'Early to bed girls......'

[Anonymous]

Hi ,our 3 chickens go to roost at 3.30, seems a bit early to me. Shoulsd i worry? They are otherwise happy and well fed and well exercised having free run of the back garden. Not laying yet, we have had them for a few weeks but i'm not to concerned about that as the shere fun of talking to them every day is cool.

 

[Anonymous]

hi Stu,

3.30pm is fine for their bed time.All my pure breed chooks are in bed by that time,my 3 ex-batts go slightly later,but all were in roosting by 3.45pm today.

 

[girlracer265]

mine would be too if i didn't have a light over their run, but even with the light there they still go into the coop by 6 or 7

 

[victorias poultry]

Hi
Don't worry about the time they go to bed, 3.30pm for this time of year is very normal. Hens like to get to roost before it goes dark, as the days become lighter again as do the time they stay out until. Hens need daylight to produce eggs so as your girls are young you may not get an egg from them until the beginning of next year.

 

[Tim]

It's when you want to go to bed yourself in June and they are still out at 10.30pm that it's annoying! :roll:

 

[Pony Girl]

My girls sometimes go to bed even earlier than 3pm! This morning after I cleaned them out at 8.30am, they had a quick mooch around the garden and then went straight up their ladder and into bed again. They usually come out again but I do worry sometimes that if I didn't get them up they'd end up spending all day in bed, and not get any food!

I've got a wooden arc but unfortunately the top bit (where the nestboxes and sleeping area are), leaks quite badly when it rains, so I've had to cover it up with tarpaulin. Has anyone else experienced this with their arcs? :?

Should I be worried that maybe the arc is not getting enough light? I know it's probably not ideal having a cover over it because of ventilation but not sure what to do to make it leak proof and still allow enough air/light in. I leave the little 'pop-hole' for the ladder open for ventilation (obviously lock up the external door).

I'm hoping when we get a dry weekend to have a go at making it leak proof. Unfortunately the arc just seems to be a really bad design; there are 2 points where the wood joins which I think is causing the problem - thought I'd try putting some bathroom sealant on the outside over the crack and maybe nailing a bit of roof felt over that section as well. I don't really want to put felt over the whole roof as surely I'll be recreating the same problem as having a tarpaulin sheet over the top. Any thoughts/ideas?

 

[Anonymous]

Hi pony Girl,don't worry about your pekin girls going back inside.My pekin pulletr refuses to get up before 10am,and then only if it is dry and not to gloomy.She'll get up,hav a peck to eat and then pop into my lounge for a dust bath.She thinks the weather is disgusting at the moment.
As to your ark,I'm no good at d.i.y.,I'm a bash it and bodge it (b.i.b.i) sort of person,suggest you put some pics of the problem on,so that peeps on here like Tim,Osric,Snifter,Anne,Sue etc can make some usefull suggestions.

 

[Tim]

Yay - pics would be good with me

 

[Pony Girl]

Thanks guys. Well here are some pics of the dastardly arc!

As you can see the tarpaulin looks awful, and it's no wonder the poor things thinks it's night-time most of the time. I've had to put a layer of white plastic sheet (as per pic) over top, and a layer of tarpaulin. Even with both of these in very heavy rain, it still manages to seep in a little bit. Without it I was getting wet beds and soaked through newspaper and shavings. On one memorable night I was out battling a galeforce storm in my pyjamas in the middle of the night wrestling with said tarpaulin and bits of baler twine, until I managed to get some bungy rope!!

The close up shows the bit where I think the rain's getting in. Nest boxes don't get so bad, so I think this is the main area of fault. I was thinking of trying to seal it on the outside to see if it helps. Just can't believe they would sell such a stupid design! :evil:

I took these pics today. You can see the inside bit where the water gets in.

Any ideas? I'm at a complete loss with it

 

[nnbreeder]

Wow look at that shrinkage!! The lumber used in the construction was way too wet to use in the first place even though it was tongue and groove.

I would do one of two things, either caulk the cracks with a good sealant that is silicone based so it will adhere to the wood during periods of shrink and swell. Or I would cut a piece of plywood the same size as the roof and paint it all sides really well, cover the roof with a layer of tar paper (roofing felt) and then screw the plywood to the roof. At the top I would use some Copper flashing as a ridge cover to seal that off.

At the Gable I would install a small vent on each end that has a small cover that can be closed in bad weather and opened to provide good ventilation to keep humidity down.

 

[Anonymous]

Would aquarium sealant work on wood?It works on glass and lasts for years,cheap to buy from a pet shop,I think it's silicone based.

 

[Pony Girl]

Ah, shrinkage, that makes sense! It's a bugger to close the door when it rains - have had to file loads off and re-align the bolts. :evil:

Thanks so much for the advice. I think I'll go for the sealant option as if we put new roof over top we won't be able to open it as we do now. Do you think that'll be enough to stop the rain? I'm so fed up of tarpaulin and I don't think my girls like it overly much either! :roll:

 

[Anonymous]

I'd have gone with the sealant option as well.Just not sure how quickly it will work in this weather.Obviously it doesn't dry completely,stays pliable.
My ex-hubby repaired a lot of our fish tanks years ago,all the clearseal tanks we had developed leaks.Once he'd replaced the sealant they lasted and are still going strong now.

 

[Pony Girl]

Well if it works on fish tanks, it sounds good to me! I'll wait until we've got a dry day, hopefully this weekend and give it a go! Will keep you posted!

 

[Anonymous]

I'd do it on a dry day,and remember,you'll need to do the inside.Although a layer on the inside and the outside would be better.It will have instructions on it,how many hours to leave it before adding water to your tank ,but,thinking about it,you will probably be ok not to worry about that :lol: .
I'd measure how long the gaps are that you wish to fill,they say on the tubes how much area they will cover.
We only ever bought the small tubes,they were usually plenty big enough,but you can get really large tubes.

 

[Anonymous]

Eyup

Just noticed the pics!

If that was mine, I'd undo the screws and fix the planks in place with a generous smearing of no more nails then screw it back together. I've patched up a few things with that stuff, it takes a little while to set but it tends not to shrink, doesn't leak and is very strong. I'd also give the whole arc a brushing over with something like cuprinol or pva to help seal any other gaps and waterproof it. I wouldn't use any felt because of the potential red mite problem.

I've made a few shelters for my birds with tarps and while they don't look very pretty, they do the job quite well. If I had to, I'd put a tarp over the hens houses to weatherproof them as a temporary measure.

I've got a new hen house waiting to be built, I'll be attacking it with no more nails and pva to seal any potential leaks and hidey holes for creepy crawlies. It won't completely prevent it but I'm too lazy to build things twice so I'd rather overengineer something so it lasts forever.

Not sure about the fish tank silicone stuff, works well with glass but I've never tried sticking wood together with it. Have a go, it could work. I discovered that if you melt polystyrene with petrol you can use it to fix cracks and holes in plastic and fibre glass! Strange but true!!!

Osric

 

[Anonymous]

Eyup

Not sure about the fish tank silicone stuff, works well with glass but I've never tried sticking wood together with it. Have a go, it could work. I discovered that if you melt polystyrene with petrol you can use it to fix cracks and holes in plastic and fibre glass! Strange but true!!!

Osric

Ee by gum miladdie,don't tha know 'eatin up petrol is dangerous!!!
What with your glycerine and exploding hens and now petrol.....are ya tryin to kill other forum members off .......... :lol: .

 

[Anonymous]

Ee by gum miladdie,don't tha know 'eatin up petrol is dangerous!!!
What with your glycerine and exploding hens and now petrol.....are ya tryin to kill other forum members off .......... :lol: .

You don't have to heat it up, just pour some petrol on some polystyrene, mix it up and it turns into a slimey er, 'stuff'
I've used it to patch up a barrell to put diesel and veg oil in. I also run my land rover on waste veg oil. A bit stinky but better than diesel fumes!

Osric

 

[Anonymous]

Ee by gum miladdie,don't tha know 'eatin up petrol is dangerous!!!
What with your glycerine and exploding hens and now petrol.....are ya tryin to kill other forum members off .......... :lol: .

You don't have to heat it up, just pour some petrol on some polystyrene, mix it up and it turns into a slimey er, 'stuff'
I've used it to patch up a barrell to put diesel and veg oil in. I also run my land rover on waste veg oil. A bit stinky but better than diesel fumes!

Osric

Phew,that's a relief then.Thought for a moment you were trying to kill us off .
I'm sure we'll all remember your 'gungy stuff',even if we don't actually make it lol.

 

[Pony Girl]

Happy New Year everyone!

This will make you laugh - on New Year's morning after cleaning the girls out, it started snowing again just as I was trying to put the plastic back over the arc. Anyway, there I was trying to wrestle with it in a mini blizzard when a gust of wind caught it, and blew it skyward over the fence and away! Doh!!

I was not amused, I can tell you. Anyway hubby-to-be and I spent next couple of hours in the freezing cold taking it all apart, and fixing it (we hope!). We've sealed it inside and out, screwed it back together, and sealed it some more! Have also tacked over some roof felt on the outside, just for good measure. (see pics) Then we ran out of felt but we're going to finish it off today with some more just over the panel at the back. And then we anxiously await the next lot of rain!! :?