Storms and chickens

[GillC]

I’ve a lovely Omlet WIR - 3m by 2m which I have recently relocated onto a brick-paved patio. The patio slopes toward a drain at the end.

When it rains, the water runs into the WIR and makes the bedding all wet. I poop-pick daily or two-daily, but nevertheless some gets left and that dissolves into slurry.

I’ve tried putting roof flashing along the foot of the side and front of the WIR, and I’ve bought some sandbags which inflate when water touches them and put these on top of the flashing. However the run is still wet after rain. The flashing sticks down well, but where the grout is between the bricks, the water still seeps its way underneath and into the run.

I think what I’ve done is making a difference. The wet zone is now only 20 - 30 cm deep. But I wonder if anybody else has this problem or could suggest something else I could try.

I have another eglu with tunnel set up in on grass and a third eglu with an open run on dirt so the birds can dust bathe or just have a change of scene, but this WIR is their main home and winter accommodation as it means I get no problems with rodents as the birds aren’t on earth for long enough to attract them.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

Gill

 

[Cat tails]

The only thing I could think of is not preventing the water to go through the run, but instead making it pass underneath it. Either by raising the run on something, or making a drain where the water enters.

[GillC]

Several years down the line, I just discovered the answer by accident. I use aubiose bedding, and last time I did a big clean I upended the bag and inadvertently dumped more in than I usually do. When it rained, the bedding was so thick that the top layers stayed nice and dry. I’ve obviously been to stingy with the bedding!