Building New Coop/Barn...Phase 5 Great Barn Build, OCCUPIED! 3/6/16

[1muttsfan]

I think the back road access to the barn is genius.

 

[robhuncor]

Love this - but then I'm partial to birds since I'm "Robin"

 

[aart]

As far as painting all this OSB, I have two 5 gallon buckets of paint left over that I refused to let the contractor use, both flat paint (ick). One 5 gal bucket is a sunny yellow, the other is a soothing sage green. It could be fine for a base coat on the lower walls and as the only coat higher up where poop doesn't reach and up into the loft, but I am getting Oops paint from various places in semi gloss or gloss for the floors and walls where poop will fly.

Today's first Oops paint purchase, Soothing Green Tea, from Walmart. Maybe more like upchuck pea soup from the Exorcist, but hey, a gallon was only $7. Should look fine with the sage green and the sunny yellow flat paint base coats.

It will hide the chicken poop.

Well the peasoup colored poops anyway..haha!

 

[speckledhen]

I have a very similar project coming up. Five years ago I made a deal with my neighbor who needed a place to build his vintage car. He would buy and istall a shop, 24w x32d, on an existing concrete slab on my property and have use of it for five years rent free. In five years he would move out and it would be mine. He is due to be out 3/1 (ish)., so I am glued to this thread and really love your progress. Your getting me pumped to start my work.

What bedding/cleaning method do you plan to use in the pens?

Are you going to put in a loft?

What a cool deal! Congrats on your new space!

Yes to loft, though maybe not over the entire thing. The aisle is not going to be a straight 4'x24' space with the sideways pens at each end as we originally planned, and with us having to turn the gables opposite to the end doors, that means the highest points up there are perpendicular to the aisle. Each pen will have a top and across the aisle, especially where the larger pens come out and make that 4' space, we can join those tops across the aisle in sort of a catwalk. We didn't pay extra for even more height so we won't really be able to stand up fully even at the peak when standing on the top of the pens (which will be just at the top of the windows), but we can climb a ladder, permanent or just one left in the barn, and shove hay bales and shavings up there for storage. It was about $50 extra for an extra foot of leg height over the standard 6', then it went up a lot more in price from there if you wanted more height.

We have always used pine shavings in the coops and I guess we'll continue that since that is what all the birds are used to. I may scatter hay in the aisle area just so the floor isn't bare and give them something to play in when they are roaming around in there.

You can see how the loft will be if you imagine plywood tops on each pen in this drawing. I did change the location of where the D'Anvers would go to the back corner near the roll-up door and Deacon's girls will be in the back center, larger pen. The storage area is 4' wide at the back corner, for empty waterers, feeders, extra feed, etc. The reason for the change in aisle is that when they got here, they put the door offset closer to the back wall, not centered as we ordered so we had to turn Xander's pen sideways, not a big deal but it did change the loft for sure.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I have a thing for pens, yours are really looking good.

 

[speckledhen]

Windows taped and barn ready for paint, yea!

 

[speckledhen]

I think I like this one for the main gate. I'll use the STOP one for the back gate.



I already have a funny for you re: the barn's new occupants. It actually could have ended tragically and I could not have foreseen this one. We unlocked the barn door (both roll-up and entry door are locked every night) and walked inside, and of course, the first group I see belongs to Atlas. I look into the pen. No Atlas. I say, "Where is Atlas????" I think he must be plastered against the front half-wall or behind the feeder so I peer over the wall. No Atlas. I am panicking. Where could he go? He cannot just vanish! After several seconds of looking the place over, all 8x8' of it, DH says, "There he is! He's in there!" He's pointing into the Old Hens' pen. sure enough, there is Atlas, big as you please, in the middle of the pen next to his looking at us looking for him! He didn't make one sound to alert us to his presence there.

First, I panic, thinking he's hurt the old girls who cannot escape his attentions so I'm checking them over while DH picks up Atlas and then we both check his leg he's been favoring. I get right in his face to ask what on earth he was thinking, and he gives me this soft, warm, "hi, Mama" expression while I tell him he's INSANE! He could have landed on one of the old gals, broken his leg, or worse, broken his neck! HOW? He had to fly from the top roost bar, across to the header of the divider wall, a dang fair distance, plus height, for a big rooster! BUT, that is not the craziest. The jump down is 7' from top to floor! SEVEN FEET he jumped and is none the worse for wear. Geez, give me a heart attack, will ya? Bad Atlas!

DH thinks he was getting back at me for adding that board to the back of the nests so he couldn't get face to face with the old hens. I mean, there were girls over there, just out of his reach, right? And he has a thing for my black Ameraucana, Gypsy, who won't give him the time of day. But it doesn't appear that he did anything to them. They don't seem hurt in the least.

So, we fixed his wagon. We did this today with green plastic garden fencing. If he has a stupid moment and tries to jump up through that, he really will kill himself.




In the photo below, you see the old hens' roost and the extra pine board I added. When they were standing on it and Atlas was in the nest, they were face to face. Sometimes, I underestimate his height. Well, he just didn't like that so he went over the wall, LOL.



My redneck barn paper towel holder. This used to be Tiny's old "princess roost", a dowel attached to perforated iron rod, bent to hold the dowel. I was about to disassemble it or find a place for it, then realized I needed a paper towel holder for the barn.




We installed one gate and a good bit of the fencing but we really need to take a break for a day or two. My hands are swollen and hurt from taking apart pens and putting up pens and all the other stuff we've been doing. And there are two chicks in the air cell under Wynette today so I have to watch out for her, to be sure she doesn't try to murder them. My bator is ready, just in case.

 

[speckledhen]

The barn got a screen door today, moved from Xander's old coop. It fits the width but is a tad short so will have to add a screen from the top beam down to fill in that space to make it safe from hawks, etc. It will be great in summer when we don't want them outside or when we just have to be gone in the heat of the day or just to leave the barn open later in the day to dissipate heat.

I got a nice spider bite on my neck from disassembling that old building. It's full of the tiniest spiders you ever saw, some almost invisible to the naked eye. Ouch. Now, I have a huge red welt on my neck that itches like crazy.

 

[speckledhen]

lol yikes!
How'd you do that.....get video?

Video? Heck, no! Was trying to keep DH from killing himself. When all the plywood, or almost all, was off the sides and most of the 2x4 wall supports, the heavy 8x12 side began to list to the back. The entire building would sway if you pushed it. So, he got an old jack that we got from my dad's house and jacked up the side closest to the other coop so it would be encouraged to go back to the left. Then, he used a sledge hammer to knock one of the cinder blocks from a back, inside corner to further encourage it to drop down and to the left. Then, he pulled on it with the nylon rope he had attached to an oak tree. When the entire thing started to go, he got the heck out of the way and it just came down. Could have taken out the pen for the little coop if we had not done it that way. Winds were high, too, scary for a bit.


ETA: Unexpectedly, just after it came down, the gas company showed up to fill our 100 gal bottle. Guy says, "Little problem with your building?".

Had to explain that we did it on purpose.

It's pouring rain out there now, washing all the dust from those 2x4's (lots more are piled up against our basement). Hope the OSB on those floors is in good enough shape to use. The outside siding plywood was not at all usable, way too brittle, just fodder for the burn pile. It was only 3/8" anyway and much at the bottom was water-damaged.

 

[speckledhen]

More progress in demolition today. Had to quit. My hands hurt after removing shingles (lots of usable ones left to re-do the front of the other building) and nails. One sheet of OSB on the floor, which I did not recall being 3/4", was crushed when the rest of the roof slid down, but there are still 4 good sheets there. And the rafters are either 10' or 12' 2x4's so plenty of lumber to get the loft and floor structure finished in the new barn. Gosh, probably enough to build another building or a lean-to to store firewood or whatever. But we want the entire area tilled, seeded and cleaned of all trash and construction debris and looking orderly again.