wanted chicken house coop

I have a couple of lovely houses for sale but Cheshire is a wee bit far from Bristol! :D
 
Hi Finleyfreyaseth, and welcome to the Forum.
If you buy a second hand wooden coop, be extremely careful you're not importing redmite with it. We've had stories on here recently of people who didn't realise that their lovely-looking secondhand coops were actually riddled with redmite and they had to spend a lot of time and also a fortune on treatments, and in one case finally burnt the coop and bought a new one instead. Total waste of money! Also, once you have redmite on your premises, it's there for good, and you always have to be on the lookout and control it. If you are a new keeper, it's worth trying to retain your mite-free status for as long as possible.
Not saying this is always the case, you'd be fine buying from someone genuine and knowledgeable like Foxy, but many people get fed up with keeping hens, neglect them to some extent, and then don't even realise they've got redmite in the coop they're trying to sell. Or they do know but don't own up to it - buyer beware! If you can get hold of a second hand plastic coop the risk is less because these have fewer nooks and crannies for mites and can be taken apart and thoroughly cleaned up in any case.
 
Hi finleyfreyaseth,

Do heed Marigold's warning about wooden hen houses. I bought one on ebay - looked really nice and was very local. When I collected it the seller admitted to having had redmite but "it had been disinfected and had no hens in it for 2 months". He'd "disinfected" with straw still in it, which I dumped on the ground before we took it away. Since then I have completely dismantled it and found live redmite (except they were grey) under a drawing pin head.

Yesterday my friend, who is looking after my girls for me, saw the coop for the first time and confirmed what I had thought - that all the little grey bits which are ALL OVER the coop are dead redmite. He must have had one hell of an infestation. Fortunately I have some proper creosote so I am gradually "painting" all the bits. I've totally dismantled the wooden nestbox - where I found some more live redmite - as I need the tongue and groove timber to make some modifications to the coop. I'm hoping to fit an external Chick Box.

I fitted one of these to the secondhand Solway Eco house I also bought on ebay. That was a much better buy as I could dismantle it fairly easily and scrubbed it with dilute hypchlorite (Milton's baby sterilising fluid, also used in milking parlours). That has been in use for a few months and there is no sign of redmite.
 
thanks for advise ,ive decided to build my own now ,done two sides and floor today gonna try get back and front done tomorrow ill post pics of my effort when it complete
 
I still intend to build my own - wish I'd started it instead of buying the secondhand one. The time it's taken to sort it out I'd have what I want at least three quarters built by now!!

Good luck, look forward to seeing the pics when it's done.
 
Well done for building your own. Have you found the long thread http://poultrykeeperforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4818 that Castara started when he designed and built his coop? Lots of pics on there and some good ideas as well.
 
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