Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

65 cloudy 89% humidity feels like 64 rain 5%.

Have a great day!

 

[Shadrach]

Wondering how you and the chickens are doing @no fly zone ?

 

[Shadrach]

The pictures say it all, wet and miserable. I missed the worst of it luckily but I still got home with soaked overalls.

A few went out for a few minutes on principle and Henry went out to keep an eye on them.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Good Morning X Batts. Many do not have power back yet what I understand.

 

[BDutch]

From what I can gather one can expect most of the medium weight pvc tarps to last a year, maybe two.
The long term answer if one is going to stick with a tarpaulin is to buy a proper truck style canvas or ripstop tarp. They're expensive. I bought 6m x 4m truck tarp in Spain to cover the hay rack and it was close to a couple of hundred pounds.
I can't see a tarp being the long term answer for this coop.

Sometimes builders put these kind of canvas up as an announcement. If you see one , you can ask the builder company if you can get/buy it for a few six packs if they take it down.
A friend of mine uses one with a holliday/tiny house on it, as a windscreen.

 

[pennyJo1960]

@Shadrach I do think that is the first time I have seen the hoop style coop.

 

[ManueB]

From what I can gather one can expect most of the medium weight pvc tarps to last a year, maybe two.
The long term answer if one is going to stick with a tarpaulin is to buy a proper truck style canvas or ripstop tarp. They're expensive. I bought 6m x 4m truck tarp in Spain to cover the hay rack and it was close to a couple of hundred pounds.
I can't see a tarp being the long term answer for this coop.

We bought polycarbonate sheets to cover the run when we remake it (soon I hope ) and it seems so light and flimsy that I wonder if green house tarp wouldn't have been better. It was a bit less than 200 euros for ten meter square (105 SQ feet).

The pictures say it all, wet and miserable. I missed the worst of it luckily but I still got home with soaked overalls.View attachment 3276556View attachment 3276558View attachment 3276557
A few went out for a few minutes on principle and Henry went out to keep an eye on them.
View attachment 3276559View attachment 3276555

That last picture of Henry staring at the empty chair is very funny and could lend to many interpretations .

I have a question for everyone regarding mesh / hardware cloth. We'll be gaining a few square meters when we redo the run and I'm trying to find the kind of mesh you are using and that's recommended on BYC, thick with very small holes. All I'm finding here seems very thin to me, usually 0.6 mm. Would it make sense to double this with the classical bigger hole sheep weldmesh we're using ? Otherwise I would have to order something thicker on Amazon but I'm afraid it will take a long time to get here.
Our predators are foxes and hawks, the neighbour's dogs don't get past the property's fence.

 

[Perris]

I have a question for everyone regarding mesh / hardware cloth

I use scaffolding netting when I need to fence off an area. It works on the opposite principle to hardware cloth. It is soft and you set it up loose so that it flaps in the slightest wind, and in particular the top edge is not taut so is clearly not capable of supporting any weight. Animals avoid it because they fear being trapped in it. Has worked for us for years. It's also cheap and very easy to move.

 

[BDutch]

We bought polycarbonate sheets to cover the run when we remake it (soon I hope ) and it seems so light and flimsy that I wonder if green house tarp wouldn't have been better. It was a bit less than 200 euros for ten meter square (105 SQ feet).

That last picture of Henry staring at the empty chair is very funny and could lend to many interpretations .

I have a question for everyone regarding mesh / hardware cloth. We'll be gaining a few square meters when we redo the run and I'm trying to find the kind of mesh you are using and that's recommended on BYC, thick with very small holes. All I'm finding here seems very thin to me, usually 0.6 mm. Would it make sense to double this with the classical bigger hole sheep weldmesh we're using ? Otherwise I would have to order something thicker on Amazon but I'm afraid it will take a long time to get here.
Our predators are foxes and hawks, the neighbour's dogs don't get past the property's fence.

I used all kind of Hwc, the thin ones you described with 10mm mase/mesh size (is that correct for the size of the holes) and also the thicker hwc 20 mm mase. And also small chicken wire (25 mm mase). Never had foxes or any other predators go through it. Not even rats.
For a small surface I prefer the thin hwc because its easier to fasten it to the frame. For a larger surface I would prefer the small sized chicken wire because its cheaper , easy to cut and less wobbly.

The strong netting I used is okay on top against hawks but I would not recommend it for the sides. Or only above chewing height (about 1,20 meter?) if there is nothing to climb on. Rats and foxes bite through it. Best netting I used is 30 mm mase cat netting with a thin iron wire inside. This cat net is strong and easy to tighten.

 

[Perris]

This little one has slept out the last two nights; she gets deep into the beech hedge, and though I see her go in, and have tried to find her (from both sides and with a torch), she has eluded me. The hedge branches are very contorted and dense above the bottom 2 feet, and I think she must be squeezing into a gap somewhere. She obviously prefers that to jostling for space with the grown-ups on the roosts, and she seems to be quite a determined tree hugger. If I can't stop it, I'll just have to hope that her colouring (willow skin, as well as brown feathers) will be even better camouflage when the beech leaves turn brown.