what I did was to have ikea shower curtains on top but made a sloping roof so it drains one way. Then I put shower curtains down the side but I peg the bottoms out beyond the slabs so the rain runs out onto the soil. Sounds a bit Heath Robinson but it works.

 

 

 

Problem now is with all the rain I get some coming up between the slabs Shall be glad of any advice on that.

[Steve.]

Thanks for the ideas.

 

Some novel thinking going on

 

I can't use the ideas but will give some thought in case we can adapt them.

 

I guess it has been an exceptionally wet Winter so hopefully next year it won't be so bad.

[quickcluck]

have you seen this, would it be off help? I think it's used instead of stalosan, and is more absorbant!

[Egluntyne]

What's 'this' quickcluck?

[quickcluck]

 

It was very late last night, and i'd just got in......

 

http://www.biolinklimited.co.uk/bio_dri.html

 

better?

[The Dogmother]

Bio-Dri is very good, I have used it.

 

TBH, whatever you do, bark will always smell after a while, just the nature of the product. Try switching to Aubiose or woodchips.

[sandyhas3chucks]

From memory the base we had made is 2m x 7.5m.

a gazebo would sort it they are 3m x 3m standard, would guess you would pick one up pretty cheap this time of year on ebay

I have had a kids one standing since the Autumn even in those gales

If you got a while one it would be quite light underneath too.

did you read the wet runs thread lots of info there?

[Steve.]

Here's a photo from earlier in the year. It's all laid up with grass now and the Damp-Proof-Course trimmed.

 

It's actually 5.5m x 2m exactly. If I turn the coop / run around the other way it'd difficult to look into the nest box to grab eggs.

 

 

Here's the problem - there is a steep slope prior in front of the run precludes anything.

 

I think the water that is running off the cover is just going into the run.

 

There is a low fence to the back and side. I can't put anything that will look unsightly from the neighbours garden, and I can't raise the height of the fence, plus there is major wind at the bottom and a gazebo would last about 5 minutes - thank you for the thoughts though!

[sandyhas3chucks]

from a very quick look, perhaps a larger tarp and the tent peg idea?

you know bring it away from the bottom like a tent.

I am sure with the photo someone will come along, who has a cube, witha solution.

Good luck.