It is what I am trying to replace now, it has holes and tears in it and now the coop leaks. We put polycarbonate over the run on the chicken tractor too...I changed it out today. The roof on it just has small joists two feet apart...the polycarbonate was the end pieces from another project. Not solid, lots of two foot pieces. The weight of the turkeys on that part was bending the pieces and distorting them so that I had to punch them frequently on the inside to pop them back into shape. I have done it a lot over the past 8 months. I was afraid that they too would start breaking or tearing...today I removed it, put a piece of roof decking with a raidient barrier coating on it that I took off of the duck house I tore down, and used the metal from that project on top of it. It doesn't really work right, but the turkeys have already gotten on top of it and walked around, it is sturdy enough to hold at least two. I will have to work on it a bit more because the overlapping doesn't work right for the distance and it makes it short about 10 inches. It will work for now, but I will have to improvise to cover the rest of the decking.
I didn't finish writing yesterday, so this is a continuation...I worked on the chicken tractors roof to the coop part today. I had to cut a piece of decking to fit the metal I purchased for it. I removed the Ondura roof and may use it on a wall someplace to block the wind a bit, it is about a four foot by 6 foot solid piece of material. It may not be totally waterproof any more but it is waterproof and I took metal that was blocking the wind from behind the ducks house and the turkey house. I will have to hang a tarp or something now on those, I didn't get it done and it is raining tonight but it is fairly warm so they should be fine, they still have a roof over their head. I also worked on the pallet coop too, I had to fill in a hole in the back wall...so I had to use a circular saw and cut a pallet to fit in the hole...I had some issues because nothing is straight, so I had to cut bits and pieces off and probably made seven trips back and forth trying not to cut off too much...but making it a tight fit. Took awhile, so I didn't get much else done, I took a nest box off of the outside of the chicken tractor and moved it into the new coop...but, a little hen didn't like the height of it nor the placement. She stood in front of it screaming and hollering at me and pacing in front of it. I thought it may be too high so I leaned a pallet up against the wall next to it and she tested it out...only went up a few of the pallet boards and started yelling at me again, and jumped down. I decided to move it to the front wall of the coop and not so high up. I didn't hear anything more out of her...I wonder if she will lay in that nest box tomorrow? Time will tell.
The rain is suppose to be worse tomorrow, so we probably will put up the Christmas tree...can't do roofing in the rain. I am not sure if I could get the decking into place on my own, not sure if I will attempt it or not. The decking is pretty heavy and I would have to be up on a ladder to get it up on top of the pallet coop. It probably wouldn't be wise, but I need to get it roofed soon. I still need to side it too, I have been saving plastic feed bags to side it well enough to block the wind and rain, only the front wall and 3/4 of the back wall is made with almost solid pallets...but that little hen that was hollering at me...she could walk through the spacing on a side wall. I will probably have to add some boards, or cover the inside with wire to keep the chickens inside this coop. I still need to put hardware cloth on the top section of the walls too. I have been doing all of this with help from the turkeys too. I am not sure how many screws they ran off with today...or how many times I had to make them get off of the roof.
I didn't finish writing yesterday, so this is a continuation...I worked on the chicken tractors roof to the coop part today. I had to cut a piece of decking to fit the metal I purchased for it. I removed the Ondura roof and may use it on a wall someplace to block the wind a bit, it is about a four foot by 6 foot solid piece of material. It may not be totally waterproof any more but it is waterproof and I took metal that was blocking the wind from behind the ducks house and the turkey house. I will have to hang a tarp or something now on those, I didn't get it done and it is raining tonight but it is fairly warm so they should be fine, they still have a roof over their head. I also worked on the pallet coop too, I had to fill in a hole in the back wall...so I had to use a circular saw and cut a pallet to fit in the hole...I had some issues because nothing is straight, so I had to cut bits and pieces off and probably made seven trips back and forth trying not to cut off too much...but making it a tight fit. Took awhile, so I didn't get much else done, I took a nest box off of the outside of the chicken tractor and moved it into the new coop...but, a little hen didn't like the height of it nor the placement. She stood in front of it screaming and hollering at me and pacing in front of it. I thought it may be too high so I leaned a pallet up against the wall next to it and she tested it out...only went up a few of the pallet boards and started yelling at me again, and jumped down. I decided to move it to the front wall of the coop and not so high up. I didn't hear anything more out of her...I wonder if she will lay in that nest box tomorrow? Time will tell.
The rain is suppose to be worse tomorrow, so we probably will put up the Christmas tree...can't do roofing in the rain. I am not sure if I could get the decking into place on my own, not sure if I will attempt it or not. The decking is pretty heavy and I would have to be up on a ladder to get it up on top of the pallet coop. It probably wouldn't be wise, but I need to get it roofed soon. I still need to side it too, I have been saving plastic feed bags to side it well enough to block the wind and rain, only the front wall and 3/4 of the back wall is made with almost solid pallets...but that little hen that was hollering at me...she could walk through the spacing on a side wall. I will probably have to add some boards, or cover the inside with wire to keep the chickens inside this coop. I still need to put hardware cloth on the top section of the walls too. I have been doing all of this with help from the turkeys too. I am not sure how many screws they ran off with today...or how many times I had to make them get off of the roof.
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