Storms and chickens

[Microstead]

Hi, 

I'm a newbie to chicken keeping in actual fact Imaven got anymchickens at al yet. I've purchased a second hand eglu go up via eBay,  which turned out to be a bit of a nightmare as several bits were missing, it's horribly sunbleached and there is a lot of rust on the run. Having ascertained you can buy additional pieces of eglu fixings from omlet and there cost and come to an agreement with the seller regarding a significant partial refund, I'm wondering what people use to cover the rust on the run and fittings and repaint it with? 'm also considering using vinyl wrap to,cover the go up and wondered if anyone has used this before and whether it stayed stuck on

Thanks in advance for any replies

 

[Microstead]

Please excuse my terrible typing. I'm literate really

 

[Grandmashazzie]

Hi Microstead, you may be able to shift rust with either white vinegar or WD 40. It is hard work, spray on, leave and scrub with wire brush or toothbrush. Re bleaching, I have cube and the girls roost on top, it is the ammonia from pooh that is whitening the colour not the sun. I haven’t put any film on top but would be interested to hear what others do. 

[The Dogmother]

GOs are relatively new, so I am surprised that it has bleached so soon. The original models, which were built of much sturdier stuff - would eventually lighten int he sun, but really only after 8-10 years.

I would get as much rust off as possible with a fine wire brush, then paint it with Hammerite. I wonder what has happened to the run to make it rust like that - did they keep rabbits in it?

[Cat tails]

I bought my Go Up in 2014. It has discoloured somewhat but not terribly. The item that is the most bleached is actually the front of the poop drawer, which is in front of the pophole. The white bits have greened a bit from algaes and moss.

I do have some rust on bits and parts of my run too, but again not terribly. The most rust I have found is on the fixings of the up stand that attach to the coop.

[Microstead]

Hi Dogmother and cat tails. I understand chickens were in it. The feeds and drinkers which were once purple as was the coop are almost white in colour and are missing their lids which I thought was from sun but might be from poo, I'd never thought of that. The top of the coo is a very different purple all over compared to the sides which in turn i's very differvent and less vibrant to the colour of the bits of pan electronic that don see the sun. All the grey panels including the back, front and sides look really dirty compared to the inside tray. There's several rust patches on the metal Part of the wheel sections and yes, the metal fixings to attach the panels of,the coop as well as the fixings to attach the coop to the "up part are really rusty as are all the screws with the butterfly nut things. There's also a lot of rust all over the run where the plastic coating,has come off. I'm not sure what happened to it. It looks like it's had a very hard working life!

Thanks for,the tips on removing the rust and keeping it at bay. I need to source some  green paint that is similar in colour to the plastic coating and I'm going to tray and use vinyl sheets to cover the sides of the coop and maybe paint the ends. 

[Microstead]

I missed you out grandmashazzle. I tried to edit my post to include you and remedy the numerous spellchecker error, but apparently waiting 7 minutes to edit a post is too long. Sorry!

[Cat tails]

Only the Feedr should have a lid, not the drinker. Haven’t used mine in ages, but those discoloured quite quickly. My coop doesn’t have wheels zo can’t comment on those, but the ladder does show rust where the paint has come off. Maybe they have used the pressure washer too often? Or your coop is made from two coops? Is the underside of the roof purple? And I don’t mean on the inside where it’s gray, but in between the liner and the outside.

I will take a picture when it’s light outside.

[The Dogmother]

I have several runs, attached to mark 1 housing, and they are all at least 10 years old and have only minimal rust; I am struggling to understand what has happened to yours to leave it in that conditon.

Still, it is what it is; be sure to clean it very thoroughly and mite-treat it with total mite kill spray and buz busters powder. Do this twice before putting birds in.

[Daphne]

You can get dark green Hammerite, its good stuff as you put it on straight over rust if you can't get back to bare metal.  As DM says, under normal circs you wouldn't expect much rusting, there is some after say 6 years use, but minimal. Maybe it was in store in very long grass or something?  

[Scary Mary]

My runs got quite rusty  - mainly due to squirrel  who kept trying to chew through the mesh to get at the chicken food. They never managed it , but had a jolly good try!

I suspect yours was under attack in its previous life too....

[Grandmashazzie]

Hi Microstead, I can’t do click links, but if you type camouflage into search bar at top. It will bring up a guy Neil who kept us up to date with painting he did on ,from memory a cube. He advises on paint in his posts.

[Cat tails]

 

[Grandmashazzie]

Ta , Cat Tails ❤️

[Microstead]

Hi all

Thank you all for your responses. I read Neil' 's blog with interest grandmashazzle It's a shame he hasn't come back to show his finished project but it looked great with that green Base coat alone.  There' 's very little about sprucing up an old/abused eglu but I think this is going to start being more common as they get older.

Thanks for the green hammerite .tip Daphne, I'll check that out. 

Cat tails thank you so much for the link to the primer...it's cheap thank God. I will inspect my eglu a bit more tomorrow and feedback

Scary Mary you made me laugh out loud with your dramatic description of the eglu being attacked! I think it's been laying somewhere exposed,  dismantied for some time.

DM I put the omlet chicken  starters pack  plus in my basket ready to buy, will I need additional specific red mite stuff?

The seller's advertised it as being in good condition but provided minimal info and photos on Ebay. They didn't even state how long the run was. I don't know if the intentionally set out to mislead anyone for sure,  but they advertised the eglu with a 3m, run  on gum tree with an additional photo of a coop and run set up,  which they later admitted they'd stolen from someone else's previous advert. So I wasn't expecting it to look like it did.or have missing pieces. Anyway, we came to an agreement regarding a partial refund now to cover the cost of purchasing broken, missing pieces and making repairs.

And I can now laugh at the fact that one of the large cardboard boxes they packaged the eglu in had the words "FEMALE URINAL" printed 5 inches high on its front. I'm not sure if the courier man believed me when I said it was a chicken coop.

I've got a week off work now to make some headway on preparations for the girls, whatever types  I end up getting, but thats for a,future post

 

 

Edited January 17, 2020 by Microstead

[Cat tails]

Do realise that the plastic of the Go can be different than that of the Cube. So maybe test out the paint on a small bit first.

These are pictures of my Go Up from 2014. It has been continually in use during that time.

I don’t really get the green/grey of the white bits anymore.

[The Dogmother]

21 hours ago, Microstead said:

DM I put the omlet chicken  starters pack  plus in my basket ready to buy, will I need additional specific red mite stuff?

 

Yes, my favourite, and the most effective is the nettex total mite kill (comes in an RTU spray and a concentrate which you can dilute to refill the spray) and their buz busters powder. If you have an infestation, use this combo every 3 days until it si knocked back, then revert to using once a week as part of your cleaning regime.

[Microstead]

Thanks CT, I've had a better look at my eglu and it's definitely purple inside and out, I think it's just been left lying about hence the rust and some compenents being more sun bleached than others. However as someone said the previous owners chickens may have spent a lot of time sitting on its roof, and it's poo bleached not sun bleached. Anyhow, the vinyl wrap should be here soon and hopefully that will cover it. 

Thanks DM, it's a shame on let doesn't stock the louse powder. I'll have to source it from elsewhere. 

 

[The Dogmother]

Buz Busters comes in a shaker, which is refillable from a bit plastic tub.

[Microstead]

Cat tails,how did you get and keep the grren/grey off the white panels? 

 

[Cat tails]

I don’t really, what is on there now, doesn’t come off anymore. Have used brush and just some eco detergent, and you can keep quite on top of it.

[Microstead]

Cat tails, the back of your eglu looks like mine! However your panels look in much better condition. 

I'm pretty sure mine has been laying about somewhere for a long time. The underside of the purple Base is sun bleached, and one of the side panels has clearly had another panel resting on top of in in the sun, for a good while, it has a two tone effect, with the top part of the side panel being a lot more sun bleached than the bottom part and there's a definite it line between it being lighter in places. 

A part of the purple lid snapped off as I was wahing it. I'm not sure if it was damaged in transit or just brittle from being out in all weather's for so long. So rather than put vi yl on it I'm going to order new panels. Im so glad I negotiated a large refund given the condition of the thing. How the seller's thought it was in good condition I don't know.

The green hammerite has arriver.  So I  off to paint the run, stand and wheels. The bamboo edging I ordered for the base of the run to stop the woodchips falling out has arrived too. Now I need to,choose what,hybrids I'm going to get. Oh and make the eglu up,once all the parts arrive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Peter]

I agree with Dogmother, Hammerite paint is the thing to use. Give it 2 coats, only a period of 2 hrs between coats (no longer than that) or the first coat will not key to the                                   second coat, also the tin will say you can paint over the rust. I would not recommend that I would wire brush and sand but not to much. I would repaint it again in 2 years time.

Plastic can be washed and painted with ordinary house paint, no undercoat just 2 coats of gloss. 12 hrs between coats. the paint will stop the plastic from deteriorating over the years.

Hope this is of help to you. Peter  

[Microstead]

On 1/24/2020 at 4:31 PM, Peter said:

I agree with Dogmother, Hammerite paint is the thing to use. Give it 2 coats, only a period of 2 hrs between coats (no longer than that) or the first coat will not key to the                                   second coat, also the tin will say you can paint over the rust. I would not recommend that I would wire brush and sand but not to much. I would repaint it again in 2 years time.

Plastic can be washed and painted with ordinary house paint, no undercoat just 2 coats of gloss. 12 hrs between coats. the paint will stop the plastic from deteriorating over the years.

Hope this is of help to you. Peter  

-thank you Peter, that's very helpful

[The Dogmother]

I see that a part has snapped off - be aware that the plastic of the newer versions is brittle and this increases with age and weathering. I don't know if they will accept paint as well as the polypropylene models, so it would be best to practice on an out-of-sight area..