My "Garden Coop" project: The inside is finished! *NEW PICS*

[Nonny]

Day 8 - Spent seemingly forever trying to get the piers all level. The front ones had to be dug in almost to the ground, the back ones had to sit straight on the ground, and one was still too low and needed the ground to be built up a little. I'm sure I should have done it all properly and I'll regret it later, but after so much faffing around I decided "near enough is good enough" and put the frame on top. Happily, the frame shows as pretty close to level (like only a couple of mm's out).

Day 9 - Spent the morning in the hardware store picking out roofing materials and wood for the rafters and purlins. Since I don't have a truck, ute or even towbar I'm limited to what can fit in my hatchback car. Very annoyed that I had to get 4.8m lengths of timber cut down to 2.4m to fit in the car, only to reassemble them into longer pieces when I get back home since the roof is 3.6m long. LOL Oh well.

On the way back from the hardware store I notice half our neighbourhood has left piles of timber on the side of the road for the council collection, so I'm going to send hubby out once the car is empty to see if we can scrounge enough to do the siding on the coop.

 

[S.L.Swope]

If you need more wood just buy the longer lengths and tie the trunk closed. Here in Texas if it sticks out more than a few feet all you have to do it staple or tie a red flag to it so other motorist can see it. I just used piece of old shirt that we use for rags but some hardware stores provide red ties for free

 

[Nonny]

I thought about this, but my car is short and the wood would have been just about touching the ground making it unsafe to drive - my car can only fit 1.5m of it, so the remaining 3m would have been hanging out the back.

With a bit of hindsight, I should have taken the towball option when I got my car but at the time I thought "Why would I need a towbar?"

 

[ryan820]

Well done, really! You must be so proud of your accomplishment thus far. I love the idea of the clear roof. I plan on using something like that on my next coop (plus an old sliding glass door) to maximize the light my chooks get! Again, well done!

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
I love the clear roof as well.

 

[chicharomirinda]

good progress! I also have small cars and can fit quite a bit with the seat that folds down. I get weird looks in the parking lot as I'm cramming stuff into my clown car but oh well! One time I was getting boxes of flooring loaded into my car and the home depot employee said, "Why don't you call your husband and have him bring your truck?"

Um, I think if I actually had a truck I probably would have driven it to the store! Many of the employees are helpful but some are a bit sexist and condescending.

 

[Nonny]

I've lost track of how many day's I've spent on it now, and had to take some time off with a broken foot, plus we lost FLorin to a respiratory infection and it kind of kerbed my enthusiasm for a while.

The last two weeks I've taken it easy and done lots of painting instead. Today I finally felt stable enough on my feet to get up a ladder so spent the day installing the roof bits. I still have to put on the polycarbonate sheeting for the roof, but that's a job for another day.

Progress so far:

Penny giving me a hurry up... Tuppence with her head in the feeder as usual:

Our new chicks arrive in 2 weeks.

 

[Nonny]

Wouldn't you know it - I had a friend all set to come over today and babysit the kids so I could get out there and wrap the hardware cloth around the frame.... and it's piddling down with rain.

My new chicks arrive in only 12 days and I need to move the bigger girls into the new coop in time to give the smaller one a good cleanout and sanitise and make sure it's safe for the newbies by the time they're out of the brooder.

 

[Nonny]

Progress is painfully slow at the moment - too much going on with Christmas preparations, plus daycare finishing up for the year means I now have two toddlers to work around, and DP is still flat out working almost 24/7 so can't really lend a hand.

Anyway.... a quick couple of photos to show progress to date.

The bits missing from the front have been taken out to cut a door into them for nest box access.

Front view. Thge loose bits of wire at the top are actually scrap pieces... I found the top of the wire up there is a good place to keep stuff out of reach of small hands.

I built a door yesterday and I'm waiting for the paint to dry before I hang it and add the door stops.

Only a few weeks to go before I need to be using this!

I hope I get it finished in time!

 

[whitejerabias]

Subbing! This looks great. Are you going to be incorporating a garden into the run? I adore your treadle feeder. I'd love to see plans or where you found them. Will you have to find a new solution for the chicks? I can't imagine they'd be heavy enough to work it for a while.