Chooks on holiday!

[OScarlet]

Our chickens are going on holiday! Our friends have offered to look after them while we are away and to save them having to run all over kingdom come looking after them we decided to take them to our friends. Problem is though that our friend's gate is less than 3ft wide and not terribly tall (it is metal and has a bar above it). So I came up with this design that should (haven't tried yet!) fit in DHs truck bed (less than 5' wide and about 7' long). My whole family has been working on it to get it ready and we are nearly done! Please excuse our very very messy yard, we are not tidy people and have been building coops for the last three months!



DH fitting the wire to the hoops with pipe clamps


It is lightweight and very sturdy. I was able to lift it by myself (awkwardly, I don't recommend it) and we are going to fit removable wheels with the left over emt pipe. The big plywood door is removable with hinges that have had the pins replaced with cotter pins so it makes the coop even lighter to carry. I'm making a pipe/nipple system to fit to it and we are going to make a portable version of our electric wire system with a stool from IKEA and some tubing and wire.

 

[aart]

Very cool! I used 3/4 EMT for my run...see My Coop page.

 

[perchie.girl]

"easy Jobs" come about with good planning and Knowledge of materials..... LOL... not so easy if you havent got the skills to think it through.

Designing for simple is also very much harder.... I know.

deb

 

[Clarebaxter]

Very cool but predators could dig under it.

 

[OScarlet]

we have cut some aprons and made some wire pegs for them plus we have a pretty hefty electric system which is going to go with the coop

 

[aart]

Is that EMT electrical conduit?

How'd he bend those big curves at the top?

Nice bend overs on the edges of the hardware cloth too...how'd he do that?

 

[OScarlet]

We bent the wire over by hand then my husband hammered it flat. I wanted a stiffer edge that was less pokey!

as for the pipe, yes, emt, I sketched the details I wanted for my son then he drew a rough version of it in sketchup and he calculated that we needed to bend 70o angles. We bent the angles with a pipe bender and it looked like

__
/ \

then he flipped them over, stood in the middle and reached out and grabbed each end piece and pulled them up. He had to move his feet back and forth to get a nice curve. Then we would compare it to the previously bent one and re-bend to get it to match. He found it pretty easy to do.

The original design had the hardware cloth sandwiched between the pipe and the frame with the frame on the outside, but my husband cut the frame wrong so we put the pipes on the outside. If I did it all over I would go back to the original design.

There is an aluminium right angle piece that braces the hoops. It really added to the sturdyness of the piece, as did the left over cedar picket pieces roped into being corner braces. It is a really strong and study yet lightweight coop.

 

[OScarlet]

Your run was partly the inspiration of my arches

Last minute additions...



Removable wheels using pipe clamps and left over EMT pipe. Wheels from Harbor freight.

Handles for manhandling coop sideways through garden gates

grit cup from recycled mint container

PVC pipe waterer and feeder.

Chickens are doing a trial run tonight, they are a little confused but hopefully comfortable

Couldn't get electric fence ready in time but I bought some steel tent pegs to hold down aprons from walmart and they worked great in our horrid rocky soil.

 

[OScarlet]

Bockens spent their first night in the run and were not very happy about it but are doing fine this morning and making happy bocken sounds.

 

[aart]

Interesting PVC feeder.....susceptible to rainwater tho isn't it?