Conversion of "3 sides totally open" aviary to a "good for chickens" coop.

[paneubert]

Hey @aart , guess who has a leaky nipple! Haha. One of the 5 has a really slow leak from the O-ring. Not to the point where it would drain the waterer, and probably not even to the point where it would drip before a chick came along and took a sip, but still annoying! I may try to vaseline the O-ring when it comes time to use this contraption. I know than can weaken the O-ring, but I am not super worried since this isn't a high pressure location where the O-ring is life sustaining or anything.

Wait......I just remembered that I can benefit from another crossover between hobbies! I have a tube of O-ring lubricant in my box of homebrewing stuff! Woot!

 

[aart]

Hey @aart , guess who has a leaky nipple! Haha. One of the 5 has a really slow leak from the O-ring. Not to the point where it would drain the waterer, and probably not even to the point where it would drip before a chick came along and took a sip, but still annoying! I may try to vaseline the O-ring when it comes time to use this contraption. I know than can weaken the O-ring, but I am not super worried since this isn't a high pressure location where the O-ring is life sustaining or anything.

Wait......I just remembered that I can benefit from another crossover between hobbies! I have a tube of O-ring lubricant in my box of homebrewing stuff! Woot!

I've had one truly 'bad seal' on an HN (out of a couple dozen),
...probably a molding booger on oring seat, I just tossed it
Have had a piece of drilled plastic get stuck in seal and prevent it from fully closing.
I wouldn't use lubricant....it's not really that kind of a situation.

 

[paneubert]

I've had one truly 'bad seal' on an HN (out of a couple dozen),
...probably a molding booger on oring seat, I just tossed it
Have had a piece of drilled plastic get stuck in seal and prevent it from fully closing.
I wouldn't use lubricant....it's not really that kind of a situation.

Yeah, I'm not going to stress out over it. Mostly was meant as a fun side project during the snow for the chicks. Still off work today due to the UW being closed. Tomorrow looks like it may be the same story. Might put it in the brooder alongside my open waterer just to get them used to it. Like you mentioned you do in one of the other recent threads about waterers.

But......drumroll please.... "Now we are cooking with gas" as they say when it comes to a custom feeder.

After cracking one of these thin walled clear storage bins when trying to drill it for use as a waste free PVC elbow feeder...

I decided to go big or go home. Introducing the 20 gallon hazardous waste recovery barrel. Hahaha. This thing has thick walls, a ribbed/thick plastic lid, a hefty silicone gasket in the lid, and a metal band closure that seals the lid on tight!

Says on the spec sheet to not load more than 200 pounds of hazardous waste in it. So we should be ok with a bag or two of chicken feed.

I need to get my calipers out, but I think the 3.56 mm reference molded in to the container is the wall thickness. Seems about right at about .15 inches thick.

 

[aart]

After cracking one of these thin walled clear storage bins when trying to drill it for use as a waste free PVC elbow feeder...

That plastic can be tricky to cut.

 

[paneubert]

That plastic can be tricky to cut.

True story. I was using a 4 inch hole saw. Had it probably 75% thru and then I think I must have angled it a bit and the teeth bit into the plastic on one point of the tub more than the other and cracked it all the way up to to the rim. Probably would have worked better if I did it by hand with a fine tooth saw blade after drilling a much smaller pilot hole.

Specs on the new yellow drum say it is blow-molded high-density polyethylene (HDPE). So should hopefully be easier to drill and much less "brittle". It seems silly that I can drill a glass fish tank to plumb in a sump without cracking the glass, but I can't seem to drill a plastic tote. Haha.

 

[paneubert]

So.......random drip has developed in the roof. Close to the corner of the roost where it intersects with the ramp, so about midway down and midway from side to side in roofing panel. The left front side of my poop board is all wet now from who knows how many slow drips of water from the snow melting above.

I think when I added the wind shield and roosts/poop board a few weeks back, the existing roof must have been bumped up and leveled out a little and some drips are now running back from the edge instead of flowing off. Like when you pour a liquid from a glass and don't have a large enough incline and the liquid runs down the side of the glass or cup. Seems hard to believe I would have changed the roof slope that much, but that seems to be what is happening...... I can't imagine it is an actual hole in the roofing panel since they are all protected by the wood decking above.

Hard to diagnose for sure since it got dark fast after I noticed it. Guess I will have to go figure it out tomorrow...... Snow will still be melting, so should have the drip still happening and hopefully the ability to trace it to the source.

 

[paneubert]

Confirmed. It seems the roofing panel collects just enough water mid span to bow just enough to both collect a little more water (vicious cycle), and have the water at the end create a slow "drip back" that flows along the underside just far enough to drip to the floor just beyond where the next roof panel would have caught it. Hard to visualize without photos, I know. It is actively raining right now, and most of my ideas for long term correction need to wait until I can dry it out a bit. So I hope it stops raining soon....

First idea is to reinforce the span so it can't bow at all. May or may not be as easy as it sounds. Second idea involves some expanding spray foam insulation between some roof panels. We will see!

Guess the positive in this is that the coop is still unoccupied, and I did not have any PDZ on the poop board. So all that happened was everything within about a 2 foot circle got nice and wet....

 

[TashaFrancois]

I would love if you all would post your diy coops here!

 

[paneubert]

Got the roof drip fixed via a combination of correcting a bit of sag along with some spray foam insulation. Next rain will show it it is really fixed, but I think we are good to go.

Decided to close up a bit more of the long wall with another clear panel. The paneling now goes down as far as the wood crossbeam you can see. Basically the top half/two thirds of the wire wall now has clear paneling on the interior. Should keep a little more rain out. Still a lot of ventilation.

Did a bit of work to make my electrical in the coop look a little more organized. Mostly via some large screw hooks up near the ceiling to coil the extra from the extension cord I have running in to the coop. I have about 20 feet of cord inside the coop so that I can have the plug extend to wherever in the coop I need it. While I don't prefer running a cord in there, it is at least plugged in to a GFCI exterior outlet on the deck above the coop, which has tripped in the past due to some bad Christmas lights. So I know it is functional. Only electrical I plan to use is my chick heating plate while they are brooding in there, and then during the winter it will power the stock tank deicer I use in the water bucket. Ohh, and the "Coop Cam".

 

[aart]

Next rain will show it it is really fixed, but I think we are good to go.

Get out the garden hose and find out now?