Building the Chicken McMansion (Part 3)

[pacetruckguy]

I'm having some uploading issues, along with some other computer problems. But anyway, the huge egg I showed you yesterday I ate this morning, and somehow magically the picture I showed you of the egg turned into the picture of it in the pan. Don't ask me how or why. But, Ill tell you this, they can lay as many of those they want to.

 

[pacetruckguy]

You need to go back to page 10 to see it.

 

[Chieftain]

Updating....

It's been raining pitchforks and naked babies here for a couple of days now, and today it is cold enough again to have a fire in the woodstove.

Spring has sprung here though, and over the past few weeks I have managed to get some serious landscaping done, and since our cherry trees are in blossom now, I decided it was time to update the McMansion pictures.

You can see our Rosemary is in bloom in the foreground of the second picture...

My future Son in law came over a week or so ago, and we hauled and spread a cubic yard of topsoil on half of the yard, and seeded it. It's still covered in straw but the seed is germinating and the old grass underneath is coming back in as well. The idea was to level the yard after all the construction, and this did work out well. I also removed two old timber flower beds from around the cherries and expanded the bed to include both trees. The Missus had me put in some hostas down the middle and she has plans for annuals later this Spring. It's coming along, and will look a lot better out there once the grass comes in and we can get rid of the straw.

There are only 2 hens in the coop currently, but the Golden sex links are going back out there on the next nice day we have, because they will be big enough to hold their own in the peck order discussions to come. At some point the four of them have to sort things out...

All continues well here, despite the deluge...

Cheers!

 

[pacetruckguy]

Chieftain,
Looking good dude!

You have been a busy beaver. I got the tractor out over the weekend and plowed up some dirt where I think we might try to get a garden in this year. Started raining off and on yesterday, and looks like it's going to continue through the week. Oh well it gives me an excuse to put it off for another week or so.
Still getting a half a dozen eggs a day. Too many to eat, not enough to sell, so I now have some very appreciative friends. Keep up the updates. John

 

[j3707]

Nice! That coop really looks sharp back there.

I plan on getting a couple GSLs in a few weeks. Then I'll have white and brown eggs --- and I'll be able to see which breed is laying more.

Right now I'm busy finishing up the chicken run and, oh, a few dozen other little projects...

Those wild cherries?

 

[Chieftain]

Quote:
One of the cherries is a Ranier which is a yellow cherry, and the other is a Bing which gets almost black when it's ripe. Both give us a ton more fruit than we can use every year but that's OK.

The GSLs are supposed to be even better layers than the RIRs are, and for certain they are a lot more vigorous. I think the younger GSLs will eventually rule the roost, but I have 2 Black Jersey Giants in the brooder, and a 10 pound hen does just about anything it wants, so peck order discussions may be moot....

Glad ya like the coop! I'm hoping someone takes my design and makes it even better....

 

[prairiepearls]

Beautiful! Even with the straw! Love the moss on your trees -- here in dry Kansas, we almost never see moss! Your coop & documentation of it are such an inspiration!

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

What a nice looking coop/run...it adds a lot to the beauty of your yard...who'd a thunk it?? I'm getting just as excited about painting and decorating my coop as I am building it!!
Seeing coops like yours inspires me

 

[Chieftain]

Thanks folks, I do appreciate your kind words...

We're back up to 4 birds now, 2 of the original RIR hens, and our two Golden sex links. I think they are getting close to a peace treaty out there, but there is still a lot of chasing going on. The GSLs are 4 weeks behind the RIRs and have some catching up to do, bu they are holding their own.

I can't sell the covered, sand over gravel run enough either. It has stayed perfectly dry and doesn't smell one bit...

 

[Chieftain]

I've been making slow progress on the permanent wiring of the McMansion. Since I built it, I have had a long extension cord running from my shop out to the coop so I could use the lights. Now that the weather has moderated, it is time to put in something safer and more permanent. Total material for this phase will be about $75 or so, the wire being the most expensive piece.

I have a good friend up the street who is a professional Journeyman electrician, and he took a look at what I proposed doing and blessed it. He knows the local electrical code so I will be doing this right the first time.

Based on measurements between my shop and the coop, I bought a 50' length of 12-2 conductor that is rated for ground burial. It is gray in color, very stiff, and about $1 per foot, so only buy what you really need. The wire must be in conduit from the point where it leaves the structure until it enters the ground. I installed a piece of 1/2" plastic conduit into the coops's junction box that I installed back in January, and secured it to the 4x4 post on that corner of the run. The end of it is well below ground level and covered by the wire mesh apron and landscaping rock.

I went out today and got about 12 feet of trench dug, wire installed, re-buried and the ground tamped before it started raining again. It's all grunt work because it has to be 18" deep. I have a narrow shovel for trenching, and the soil is soft enough that it digs fairly easy at this point. I am coming into an area that has never been disturbed and has lots of rocks, so this may be a bit of a slog.

Once I get the wire to the nearest corner of the shop, I can come out of the trench with another short conduit run up and through the wall into the shop itself. Then it is a matter of mounting another junction box, transitioning to regular interior grade 12-2 Romex wire and running it to the circuit breaker inside the shop. I have an empty socket and a spare 15 amp circuit breaker for the coop so it will be on it's own. Once it's wired properly, I will wire that circuit up with a Ground Fault Interrupter just for good measure.

It's pretty straight forward work, the important point is to make sure you use the right size wire for your particular coop. There are larger sizes of this wire available if your current load is going to be higher, but 12-2 is plenty big for my little coop. If you have questions, most of the home centers usually have an electrician around who can advise you on what materials you will need. If you are lucky enough to have a pair of teenage boys around to do the digging for you, then you can stand around with a cup of coffee in your hand instead of a shovel, and supervise.

As always, the final requirements and the result is determined by your needs and the local electrical code. Be safe, and work smart!

Cheers, and happy digging!