buying a greenhouse to serve partly as a chicken run

[Chicken-poodle]

I want a greenhouse, but also my girls need more room. I have space for a greenhouse next to my current coop/run, which I would attach with a chicken tunnel. Looking at greenhouse kits like the one shown below. I have two questions: how do I make a greenhouse like this predator proof? Do I put hardware cloth on the inside (to keep it looking attractive on the outside), and how do I attach it to the skeleton without substantially encroaching on the interior space?

Second question has to do with keeping the birds separate from some of the plants- creating an interior wall. It would be nice if the wall could be moved so I could adjust the spaces according to changing needs.

 

[Debbie292d]

This is a heavy-duty greenhouse tarp that covers a pen that's 4' high, and the pen panels have HWC. That wooden box is what he made a mini-coop out of for that end, as this is a growout pen.



So building one is one idea.

To use the kind in your picture, you should be able to bend the HWC to fit inside of it and attach it with cable ties/zip ties. It's not like you have to go up the whole height of it. I would think 4 -5' or up to that last bar before the peak would be good.

Then at the point you don't want chickens to go in, you could use chicken wire inside there and make a fence.

 

[Chicken-poodle]

This is a heavy-duty greenhouse tarp that covers a pen that's 4' high, and the pen panels have HWC. That wooden box is what he made a mini-coop out of for that end, as this is a growout pen.

View attachment 4265661

So building one is one idea.

To use the kind in your picture, you should be able to bend the HWC to fit inside of it and attach it with cable ties/zip ties. It's not like you have to go up the whole height of it. I would think 4 -5' or up to that last bar before the peak would be good.

Then at the point you don't want chickens to go in, you could use chicken wire inside there and make a fence.

Thank you for this photo and post! Did he put the hardware cloth first, and then the plastic sheeting? The hardware cloth is so unwieldy and I don't want to scuff up the polycarbonate panels so that the greenhouse looks good.

 

[Debbie292d]

Thank you for this photo and post! Did he put the hardware cloth first, and then the plastic sheeting? The hardware cloth is so unwieldy and I don't want to scuff up the polycarbonate panels so that the greenhouse looks good.

Oh yes, the hardware cloth first. After it was laid out and measured, he cut all of the pieces for the fence panels. Then cut the edges blunt and used a dremel to grind and sand them down so they were flush and not sharp.

This is the inside so you can get a visual. For the summer we lift up one side so they get direct sun in there. Now, it's winter so it's down.

 

[Awaytome]

Our little greenhouse got too hot for our birds and we abandoned the plants in favor of strictly using as a coop. We covered it with dark shade cloth and light blocking panels. We’re located in the PNW where summer temps rarely surpass 85F, but the greenhouse, even with open door and ventilation was just too hot. Does no one else have this issue?

 

[kattabelly]

Our little greenhouse got too hot for our birds and we abandoned the plants in favor of strictly using as a coop. We covered it with dark shade cloth and light blocking panels. We’re located in the PNW where summer temps rarely surpass 85F, but the greenhouse, even with open door and ventilation was just too hot. Does no one else have this issue?

Summer here never gets higher than 70F/21C but a greenhouse or polytunnel/polycrub can easily get over 105F/40C if it's not painted / made from plastic on the opaquer side of translucent, AND extremely well ventilated. I've seen temps over 50C/122F on very hot (for here) summer days, in tunnels/crubs that were built for plants rather than chickens.

Free ranging chickens will still sometimes wander through or stop for a short while, but I wouldn't want to have confined birds needing access to that space all year round in order to avoid overcrowding.