Water Logged

When will the rain stop??? Took advantage of the few hours we had without rain yesterday to freshen up the shed & take some pics of the birds.




Suz

I cant seem to open your pics. is there something special i need to do?

It should play automatically, maybe this way will work better .... Slide Show

Glad someone else asked that question . You look like your getting more than your fair share of rain. he Silkies still look lovely though and the quail of course.

yeah, I've got a cold from getting caught out in the rain one too many times

You seem to be the only one I know that manages to keep chooks and quail together well Suz, must be the water up there

A friend of mine using bark chippings to control waterlogged gardens for their chooks. Not sure if this will help you Suz ...



Nils

I had bark down but it started to turn mouldy so dug it into the ground, my plan now is just to try planting wild grasses ... but dunno what to put the residents while waiting for it to grow.

lovely pics.they have such a nice home,shame about all the water. Is'nt your girl beautiful!

nice pics suz, ive had trouble with the rain to so i dug all my floor out and put in slabs leaving a 3" gap down one side of the pen for drainage its working at the mo, have also brought clear hard plastic sheets which i can clip on the sides when the weather gets bad

On one US chicken forum I read that they use play sand for their "runs" (outside pens). Some of them mixed DE with the sand to cut down on mites.

Yep its tough with the water at the moment, My wife has suggested we switch half the pen to a sand base as it should drain better and give them a place to dust bath if it ever gets dry enough.

Do you not have any problem with those Silky bantams then? We would love a couple of those but are worried about them fighting with the Quail.

The Silkies, Bob's, Japs & rabbit have been getting on really well, although I am considering separating them, Mika (oldest Silkie Cock) went threw a stage of treading the quail when the laying Silkie hen was broodie and squished a few, but he seems to have stopped this habit again.

Hi Suz,
I have seen a fair amount of articles stating that if kept in wet conditions, japs can get a disease called "Blackhead". All of them advocating wire bottom runs. Your lot always look healthy to me, and it seems they do get a little waterlogged occasionally, so is this true? I'd like to keep them in a walkin aviary on the ground, much the same as yours, but I dont want them to get sick. Ed

I keep my birds on the ground also. Most people in the UK seem to, but quite a few people use a concrete base. I have pea gravel in the base of mine. I find it more aesthetic and it keeps the ground dryish. I also believe gravel discourages earthworms (host to most nasty parasites) from comming up to the surface. I try to regularly brush up the excrement and hose down the rest. Unfortunately, with regular hosing the gravel gets integrated into the earth below. So might need to have it at least 3" thick.

You can’t avoid earthworms if you keep birds on the ground or if you free range chickens and ducks. Earthworms just love bird poo and moist conditions. I believe regular worming also avoids this problem. I guess it's a risk.

I have also read that foodgrade diatomeacous earth, used in the gravel bed etc. will kill all the litle creepy crawlies. It can also be added to their feed/dustbath 1% by volume as a wormer and flea control. This is the stuff they add to flour to keep the beasties out of your cupboards lol.
Another cool product thats kind of new here in the US, some stuff called Dry Stall, Its a type of all natural, degraded pumice (sandgravel), used in horse stalls. There are a few products by a similar name but all the rest of them are clay, not quite the same.
It's meant to never be replaced and keeps things dry dry dry. Another interesting aspect, it's odor controlling to an extent. Ed

One of our better cpq breeders uses this product as litter/grit in her cages, with the addition of a little crushed oyster shell.

diatomeacous earth sounds good. I must investigate that.

I've seen wildlife documentaries of animals travelling miles to eat naturally occuring clay rich in minerals. I wonder if that is a similar sort of thing.

Hi Andy,
Yes foodgrade D. E. is commonly used in feed mills here in the US, and I have even seen it in the healthfood stores for human usage! Pigeon keepers, chicken keepers in the know have used it for years apparently, trick of the trade. Apparently even D.E. has some natural smell reducing capabilities, I've seen raves on it, on chicken forums. Ed
p.s. D.E. does dramaticly reduce the fly population, you will notice the difference.

Is this the stuff you mean ?? ... Diatomaceous Earth

I'll just stick to using Jayes fluid for disinfecting my pens as I love the smell & don't have a pest problem

I seem to have given folk the wrong idea though, I was complaining about the continues rain we've had up here over the summer, rather than stating I have a drainage problem in my pen ... a big puddle appears at the end of the sloped concrete paved path after days of non-stop heavy rain but drains away after a few hours, if the rain lets up. Twice weekly disinfecting & hosing on top of the rain doesn't help ...... when is summer coming to Newburgh

I personally hate the US housing system of keeping quail highly stocked in wire pens & crates/cages. I give all my quail access to the ground and have had no foot or health problems (getting their DEFRA blood tests next week), I haven't had any balling on their toes, their feet sparkle after paddling in the puddle . I allow them to eat earthworms, slugs, woodlice and any other bugs they find while rooting about outside - no point trying to stop the birds doing what comes naturally to them, but regularly give them Apple cider vinegar in their water as a natural de-wormer.

you must have blinked Suz, summer has been and gone!

I'm with you on having access to the ground and a more natural environment. You give them cider!!! no wonder your birds are so happy despite the rain

Hi Suz,
They're meant to stand on wire are they? A ground bird? We're actually meant to believe that? All the articles I've seen promise woe and misery if quail are kept on the ground. But I somehow get the impression, this info was written by people who keep high stock density per cage. I feel as you do, they need a large run with access to the ground. How else could you go inside the cage and pet them? Ed

im with you suz all my birds have access to the ground and if your worried about the bugs the birds eat which can carry worms you can give them panacur wormer, when you buy it just say you have a small dog ! the good thing with this product is that you cant overdose it all you do is tip a enough in the water so it looks milky leave in the drinker for 24hrs then remove very easy
you could try that drainage i said earlier suz

Hope the rain stops Suz. We've slabbed our aviaries, and tho they can get very wet when it does chuck it down, they are very easy to jeyes and hose down. All looking great apart from being a bit wet tho!

Rain's been off for shhh.... 3 days ... scared I bring it back ... pens nice and dry, but need to go hose it out today.

Nice to see you back Harrie, did you have a nice holiday?

Yay - it was lovely. Still busy catching up here. We have been back for a wk but not had much time to get on til now.