treating wood for coop

[schimbare]

Dear Experienced Coopers. (coopers?)

I never built anything with wood. I have a mixture of old, used wood and new wood from the lumber yard. Do I have to treat the wood with something to keep it from rotting? The coop will be in a large dog run. There will be a covering over the top of the dog run, so the rain will not fall on the coop. And the coop will be raised on legs, so it is not going to sit on the possibly wet ground.

Do I have to put some sort of sealant on the wood that is exposed? What about the wood that is inside near the chickens?

Additionally, I am using these cement things to place the 4x4 upright supports in. Can I just put the 4x4's into the top of the cement holders, or do I have to affix the 4x4s to the cement things? If so, how?

Oh, one more thing. I am digging down around the dog run and putting in some strong wire to keep burrowing critters from being able to dig into the run. Do I need to dig, say a foot down for the entire size of the dog run, and place the wire mesh over the entire bottom of the hole and up the sides, or can I just dig a deep trench around the edges of the run and place the wire mesh down and a bit up around the dog run?

Does that make sense?

My chickies will be here in a few days. Fortunately, I have time to create the coop. I will tell you, it will be one sad looking coop, but I am looking forward to the challenge and the learning experience.

Thank you.
Schimbare

 

[Judy]

The outside will last longer if painted with exterior paint, as will the inside if you periodically hose it out. It will also be harder for parasites to hide in cracks inside if it is painted. To prevent digging you can just lay the mesh on the ground and secure it. In time, grass will secure it. Either way, it needs to be secured to the bottom of the fence as well.

 

[schimbare]

Oh, thank you so much for your response!

I do have a follow up - gee what a surprise.....

How do I secure the mesh to the ground? (Gawd, that sounds like a really stupid question)

And, do I have to overlap the pieces of mesh to keep things from going in between the pieces? And if I overlap the mesh, which seems to make sense, how do I attach one piece of mesh to the next?

Sorry to be so dense about this.

I live on Long Island, and it only takes a moment of food on the ground for rats to show up. I will have to keep a rat trap nearby at all times, so hopefully the rats will go there to eat, rather than in the coop. But, if the coop draws more than very few rats, the neighbors will soon know and that would pretty much end the whole chicken thing.

So, I have to A. keep them out of the coop and B. deter them in general without using poison.

That is why I am hyper about the strong wire mesh under and around and up the sides of the run.

thanks
Schimbare

 

[nascarjunkie1]

Be sure and use hardware cloth. I tiok and laid out strips about 2 foot wide on the ground around the coop and run and then covered it with grass sod rolls. The grass will grow thru the hardware cloth and nothing should penetrate it.

 

[schimbare]

Thank You for the info!

 

[Lynnette]

u could use plastic tie strips to tie the mesh together