Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: Zak the Rabbit on November 23, 2006, 17:50
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probably one for Muntjac this -
My henhouse is coming along nicely, its got the roof one and plenty of my fingernails in it somewhere (there not on me hands anymore anyway!) (see the blog)
Im going to start filling any gaps and holes soon with cault to make it water and draught tight, and was going to run the sander over the inside as well, but is it necessary?
how rough will the birds tollerate the inside of their house? my intention is to try and make there as few nooks and crannies for mites to hide as possible, which is one of the reasons i built it 'inside-out', to make cleaning and bug busting easier. Theres bound to be some rough edges because the boards are not all equal thickness. But i want my birds to be as comfortable as possible
Martin
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ferget the palace approach mate just make it draught proof inside and out :wink: nothing more uncomfortable than a cold wind up ya kilt :wink:
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Thanks for that mate, pretty much as i thought.
The sanding was more for me really, number of bl**dy splinters ive got!
Im going to try and bung up all the holes left by the old nails as well, deny the enemy (mites) any cover!
Martin
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good hygiene on ya birds will keep them down mate ,regular cleaning out etc soon as you see you have em ,nuke the perishers :wink:
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Good idea about the 'inside out house' Martin. We did that with the goat shed (which is now the chicken house) and it worked for the goats as well because William the Bagot goat couldn't get his horns round anything, except the inner door that is, which he tore off its hinges!!!!!
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It makes it look untidy from the outside, but its nice inside. Well, i thought this way theres only 12 corners to clean ( counting the roof and floor), if the frame was inside it would be double that where the beasties could hide.
It'l look good once the felts on and its been given a couple of coats of wood preserve.
Ive certainly over-engineered it. Should last a good few years, but i dont yet know how im going to shift it down the garden!
Martin
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Well I know you say it looks a bit untidy from the outside, but we got the idea from a company that makes animal shelters in that way!!!! And they aren't cheap!!!!!!
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Cheaper than buying them ready made or kit form, but even i'm finding expenses, like hinges and nails! Its taken about 2 1/2 kg of ironmongery to put it together. The pallets all told cost about £10, £20 on hardware and ironmongery yesterday (inc. a sheet of plywood though at £11, but its a big one will do some other projects as well) and £6 on wood preservative this morning (again, will do all the other animal houses as well)
I would guess for this house then its cost about £30, still, you cant even buy a small rabbit hutch for that!
Im in desperate need now though of a couple of tarps or a lot of visqueen sheet. If i dont get it covered the rain will warp the roof, and the roof over the guinea pigs and rabbit it leaking again and dripping straight into daniels house, poor old sod, he's looking so miserable ive put temporary boards up to keep it out and he's getting extra cuddles!
I can see how good money could be made doing this - if only i had a circular saw table and a powered mitre! The physical effort is worth more than the wood!
Martin
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roofing felt and tacks .felts about £7 a 10 x 1 metre roll and the tacks are £4 a 1/2 kilo i thinks
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yeah, the tacks cost about £2.50 i think it was, not sure how many, think maybe 1/4 or 1/3 kg. The felt ive already got, left over from building rabbit hutches.
What im desperate for now is something to cover everything over with to keep the blumin rain off!
I would rather not have forked out for plywood but i couldnt get hold of any recycled and wanted the broodboxes to be nice. Still, theres plenty so it will do for some other jobs.
martin