Newbie after advice

R

roger352

New member
Joined
Jan 17, 2013
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Hello all

I will be getting a new coop in the next couple of days which i have to assembly. The advice im after is what to treat the wood with is there any special preservatives that are not harmful to chickens that is should use. Secondly would it be adviseable to treat the inside with a red mite treatment as i assemble the coop? I sure someone will have the answers. Many thanks for your help.
Roger
 
Hi Roger,

Welcome to the forum. Your best bet is to only treat the outside of the coop and then wait until it is completely dry and the smell has gone from the inside of the coop.

You can often check the back of the tin and find out if the product is pet friendly or call their helpline number but to be honest, if it's dry and the coop is well aired and has sufficient ventilation I've never seen any problems.

Tim.
 
Hi Roger, and welcome to the Forum.
You may find difficulty in getting it to dry at the moment. Last year I treated a new house with the sort of wood preservative which is guaranteed for 5 years as I knew it to be very effective, but it took forever to dry in cold weather since it was oil based. It only really dried off properly when I could put the pieces out in the sun before assembly. A water based product would dry quicker but would not be so long lasting as a preservative. It would be best to treat the pieces before assembly, partly because they're easier to manipulate and also because you can treat the edges of the pieces which will be concealed once the coop is assembled. If you do this, as Tim says, you won't need to treat all of the inside. Once it's all dried off it will be safe for the hens. If you then sprinkle diatomaceous earth or red mite powder along the places where two edges join and at perch ends etc, that's where the mite will congregate, rather than on flat surfaces. Then just keep the coop clean, try to exclude wild birds from the run if possible, and you may be lucky, (like me so far touch wood,)and not get any redmite.
If you use the Search box you'll find lots of threads about maintaining and treating coops, with plenty of sometimes conflicting advice!
What sort of birds are you planning to get?
 
Hi Roger. Welcome to the forum at a rather cold time of year. And your problem is one of temperature, as water based treatments can't be applied below 10 degrees otherwise they freeze as they dry and lose their properties. So your treatment depends on where you will apply them. Oil based may take a long time to dry but they may be your only option. Depends on the treatment your wood has already had or how dry it is. Do you know what wood it is? We treat ours with water based Cuprinol Shades on the outside and a 50:50 creosote paraffin mix on the inside, Cuprinol first and creoffin afterwards with any panels upside down to get it into the joints.
 
How about if Roger treats the parts of the coop with the oil-based preservative indoors (if SWMBO will allow it) or in a garage with a fan heater going, & lets them dry in the warm before taking them outside to assemble? Would that work, or would it be too smelly?
 
Oil based preservative gives off extremely toxic fumes and is very messy, permanently stains anything it comes into contact with. This SWMBO wouldn't allow it, it's bad enough round here with the fumes from spraying his model aircraft!
 
Treating it somewhere like a garage would wok OK. A lot depends on the type of wood and many imported coops are made from very poor wood which seems to soak up preservatives while still giving poor waterproofing. It will depend too on how quickly you need to put the coop to use as to what you can achieve.
 
I don't know about creosote type preservatives,
I have used Cuprinol Shades and Wilkinsons own animal friendly one that comes in loads of brown colours and colours as well.
It is very reasonably priced aas well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top