We seperated our bantams from our standards this weekend by moving the 6 bantams into the smaller "log" coop that we built last year. Since we had moved the larger nesting boxes into the newer/larger coop, we had to build some new nesting boxes.
As we were looking around the garage for some materials, DH remembered that we still had a couple more of the old bi-fold doors that we had taken out of the house. We had previously used some of them to build the double doors and pop doors for the "log" coop and they have done great.
First we found a piece of 10 1/2" by 26" 1/2" thick plywood left over from building the big coop. It was already cut to the perfect size for our purposes so that saved a little time and effort.
After studying the bi-fold door, which happened to be just a touch wider than the plywood, DH decided to use the bottom, solid portion of it for the two end panels.
He cut them so that they are 14" in the back and 12" in the front to give the roof a slope that will (hopefully) keep them from roosting on the top.
That used up all of the solid portion of the door, so he cut the center divider out of the louvered part.
.
The ends and divider were screwed to the plywood bottom at the thickest part of the door panel. He used the remaining portion of the louver for the top, cutting between the louvers and added some pieces of furring strips that we already had on hand.
I located some pretty blue spray paint that I had used on another project and took the boxes outside to paint them.
After the paint dried, we installed the new nesting boxes in the coop.
They cost us virtually nothing, since all of the materials were left over from other projects and they only took about an hour to build and paint.
Now they are ready whenever the bantams begin to lay. I love the "beachy" color and I'm so pleased that we were able to build such cute nesting boxes out of materials that we already had on hand. And everybody knows that "cute" is so important to the chickens!
As we were looking around the garage for some materials, DH remembered that we still had a couple more of the old bi-fold doors that we had taken out of the house. We had previously used some of them to build the double doors and pop doors for the "log" coop and they have done great.
First we found a piece of 10 1/2" by 26" 1/2" thick plywood left over from building the big coop. It was already cut to the perfect size for our purposes so that saved a little time and effort.
After studying the bi-fold door, which happened to be just a touch wider than the plywood, DH decided to use the bottom, solid portion of it for the two end panels.
He cut them so that they are 14" in the back and 12" in the front to give the roof a slope that will (hopefully) keep them from roosting on the top.
That used up all of the solid portion of the door, so he cut the center divider out of the louvered part.
The ends and divider were screwed to the plywood bottom at the thickest part of the door panel. He used the remaining portion of the louver for the top, cutting between the louvers and added some pieces of furring strips that we already had on hand.
I located some pretty blue spray paint that I had used on another project and took the boxes outside to paint them.
After the paint dried, we installed the new nesting boxes in the coop.
They cost us virtually nothing, since all of the materials were left over from other projects and they only took about an hour to build and paint.
Now they are ready whenever the bantams begin to lay. I love the "beachy" color and I'm so pleased that we were able to build such cute nesting boxes out of materials that we already had on hand. And everybody knows that "cute" is so important to the chickens!
