Here is what I did:
I had/have a Chick-N-Hutch with a run.
Bought it in spring of '08, lucky you for getting all the parts, mine was missing some bolts, some of the boards were warped, and the holes didn't always line up(which didn't matter alot cuz I didn't have enough bolts to fill all of them anyway
)
They are right to say you should stain or paint it. Mine is already falling apart, the egg door is shambles and needs replaced. I only use it for isolation now though and I did learn from using this one what I wanted out of the new one.
Good news though is that the roof on mine is still fine(far as I know...).
Because I had spare paver bricks I put them all around the outside of the coop, that worked well, even kept my own dogs out a couple of times. Just an alternate idea to the wire apron. Either way they are both really good additions to keep out the predators.
This may not apply to you, but up here in Michigan where winter is usually in the 20's and dips into the negative teens sometimes for a week or so I replaced the roost bar's with 2x4's in the fall and kept them there till late spring. This has them sit on their toes which keeps them from getting frostbite.
I don't know what winter is like there but I'd consider(like whenever you get around to it before November, or whenever it gets cold there) making some pannels to block the wind, I used OSB. To keep the draft off them. Leave those circle holes open though for venting.
Here are some pix of what I mean by the pannels, for some reason I only have pix of the front one I made with a pop hole, but for the sides I just cut it to fit in next to the wire and secured it in for the winter(screwed through the board into the roost 2x4 worked fine). I plan to re-asseble it all pretty soon incase I need to use it for iso, I'll try to remember get some more pix then.
Note: I keep shavings in the nest box too, don't know why there was none when I took this pix, maybe I remembered I wanted to take pix mid-cleaning???
I had/have a Chick-N-Hutch with a run.
Bought it in spring of '08, lucky you for getting all the parts, mine was missing some bolts, some of the boards were warped, and the holes didn't always line up(which didn't matter alot cuz I didn't have enough bolts to fill all of them anyway
They are right to say you should stain or paint it. Mine is already falling apart, the egg door is shambles and needs replaced. I only use it for isolation now though and I did learn from using this one what I wanted out of the new one.
Good news though is that the roof on mine is still fine(far as I know...).
Because I had spare paver bricks I put them all around the outside of the coop, that worked well, even kept my own dogs out a couple of times. Just an alternate idea to the wire apron. Either way they are both really good additions to keep out the predators.
This may not apply to you, but up here in Michigan where winter is usually in the 20's and dips into the negative teens sometimes for a week or so I replaced the roost bar's with 2x4's in the fall and kept them there till late spring. This has them sit on their toes which keeps them from getting frostbite.
I don't know what winter is like there but I'd consider(like whenever you get around to it before November, or whenever it gets cold there) making some pannels to block the wind, I used OSB. To keep the draft off them. Leave those circle holes open though for venting.
Here are some pix of what I mean by the pannels, for some reason I only have pix of the front one I made with a pop hole, but for the sides I just cut it to fit in next to the wire and secured it in for the winter(screwed through the board into the roost 2x4 worked fine). I plan to re-asseble it all pretty soon incase I need to use it for iso, I'll try to remember get some more pix then.
Note: I keep shavings in the nest box too, don't know why there was none when I took this pix, maybe I remembered I wanted to take pix mid-cleaning???
