Part 0800.0005

[HennyPenny59]

Hi everyone

 

We have a large 30ft x 10ft clear plastic Polytunnel in our garden, and are deliberating whether or not this could be used for our hens over the coldest months in Winter in place of a WIR.

 

This would be the arrangement ...

 

We would put Fox proof netting all around the Polytunnel. The netting would extend beyond the Polytunnel by about 15ft of the front door to allow them a grassed area outside.

 

The Polytunnel has two doors which are half mesh, half plastic. The back door would be permanently closed, and the front door would be permanently open to allow them onto the grass.

 

Their house would be outside in the grassed area.

 

The one thing im concerned about is that even during the coldest months the tunnel would probably be subject to regular small increases and decreases in temperature, and I don't know if this would be bad for the health of my girls??

 

What does everyone think?

[blueandwhite]

I don't really know but would just say that my girls would probably peck at the plastic. I had a tarp under the omlet sunshade and it wasn't until I took of the sunshade that I found a massive hole in tarp!

[Egluntyne]

I don't think it would be anything like safe enough. Sorry.

[Olly]

If you're going to surround it with fox-proof netting wouldn't it be easier to construct a WIR? Most netting (including Omlet netting) is not fox-proof - it will keep hens in, but not predators out. Unless the extended area in front of the tunnel is going to have a roof over it, I think the risk of a fox jumping in and climbing out again is quite high unfortunately. That would worry me more than the temperature changes, although I wouldn't want it too warm in winter - hens can withstand cold much more easily than heat.

[Eggasperated]

I have a polytunnel for my plants and keep a record of min / max temperatures and the fluctuation, even over the winter months, can be quite extreme. It depends on the exact specification of the covering but generally it will be colder overnight than the outside temperature and if the sun comes out then much hotter in the day than outside.