Boads shrinking on coop addition, what should i seal the cracks with?

[Peggy O]

We have never really built anything. We used cheap fence pickets from home depot as siding, and our little addition (to a kit coop) looked great.....last week anyway. Since then, the siding picket boards have shrunk signifigantly, leaving 1/8 in cracks between. I am adding flooring material, but we're not sure how to handle the wall cracks. My idea was to wait till winter and nail strips of wood over them maybe? Not really sure how to handle it. Will the boards shrink more?

 

[Michael OShay]

The strips of wood will work or you could use polymer sealant. It seals wood better than silicone and it will not harm your chickens.

 

[Yay Chicks!]

I'm not sure this will help, but I have 1 by 2s running down over the space between the cedar board siding. Let me see if I can attach a pic:

 

[Peggy O]

I'm not sure this will help, but I have 1 by 2s running down over the space between the cedar board siding. Let me see if I can attach a pic:

Oh that looks nice! I am thinking of possibly trying the polymer sealant on the inside, and nailing wood strips from the outside. Did you have to wait a while for the cracks to finish opening up before you added strips?
Here is what we did...so the strips would have to go the other way.

This picture is from before the boards shrunk. I am wondering how much more they will shrink.