It rained last night here in central Maine, and the forecast calls for another three to four inches by tonight. Some parts of Maine could get up to five inches, and there’s a flood watch covering almost the entire state. That’s a lot of rain over the course of 24 hours or so, especially if you're a chicken. (As mad as a wet hen, etc.) Predictably, our three hens were not amused when they awoke to a downpour at dawn today.
Snow, our Plymouth Rock, ventured out of the coop and into the tarp-covered pen for breakfast, but Nellie and Hope, our Rhode Island Reds, remained “in bed” on their roost for another 15 minutes or so before their hunger finally won out.
The coop stands on legs that elevate it about a foot, so it will remain high and dry, but the pen is at ground level. While “the girls” came to terms with the weather, I spent about half an hour in torrential rain hauling buckets of wood chips to the pen, where I dumped them around the perimeter to help prevent the low-lying pen from flooding. If need be, I’ll add more wood chips later today, and cover the sides of the pen with tarps if the wind picks up enough to blow a lot of water around.
If you’re familiar with the weather we’ve been having hereabouts of late, you’ll recall that we got virtually no rain during the day yesterday, when it was muggy and dry almost all day long. In which case, you might ask, why didn’t I move those wood chips then? Why did I wait until the storm was well underway, leaving me soaked to the skin by the time I dragged myself back into the house?
Those would be two excellent questions.
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