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

[pollipazzi]

Sorry my tip worked out totally wrong. But at least they had enough space to pass their time.

no! it was mu rush to do something that was wrong and then leaving! lol! but i do wonder if she really does need to lay an egg. she always has taken a really long time. how do you even know what to do?!? lol!

 

[pollipazzi]

i said a lot of things from memory before. which says a lot about my memory.

the distance between the boiler shed and the greenhouse is more than a metre. lol!

but the air coming out of that vent is very warm. only in winter or really cold days.

see the little triangle panels?
the window would have to be worked out so i could still open and close it with bad weather

the space between the greenhouse and the wall is like this...

would that need anything else underneath? there's weed barrier under the bricks, and i would have to peek into the neighbour's, but we are higher up than she is so the ground here is probably higher than her ground. do you get me? like the wall goes down to her ground further.

 

[pollipazzi]

also! the greenhouse is the same size as the polytunnel. 2m x 3m

 

[pollipazzi]

oh!!! and i should have said... it would be more like a run. i could put the little coop in there for now without the little run attached so it would open into the greenhouse and there would be more space than having the small run attached.
since it would be moved, i can get in there to modify it and put a better roost in. maybe i could take the whole side off where the "human access " door is and put hinges on it so that the whole side is a door?

 

[pollipazzi]

this is how it's positioned in the garden. it mostly gets sun later in the day and is a little shaded by the neighbour's trees earlier in the day

 

[pollipazzi]

in my excitement, i told my husband. now we are having a debate. he says the greenhouse is safe enough with no wire mesh and if we hear a storm is coming we can put them in the coop.
i said i would see what you guys think and if yous say mesh then mesh it will be.

 

[BDutch]

also! what did you mean in your article about painting with de and oiling the roosting bar?
how much distance, approximately, from the ceiling does the roosting bar need to be?

great idea!

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.

 

[RoyalChick]

it's a little floppy. it's noisy when it's windy but it doesn't seem to bother them. they are used to it. even when i open the door that has a very strong magnet at the bottom, it makes a really loud sound. but they don't even flinch.

we do have pine marten and stoats, probably mink too. i have never seen any in the village but there are farms nearby and it's always a possibility.

also i have seen dead badgers on the road but i am not sure what they eat, and again, never seen one here.

i was thinking if i covered the whole greenhouse with the wire mesh on the outside, it would both secure it from predators and also help keep the panels from blowing off.

i was just out there taking pictures and there are little triangle panels. i could probably just take one or two of those out and cover with wire mesh too.

i have a thermometer. i have had that greenhouse for about 7 years. it was more out in the open before with direct sun all day and it would on the very hottest days (which is so rare) get up to 100F if i forgot to open the door or something. but that’s a rate occurrence and where it is now, there's trees around. i will post pics now

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.

 

[RoyalChick]

in my excitement, i told my husband. now we are having a debate. he says the greenhouse is safe enough with no wire mesh and if we hear a storm is coming we can put them in the coop.
i said i would see what you guys think and if yous say mesh then mesh it will be.

Well, it looks more solid than I thought from your earlier post. Minks and weasels are aggressive and strong. I am worrying they could rip the plastic. But your pictures look like that might be hard to do.
Watch some YouTube videos of weasels and mink and how they rip through chicken wire and see what you think.

 

[BDutch]

this is how it's positioned in the garden. it mostly gets sun later in the day and is a little shaded by the neighbour's trees earlier in the dayView attachment 4107732

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.