Large, Open-Air Coop in Central NC

[Sally PB]

Sounds like progress!

How's the cut on your scalp? All healed up?

 

[3KillerBs]

Sounds like progress!

How's the cut on your scalp? All healed up?

Yes. Fully healed.

We'll be putting some of that wire on tonight after dinner.

 

[Sally PB]

When is move in day?

 

[3KillerBs]

We've got a little more wire to install and need a few more fence boards for siding.

 

[3KillerBs]

Speaking of more wire, we finished the wire on the nest box wall and got all but the two tallest, most difficult panels onto the upper section. The Clerestory wire will require the most complicated cutting so that will be last.

 

[3KillerBs]

When DH got home he decided to get a bit done before the rain started.

 

[Brooks_]

When DH got home he decided to get a bit done before the rain started.

View attachment 2827084

Just remember if your coop disappears in the middle of the night, it wasn't me. And the cart looks like mine...love that thing.

 

[3KillerBs]

Just remember if your coop disappears in the middle of the night, it wasn't me. And the cart looks like mine...love that thing.

The Gorilla cart was my birthday present last year. SO much better than a wheelbarrow.

 

[3KillerBs]

This morning's work -- cutting the last of the wire, which was not hard, but took another set of hands, and installing the inner skirt to keep the Deep Litter off the structural wood.

That last is not needed in most places, but since we saw what the combination of Deep Litter composting action, wood-eating insects, and a hot, wet climate did to the Little Monitor Coop we're doing the extra work to protect the structure.

We divided the 4x8 sheets of this material into 16" strips. 12" might have been fine, but the coop is on a slope so I know that the bedding will migrate downhill.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/PLAS-TE...wall-Plastic-Panel-10048615/311314398#overlay

We started in a corner, knowing that, like the anti-dig apron, we'd have to install a couple patch pieces and planning to keep those pieces away from the doors. Fender washer are holding it securely. Smaller washers might have worked, but we have fender washers.

We also wrapped the center post.

I don't anticipate trouble with the chickens seeing out because the bedding will accumulate and they can always stand on the run clutter.

Some of it curls away from the wire a bit. I will probably have to wire it to the hardware cloth in those places.

 

[3KillerBs]

While doing the above work, it was intermittently raining -- sometimes lightly and sometimes torrentially.

Only the heaviest wind managed to blow a mist through the clerestory -- which could easily be avoided by moving to the sheltered, uphill end even with one side still lacking the siding boards.