Yes they were cut at an angle...but we just had to kind of wing it 'cause I have no miter box/saw and have no idea how to figure that anyway!
Also the whole thing was put together with wood screws and the hardware cloth we used U-nails.
As far as the dimensions......On the Forsham website the dimensions listed are: 2300 Length
1300 Width
1150 Height
I had no idea what units of measure that was in so guessed that millimeters may be close and used an online conversion website to convert those numbers (assuming they are millimeters) into feet which came out to approximately: 8 Ft Length
4 Ft Width
4 Ft Height *I rounded all these up
the 1x4 in the pic that has the handles cut into it is exactly 8 Ft as this is the length the 1x4's came. Then we just cut the others a decided lenght smaller (can't remember what but you can guess from the pic? Maybe 7' or 7 1/2' ?)
As far as the square feet of living space?? I had no clue...in case you can't tell I don't do math!! All I knew was that we were going to have 5-6 chickens in this...and just thought it should work!!
If I remember right...each nesting box is about a foot long so with approx 2 ft of nesting space..the roosting area lenght is around 5 ft. I was really worried about the "headroom" (I call it) in there...but my chickens when they roost always seemed to kind of squat down on the roost even when they were smaller.
The only thing I'm worried about now is whether or not the nesting area is big enough. I think it is big enough for them to lay eggs in but even with an inch or two of lip they tended to scratch out all of the straw or bedding and I'm worried about broken eggs when they do start laying. but I figure I can lower the bottom board of the nest some and attach it to the bottom of that 1x4 you see in the pic. Right now the bottom board is probably less than two inches down from the top of that 1x4 that makes the nest area...but we'll see. When they were little...to prevent them from sleeping in the nest boxes we tacked up a piece of card board to keep them out and force them to roost. They are within 2-3 weeks of laying age and so we will be opening them up soon and see how it goes.
If I was to make another one like this....I would make the nesting area a little bigger...which would be better done by making the heighth taller....I think I'd make it 4 1/2' tall instead of 4'. Also we originally had only one end that opened up...but eventually make the other end so it would open too. Oh yeah...on the bottom of those ends we used these things that are corner reinforcers...small ones...these were put on...two on each end so that it works to hold the bottom of the door in....I can get a pic of that if you'd like....it's hard to explain.
Sorry about the length of this...hope it's clear...if not...just ask away...let me know if you want a pic of the ends with the corner thingy!!!
