keeping water out

[tash]

How do you have openings for nest boxes to collect eggs, but still keep the rain out? Most of the coop plans I see have the nest boxes open on the top, how does rain not get in the crack?

 

[AtholCoop]

Here's how I do it.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/small-coop-tutorial

About halfway down the page.

 

[madicakes]

I used waterproof weather-stripping strips in the crack where my hinged lid meets the stationary part of the nest box roofing and it has been working great for me.

 

[tash]

Here's how I do it.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/small-coop-tutorial

About halfway down the page.

Thanks. That is a beautiful coop you made. But I don't understand how the water is kept out. Is that board above the nest boxes helping with that? What about when the wind blows the rain at an angle?

I used waterproof weather-stripping strips in the crack where my hinged lid meets the stationary part of the nest box roofing and it has been working great for me.

Is that hard to make work? Every time I have done it on my house it falls off in a month or two. But that is at the top of the doors, not the hinge side. And just for air not water.

 

[AtholCoop]

Water does not want to flow "uphill". With extremely high winds you may get some water in under there but I've never had a wet nest box, and the wind blows at my house 355 days a year rain, shine, or snow.


The other thing that really helps is to put the nest box on the sides of the coop and carry the roof over the edge by 4" or so, that means that most of the water will fall on the middle to end of the nest box roof/hatch/lid thing.

 

[madicakes]

Is that hard to make work? Every time I have done it on my house it falls off in a month or two. But that is at the top of the doors, not the hinge side. And just for air not water.

It has worked fine for me. I just put it on the edge of the stationary piece, where the hinged lid would rest against it. It's been on there since May and not a leak yet! It probably helps that it's not really being moved, just pressed. I do think that I put one strip on top of another for some added thickness, and it has been holding up, and not coming apart.

 

[tash]

Water does not want to flow "uphill". With extremely high winds you may get some water in under there but I've never had a wet nest box, and the wind blows at my house 355 days a year rain, shine, or snow.


The other thing that really helps is to put the nest box on the sides of the coop and carry the roof over the edge by 4" or so, that means that most of the water will fall on the middle to end of the nest box roof/hatch/lid thing.

I know it doesn't go up. But it could go down the sides and leak in. We have to close our windows when it rains or we get sprinkled. Not sure the birds care as much though, they won't have carpet anyway.

My current idea (which changes daily it seems) is to have a 4X8 tractor for 3 hens. I was thinking of making the roof all one panel. Totally different from yours, but I don't have your skill. If I didn't ever have to get in it would be simple. I thought about having the whole top one big lid, but I think that might be too heavy for me and the kids. I want a more permanent coop later, but for now I think a tractor would be nice, and I could have the hens help me clear some future garden areas too.