A fresh start, rebuilding my chicken farm, with lots of pics!

......Aart, oddly enough I have never had an issue with stuff rotting away (well other than osb that never got painted), so I'm hoping that continues. I wish I could still access my old coops before I moved as they are built in similar style and are approaching 15 years old now and some are still being used. So as long as I can get close to that amount of time out of these I will be happy, and by that time I hope to have bigger and better options available......
I would think that WA with all it's rain would cause problems with wood and metal against the ground. You must have good drainage where you are.
Looking forward to watching this project progress!
 
Thanks! I am also looking forward to the progress! Haha

Didn't get as much done as I'd like today as I'm also moving my business to a much bigger location so it's a very hectic time, got a brace across the front which will be the top of my door frames, and the first of the roof supports. The crosswise roof supports will have to wait for another day though.

Despite what I thought was lots of planning everything isn't quite as nice as I imagined so before I build my next set of runs I may go back to the drawing board. With the number of birds I want to raise this long run style seems to be best option but with horrible carpentry skills, limited time and budget I'm hoping to design a simpler way to do things.

Anyway, enough rambling. Here's the profess pics from today. The gentleman in the pictures is my awesome dad who came over to make sure I didn't fall off the ladder (and make sure to laugh if I did).

400


400
 
So here's where a big project like this would stump me. I see you have micro gaps at the top and bottom of your doors. Do you worry about this at all? What kind of tolerance do you have for this sort of thing? That's not big enough for anything but small mice, so do you leave it, or try to use weather stripping of some sort? I've killed muself in other projects worrying about such tiny details, and I never know if it's time we'll spent or not.
 
I'm not worried about it at all. As you noted it's too small for anything but mice. I suppose in theory a raccoon could reach in but I can't imagine a bird laying by door. The biggest gap is roughly 3/4". I will be putting another 2x4 on top of the one above the door and then using wire between that and the roof in between runners. That's probably overkill, but last year I had 10 white leghorn bantams killed that were given to me and I really don't want anything to be able and get in.

I try to never over think the housing as long as its big enough for my needs. And until this year didn't really care about aesthetics as long as it functioned. I focus on the birds and raising and breeding them to the best of my ability. (I probably over think that part, along with the feed)

Edit: No more work planned til Saturday, I can't do roof myself so a buddy is comin over to help. Then should be able to put sides on and finish front next week. Of course will keep thread updated with pictures.
 
Last edited:
*Jealous* This looks awesome! I imagine the gap at the door will give the wood some extra breathing room with rainy humidity changes.
Especially with it being exposed more to the elements.
We painted our bathroom door and now when the summer comes it gets hare to close and almost sounds like a slam from time to time.
lau.gif
 
Sorry for lack of updates. Been crazy, spent 15 hours over the weekend moving my store to its new location and my work schedule has gone from 35-40 hours to 60. Anyway there has been some work as you can see in the below photos, most of the wiring is done all I really need to do is put the HC on the front and finish the gap between roof and top of door frame (halfway done with that). Then put on the plywood and bam. Done which is a good thing. The largest of my chicks (the two Dorking males and the LaFleche are about the size of bantam leghorns already and need out of those brooders.

400


Shot from the front. You can see the wire half of the front still needs doing. But it's coming along.

400


Back angle shot. You can see how it sits in that part of the poultry yard where the communal run will eventually be in an "L" around the outside of pen. Also the glaring omission on plywood (which should be happening tomorrow).
 
400


The inside. All done for now except for some wire between top board on back and roof. Mosquitos were eating me alive tonight so had to stop. The dividing sections will serve as perches til the need arises to divide the pens late this year for breeding season. Nesting boxes will be buckets on their side and obviously not needed yet.


400


You can see on here that I took a calculated risk and used plastic netting on the outside above the plywood. I am aware this is not ideal but I consider it a very small risk and the project is already over budget so I will accept this for now. Considering the stuff I've used before without problems I don't anticipate any here.

Next update should be the new residents, moving out of brooders and old less secure growing pens to test out the new digs (and so I can knock down old ones) If they're lucky they may become permanent residents here.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom