Chicken bald back

[Stagsbrae]

I am looking for some suggestions please, I am at the end of my tether and starting to lose sleep.

 

We have had so much wet weather in the Edinburgh area this year our garden has never had the chance to dry out meaning we have had to avoid walking on the grass. I had hoped it would dry out during the summer but the rain persisted.

 

My cube and extended run sit on slabs at the back of the garden surrounded by Omlet fencing for free-ranging. Unfortunately the garden behind ours is on a slight slope and so any excess water runs off the garden into ours and we have ended up with a moat (literally!) at the back of the cube. During the summer I was out with a garden fork trying to aerate the ground in the hope that some of the water would drain away but with no luck. It is now at the stage that when it rains, the water now seeps up through the slabs and the Auboise bedding starts to smell and puddles appear.

 

Apart from paying probably hundreds of pounds for someone to come and dig up the garden to put in field drains is there anything I could do? I had thought of putting tarpaulin on the floor of the run with the Auboise on top but worry about the water sitting between the slabs and the tarpaulin. My husband had thought about putting another layer of slabs down to raise the cube further off the ground but then thought the weight might make the original slabs sink down into the ground and we would be back at square one. I have plenty branches for my girls to perch on so they don't have to wander in the wet bedding when they are confined to the run but worry for their health.

[Guest]

Could you dig a mini trench which diverted the water to another area?

 

The year when we seemed to get 6 solid months of rain (2013-2014?) I dug back some of the mud then put gravel down, the mud was still there but at least the gravel meant I was not sliding around when doing to the chores.

 

My cube and wooden WIR are on slabs.

[Ursula123]

Our garden was very wet, to get over this we had to dig a soak away, basically it was a large hole approx 2m X 2m and about 6ft deep and we filled it with hardcore ,luckily we had plenty as we had knocked down 6 internal block walls in the house, but there is usually a lot of free hardcore advertised in our local classified.

 

The soak away has really transformed the garden into a usable area now and not a mud bath.

[Beantree]

The cheapest solution may be to raise the whole run and coop onto decking planking Stagsbrae. You wouldn't be able to dig any trenches now because the equipment will wreck the saturated ground. You may find the most expensive component is the fixing screws and it is best to buy everything from a wood yard, rather than a DIY store, because it will be half the price.

[mullethunter]

Could you get pallets and put slab son top of them - that should allow water to flow underneath?

[eve]

My walk in run was a mud bath we have had so much rain. Went to b and q brought 10 bags of bark put that down and never looked back chickens love it as well. So could try that it does soke up lots of water.

[Beantree]

I seem to recall that rainwater runoff from an adjoining property is the neighbour's responsibility to prevent. Problem is getting them to do anything about it may end up costing more than putting the problem right yourself.