i somehow acquired 2 runaways and i have questions. please help

[pollipazzi]

Yes. Covering with hardware cloth would solve the problem. I was thinking if it was rigid (glass or Perspex) you could save the effort. But if it has some flip in it then a weasel could get enough grip to tear right through it.
Sounds like taking out some triangles would be good. 100F is hot for a chicken.

it would only get that high of a temperature if i forgot to open it up. i just put the thermometer in here and i will keep an eye. it definitely wouldn't be in the sun all day either where it is now. it's only been here for like a month so i don't know yet what it will be like.

it's not FLIMSY. like i made it sound. it can bend if you take the panels out of the frames, but still pretty sturdy. it's lasted me a long time. and we get a good bit of wind regularly.

what if i take out some of the triangle panels and replace with hwc and skirt it outside. what left of the hwc i can start at the bottom go around. so to start it would have a metre of hwc going up.

my main problem all this time has been what to do if i have to be out. i worry then while i'm gone.

i have never seen weasels, pine martens, etc. here before but i never had anything that they would come here for either.
so it is something i think about.

i have more to say but i am distracted by the greenhouse we are building right now and i can't focus

 

[pollipazzi]

If the greenhouse is safe enough during the night you could put the small coop in it for the nest boxes. Just add some roost and poop boards for easy cleaning. If you don’t trust it for nightly predators, you can buy an auto pop door on the coop.
The chickens can go out from dawn till dusk with an auto chicken door. The cheapest auto pop doors are only €30. The sturdier ones with more functions and a warning if the battery is almost empty costs at least €60. But if they need to roost in there you still might need to make a few adjustments for a good roost area and maybe more ventilation. Take the floor out? Other nestboxes.

If you can open the triangle above the door and continuously open the vent on the side, you have great ventilation if the temp inside stays below 37°C. Adding hwc for safety on the window is necessary. The triangle is possibly too difficult for climber, but to be sure I would add hwc there too.

Can you make a frame in the size of the window and attach this with 8 hooks on the current window frame? Hooks are easy to turn sideways. This way it’s still possible to close the window in heavy storms or extreme cold weather.

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that's a great idea with the hooks! i am a hook hoarder (amongst other things ) so i have those hooks already!

if i move the coop into the little greenhouse i can definitely modify it better. i have a lot of plywood pieces (not whole sheets or anything but decent sized ones) i can manage something. and i have all saws and drills and things i would need.

i think i can make this work!

also i would love an automatic door! lol!

p.s. today is the 5 week anniversary of no tree sleeping!

 

[pollipazzi]

I take a jar (ex-marmalade) and fill it half with diatomaceous earth , add water and keep stirring to get a fluid yoghurt/paint thick paste. I paint the roosts and surrounding walls with it. The walls in the nest boxes. Sprinkle in on the bottom of the nest-boxes and in the sand-bath spot I made for them in the run (under a 60° window that blocks rain and cold wind).

If you really want to alter the old greenhouse to make it into a coop you need to make continuous ventilation openings that are covered with hwc.
The greenhouse roofs are painted white with chalk here in summer to get less sun in.
Make a skirt with hwc or put pavement/bricks all around against predators.

A few ideas to make ventilation:
Maybe you can take windows out / change the whole door for ventilation? Use slats on both sides and connect them with hwc in between if the door/greenhouse frame is not suitable to screw into it.
Removing 1 or 2 windows from the roof is great for ventilation too. Imagine a sort of roofed hwc chimney for ventilation. Use 3x3cm or larger construction wood to build an open frame.
Or remove all the windows from the side where the rain almost never comes from. If you keep a sand floor there is no problem in case rain comes in.
In Ireland it doesn’t get very cold. The chickens only need a coop for safety and it’s nice to give them shelter for longevity. Wild birds survive cold and storms too.

In the Netherlands chickens can live outside in parks and in hedges too. As a group/tribe they flourish and multiply where some people have set them free and other people give the chickens extra food. Individual casualties are common bc of predators but I know of a park where they multiplied faster with chicks and dumped roosters .The real danger for the tribe as a whole was not the weather or predators but the noise of the roosters. When it got out of hand, people started to complain they can’t sleep. There was a lawsuit and ultimately the municipality had to cull them.

that's shocking about the chicken tribes

i am taking notes! thank you for all of this information!

 

[pollipazzi]

it would only get that high of a temperature if i forgot to open it up. i just put the thermometer in here and i will keep an eye. it definitely wouldn't be in the sun all day either where it is now. it's only been here for like a month so i don't know yet what it will be like.

it's not FLIMSY. like i made it sound. it can bend if you take the panels out of the frames, but still pretty sturdy. it's lasted me a long time. and we get a good bit of wind regularly.

what if i take out some of the triangle panels and replace with hwc and skirt it outside. what left of the hwc i can start at the bottom go around. so to start it would have a metre of hwc going up.

my main problem all this time has been what to do if i have to be out. i worry then while i'm gone.

i have never seen weasels, pine martens, etc. here before but i never had anything that they would come here for either.
so it is something i think about.

i have more to say but i am distracted by the greenhouse we are building right now and i can't focus

oh! i will watch weasel videos!


but not in front of the chickens

 

[pollipazzi]

you guys.
full fledged crazy time going on here.

thelma is definitely broody.
i put big terracotta pots in both nest boxes and took out the fake egg, left the gnome person door open. she's running all around clucking and puffing and whining.
i locked her in the polytunnel so she couldn't get in too much trouble.

louise seems very well behaved! and is enjoying the show.

the glass is on one whole side of the greenhouse.

and the husband is SO annoyed with me

i have explained broody to him as many different ways as i could think of and he just doesn't get it.

 

[tlcmurphy]

you guys.
full fledged crazy time going on here.

thelma is definitely broody.
i put big terracotta pots in both nest boxes and took out the fake egg, left the gnome person door open. she's running all around clucking and puffing and whining.
i locked her in the polytunnel so she couldn't get in too much trouble.

louise seems very well behaved! and is enjoying the show.

the glass is on one whole side of the greenhouse.

and the husband is SO annoyed with me

i have explained broody to him as many different ways as i could think of and he just doesn't get it.

Tell him it’s Chicken PMS

 

[pollipazzi]

Tell him it’s Chicken PMS

I DID!!!

 

[pollipazzi]

chickening is hard.

 

[pollipazzi]

update: i thought louise was gonna lay an egg so i put the fake one back in. in a seed flat bottom with a little bedding. she didn't go but thelma snuck in there. i said i'd give her an hour in case she really does have to lay an egg.
an hour and in louise goes too!
i said a few more minutes.

louise is standing in the coop next to thelma who is sitting on the coop floor on the wooden egg and her real egg was in the seed tray.

so now i have thelma in the little run clucking away and louise locked in the coop so she can lay hers in peace.

thelma is making some crazy noises! omg. she's not happy.
am i doing this wrong?

at least now i know she doesn't really need to lay an egg