Last minute jitters

[wolfandfinch]

My coop is almost done. My chicks are almost a month old and I'd like to move them into the coop in the next few weeks. I need to finish up the doors and the hardware cloth but otherwise it's finished. I'm getting nervous now that it's so real. I have a couple of concerns I thought I'd throw out there in case anyone had some advice. Thanks so much.


1) I live in the Pacific Northwest. Moisture is a much bigger concern than cold. My coop faces east and has a proper sloped shingled roof. I've left the triangle of space made by running a sloped roof above a square wall open with hardware cloth on the west and east walls. I did this because I was so worried about moisture being unable to escape. Now I'm worried it will be too cold. If I cover them up I have nowhere else to put vents. Thoughts? Cover up half? Leave them as is?

2) I didn't dig my hardware cloth apron a foot straight down, I ran it along about 2 inches in the ground. It runs for a foot out in every direction. There were two strong camps regarding aprons and I'm mostly fine with this decision except one corner of one apron is curling up. Should I just dig that one down or should I expect the others to curl up at some point too?

3) we have raccoons eagles coyotes dogs and rats in our neighbourhood. Every square inch is surrounded in hardware cloth and the run is covered. I have latches that require you to remove a pin to slide the bolt. Anything else I need to think about in terms of predators? I was just thinking that where the hardware cloth overlaps I should run a two by four instead of wiring the cloth panels together. I was reading about dogs and foxes throwing themselves at the wire walls. Is that overkill?

Thanks for you help

 

[Judy]

I'd leave the ventilation alone; it doesn't sound like it's too much at all. It's very unlikely they will ever be too cold in your climate, but you are correct that hummidity buildup is a real problem for them. You may neeed to cover one temporarily to prevent snow or rain being blown in., but otherwise, I'd leave it open. I'd find some sort of staple or u shaped device to secure the hardware cloth to the ground, or maybe just some rocks -- something. Some people use screws through fender to help secure wire joints, or as you say, some sort of strip. Raccoons have pretty strong "hands."

 

[wolfandfinch]

Ok thanks so much! I have a lot of logs I could put around the coop to weigh the apron down even more. I could out flower pots on them to make it look on purpose haha