Today I went down determined to rescue the chickens from the ever rising wall of mud in the coop. I arrived down, complete with a lettuce as a peace offering to find Geoff had put down pallets to keep them off the mud. He has even moved the food bins onto a separate pallet to keep them from sinking irrevocably into the mud.
Mollified with lettuce, the girls cheered up and after squashing several newly formed rat holes, I left them to it. Hopefully they will be happier and go back to laying properly!
In other news, Masie appears to be re-growing her feathers at a rate of knots although she is still somewhat bald towards the rear.
The quail were hiding in the covered part of the coop today, to hide from the relentless rain and wind. I think they may migrate back indoors whilst the storm is in residence. At least they are mud free… Be grateful for small mercies eh?
The Good Life Crewe 
I hate mud, makes cleaning seem like a waste of time!
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Tell me about it! My main concern is keeping them out of the mud and whilst they have stayed on the pallets today, last winter they chose the mud! It makes dealing with the rats harder too as they have more places to hide now
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OMG, rats? This is something I’ve not had to deal with. What about pine shavings, would this help drying things out?
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We have been battling with a rat issue on site for several months – the battle continues but it is difficult to get rid of them without putting poison down and keeping the chickens from eating it! We have turned over the soil and put down some shavings. Issue is the masses of rain we have been having over the last couple of weeks – with pallets down they can walk outside the shed and keep off the mud in half the coop. I’ll do for now but I think we may have to look into building a large covered area of the coop to limit the mud issues!
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My husband and I just finished building our coop, and I’m worried about mud too. The coop is at a steep incline due to our mountain home, and it’s built on straight mud. The first rainstorm should be interesting for the poor guys. But having chickens is too much fun to not try. Our coops look similar! Check it out. http://livingechoblog.com/reclaiming-an-old-chicken-coop-part-2/
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Try using pallets to keep them off the mud – it works as long as your chickens walk on them (ours usually choose to be in the mud for some reason known only to themselves!). Maybe try having drainage channels to get rid of excess surface water? Our coop has just been extended so we have two sides enabling us to change them across to let the ground rest
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