Overthinking... or The $2,000 Backyard Coop

[QuackerLadies]

Yikes, could use some help here! Our six week old chicks are taking over the basement and coop is still in progress due to many design changes and upgrades. Now I just read that treated wood should not even be used along base of run (covered by gravel). Should we be removing this base? We do have redwood all along the top of that base as it had been our original planned base before we decided to add gravel to the run (and used treated wood to build box for gravel). We have children and organic vegie garden. Coop is on terraced area above vegies. I was researching non-toxic sealers when I ran across info. against using treated wood at all. We are trying to raise organic eggs for our family. Thanks for your help. Novice chicken mom.

 

[lclough1998]

Welcome to byc! There is so much info here on this site and so many helpful people, someone will answer with knowledge. I am curious as well as I used a couple pieces of treated 4 x4 on a lawn tractor and wonder if we will all survive.

 

[Cargo]

Treated wood is fine once the chemicals have dried. You do not need to worry. Chickens are not big chewers of wood.

 

[Hodawg]

There is absolutely no reason that you should worry about using PT wood for your coop or run. The modern methods of pressure treating wood is very safe. Assuming that neither you nor your chickens are actually going to consume great quantities of the wood, you will find absolutely no adverse affects of PT wood. This is severe over-hype by environmentalists and those who for some reason will not do their own research on the subject and just blindly accept the often quoted misinformation available on the internet. Think about it, if PT wood was so toxic, we would all be dead from sitting on park benches, picnic tables, and just walking across our patio decks barefooted.

 

[QuackerLadies]

Thank you all for your speedy reply! I was up last night worrying about coop construction and had decided I needed to let my worries about PTW under the run go and move on to more important matters like ventilation of the coop! So much to learn, so many chickens to know!

 

[Kjf18]

Looking forward to some photos.

KJF