Chicken Math - I should have taken more heed

[mummyandchicks]

Hi everyone
I'm very new to chooks - Novemeber 9 I picked up our days chicks. We now have 4 bantam partridge wyandotte 10 week old chicks. I purchased a pre made coop and run.

It's an imported fir pine coop and run. The run is 1.2m wide by 1.8m long by 70cm high. It's okay but.......

....next spring I'd like to get 2 or 3 light sussex bantam hens.

When we started this chook adventure I said 'oh no just 4 will be fine'. I even read about chicken math syndrome. 'Oh no that won't happen to me' I said.

Stop your laughing please.

We also like chicken TV. My 7 and 5 (as of today) children and I like to sit in the run (the roof folds back) and play with our girls (named Penny, Princess, Art and Icebird).

The run doesn't allow space for extra girls nor family fun time in our 'chicken city'.

So me, with not many wood working skills, has decided to build a new run. The small run will be repurposed as a play yard in the dirt (my run and coop are sand).

Here's the plan.

Yesterday I ordered wood to build a 3.65m long by 1.5m deep by 1.8m high run. I'm using H3 treated pine with 1/2 inch mesh and shade cloth over the top (no snow and not too many rainy days in Canberra Australia plus a periodical wash of the sand would be good). I'll build a table 25 inches high and place place the coop on it.

I expect it will take a number of weeks just pottering at it.

It gets delivered tomorrow. I'm a bit keen to get started. Tomorrow I plan to mark up the top and bottom lengths ready for Saturday.

Here I go -fingers crossed

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It is an excellent idea to have at least 2 housing options to keep chickens for more reasons than I can name.

 

[aart]

It is an excellent idea to have at least 2 housing options to keep chickens for more reasons than I can name.

......and THAT is the only good thing about those prefabbed chicken coops!


Happy Birthday to mummyandchicks and her 5 year old!
Good luck with your coop build!

 

[mummyandchicks]

Thanks for your birthday wishes Aart. And I can see the wisdom in your words Chickencanoe - I'll need that extra run next November when my light sussex bantams come.

Today my wood arrived. Bunnings had cut the 3.6m and 1.8m lengths for me - thank you Bunnings. I sorted out all the lengths, marked up the 3.6m lengths, and then put one frame together. I'm right chuffed with myself. It's turned out pretty good (took 3 hours in total). The mitre box helped keep it all straight. Grace, my 7 year old, 'helped' alot. My goal tomorrow is to build the other long frame.

 

[mummyandchicks]

Today I finished all of the construction - I couldn't believe it. The kids were so good that I was able to work all day.

So I've completed all four side frames, the door, the chicken table (the ground level coop will sit on this), the resting perch (a perch with 80cm by 25cm peice of wood screwed on that the girls like to lounge on) and the shorter perch to help them up to the lounge area.

Next job is to paint. Yuk.