Garden Store

[Mikey]

Cheers for that, I hadn't thought about the plastic not coping distorting, I'll ask the manufacturer for their advise. The vinegar tip I'll try.

[Feather]

I've had an Eglu in use for 2 years now and I've found it really easy to keep clean. Of course no house is proof against redmite, but the plastic ones are much easier to keep clear of them than wooden ones if done regularly. Eglus are designed with chickens in mind, so their smooth curves give few cracks and crannies for the redmite to hide away in, and the lid comes off so you can look inside every week when cleaning it out. I just scrub the roosting bars, droppings tray and inside in hot water and disinfectant and then it dries instantly with an old towel. This is a big advantage compared with wood and you can do this every week of the year in a few minutes. Then I sprinkle redmite powder under and in the removable droppings tray, in the nestbox and round the door and roosting bars. In the eglu you can easily fill all the cracks and crannies with powder and I wonder whether a garden store would have a roof you could open up enough to be able to do this? I'm currently looking at Green Frog houses because ki want a bigger one than the eglu and these also seem to have some good design features which might be adapted for use in a garden store. Anyone used these?

P.S. (edit) When we got our plastic garden sheds they came with warnings about possible condensation, and advised fitting sheet polystyrene to the roof if necessary. We haven't found this a problem actually, but I wondered if this might happen if the garden store conversion wasn't insulated. The Eglu is made from double-walled plastic with integral insulation in between the layers and never gets condensation even when warm hens are in there in cold conditions. The problem with retrofitting insulation to your conversion, if you thought it might be needed, would be the probability of giving more cracks and crannies for redmite, around the sealant edges oif not between the layers of whatever you were using.

One other possible issue with garden stores and plastic sheds is their light weight. We 'tiled' our sheds with slabs on the floor to prevenbt them blowing over as ours is quite a windy garden. Normally a garden shed would have quite heavy equipment in it to hold it down, but a few hens wouldn't weigh much. Not an insuperable problem but something else to consider.

The Green Frog houses give interesting exploded videos of how their houses are put together which you might find helpful. You can see I've also been giving thought to this idea!