Topic: Painting my chicken coup

[DadnDom]

Hi, my 2 chicken coups I bought off ebay are arriving tomorrow. The thing is I have chosen to have them left untreated, but I will need to paint or stain them when I get them. Can I use any paint or stain or does it have to be a certain kind of paint or stain?
Thanks in advance :)

[OliveOil]

Personally i would go for old fashioned creosote if you can get hold of it as it is the only red mite deterrent and treatment.

[DadnDom]

I've been advised to use a water based wood stain, would creosote not be harmful to the birds?

[Trixiebelle]

Me and my (ex)  Father-In-Law have been designing and building chicken sheds to sell.

I got all 'worried' about paint and preservative stuff as a consequence. But really .. chickens live in all SORTS of cobbled-together houses and never suffer from an odd bit of wood being painted in 'non-ethical' gloss!

Trix  ;) X

[DadnDom]

Ah right well I will have a look in our local DIY store and see what they do :)
There is one other thing I am concerned about. It's that someone has said that there isn't adequate ventilation in the coups I have.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=007&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&viewitem=&item=170122121900&rd=1&rd=1
I have bought 2 of the above coups. What would I have to do to put some ventilation in for the chucks? I am hopeless at DIY but I know a man who is very good lol
All your advice is very gratefully appreciated :)

[OliveOil]

Looking at your houses i would def say creosote as it is tongue and grooved PLUS the felt roof together make a great place for redmite.

Red mite is a bugger to get rid of and the only thing that works is old fashioned creosote... as long as its been aired for 6 hours or more the chooks are fine with it.  Believe me, your chooks will have no harm done to this with creo... rm is another matter though...

I learnt the hard way btw hence me stressing so much to you.

[DadnDom]

Right think I will go buy some creosote tomorrow then. I really do appreciate all the advice :)
Do I still need to sort the ventilation out? And if so how do I do this? I have looked at lots of coups on ebay and hardly any of them have any ventilation so I am a bit stumped as to what to do really?

[OliveOil]

As for ventilation if you cut 2 holes about 2" diameter at the front and back apex the should do it and see how it goes.

Remember you cant buy creosote now... you can get it special but not sure where from... the substitute wont do the job.

[DadnDom]

Right ok I have a freind who is handy with a jigsaw lol
As for the creosote, I'm sure there will be a little DIY store somewhere in Wales that still has some lol If not I will be asking realtives to check their sheds lol

Thankyou very much for all your advice, I don't know what I would of done without your help :)

[OliveOil]

I learnt mostly from experience, books and a couple of forums...but mostly experience and sometimes the hard way.

[DadnDom]

I found some creosote today :)
The first few shops I tried only had "creosote substitute" but our good old local hardware store had the real stuff :)
Lets hope it's nice tomoorow so I can get them painted :)

[DadnDom]

I've just been told by a friend of mine who also keeps chickens that I shouldn't paint the inside of my coups with creosote, is this right? I was all set for painting them inside and out but i'm not sure what to do now :?

[OliveOil]

Mine have beeen painted inside and out with creosote including the perches and nest box... all the top breeders of exhibition poultry use creosite in and out... take at this thread

http://www.pekinbantams.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=11938

this is for the treatment of redmite... but as i have already lost one bird to redmite - my house became severely infected within a week - found the creosote hard to take as the houses i hvae were cuprinoled... one house is redmite free - the other one, im still fighting the redmite - cant help but think that if they were creosoted inthe first place i would have won this battle by now.

hope that helps and puts your mind at ease.

[DadnDom]

Thanks very much for that. I was going to paint them inside and out then I was told not to do them inside and I started wondering if I was doing the right thing or not lol Well, it's sunny outside now so I think i'll take the kids to scholl then come home and do some painting :)
Thanks for the link it was a very interesting read :) And thankyou so much for all the help Oliveoil I really would of been in a pickle without your help :)

[glow777]

just to add the creosote sustitute worked on my red mite - well it at least knocked them back to the egg stage. What tou have to do is get them before they lay there eggs again.
also used jeyes fluid and parafin. No smoking near my henhouse!

[Lost in France]

I hate to set the cat among the hens but...!

Creosote is really nasty and it is still nasty even if all the breeders use it! If you're only keeping a few hens and are meticulous in your cleaning, redmite shouldn't be a problem. Use Diatomous Earth (Diatom) when you clean out and no redmites! This is a harmless way to keep mites, lice and other nasties at bay...it will rid you of red mites in days and with continued use they won't return. I've used it for several years and wish I'd found it sooner.

Not sure if I'm allowed to say where I get it but have had lots of people e mail so will risk it...to save you all contacting me! SPR Centre produce it and their e mail address is: info@sprcentre.co.uk
Tel: 01243 542815 They also provide a very comprehensive info sheet describing how the horrible mites are destroyed...great!!


Hope I'm not too late and those henhouses are already done!

Judi

[DadnDom]

Well I finally managed to get one of my coups painted inbetween showers lol.
This is a picture of it before I painted it and shows the size of the door/opening i had to paint and clean the inside! Cleaning isn't going to be fun lol



And this is a picture after I painted it. Should be ready for the girls to move in tomorrow :)