I probably won’t redo mine, but if I were to make a new one eventually, I think it would be worth going out and buying the long bolts and some of those white pieces.
Well
@aart , I’m eating my words. I am redoing one of mine. I lost a chick to an MHP accident. You can see in this picture that there are no legs at the front corners.
Instead I have it supported by that plastic basket thing in the middle front. Last year I had that basket securely zip-tied to the frame. It worked great. The chicks had wrap-around entry ways on the sides and the front corners. This year I got lazy and tried to cut corners by only sewing that basket to the purple fabric cover. I should have known that wouldn’t be stable enough. One morning after the chicks were about 4 weeks old, I found the basket flipped forward, no longer supporting the front of the MHP. And there was a dead cockerel trapped underneath. I took the MHP away, since the chicks were feathered enough to not need it any more.
Now I need it for a new group of chicks, so I’m going to try to make it more like Aart’s.
This is the base frame I am using. It has a piece that goes along the whole back to serve as the back legs. (I have no idea what this was from. I just found it at Goodwill. That back part folds, so I zipped tied it in position.)
I was looking at carriage bolts at
TSC, and I saw the nuts and washers next to them, and decided to use them instead of making a “large wooden washer“ Two huge washers on either side of the wire frame, two smaller washers to keep the nuts from falling through the holes of the big washers, and of course two nuts to hold them at whatever height on the carriage bolt leg I want. Ta-da! Adjustable legs!
Now I just have to reattach the heat pad and make a new cloth cover.
Hmmm...can I use "EngiTinkering" when playing scrabble? 
