Steadfast's 1st Coop (Ton's of Photos)

[Steadfast]

I found I am making far to much power and my load dump is having to waste A LOT of it to presearve my batteries. So, I figuired my Birdy Ladies could enjoy the power more than my load dump does. So, I hooked up our Coop to our shed.

HERE is the Process:

Ya gotta have a plan


1st. Bury the electric line from power plant to coop. (AC travels better than DC) I used a tiller to loosen up the ground. And laid out my 50ft pvc incased 12awg wire.

Dig out the 18" trench, bury the pvc sheathed wire, star covering it up.


I discovered that ditch diggers are REAL MEN... Unlike me... but that's fine by me too.



As I was hooking up the electrical outlet boxes inside the chicken coop's shed, I noticed I had spectators staring at me from the pens.


And now the Video of the final electrical improvements...
(Hey, I was tired and got sick of taking pictures)

 

[Snooglerat]

"wife's fake flowers. Fool her twice, no way!" My favorite part

lol Very good job! AND all solar! Too cool.

 

[Steadfast]

OK… our Bantams where getting their little fluffy butts kicked by our bigger chickens.
So, we are going to separate out the bantams and let them form their own flock.
But THAT means I gotta build a separate coop and run… Oh God, Save me!

Here are the latest changes to our hopefully no longer expanding Chicken coop.

This is where we left off the last time you saw it:

Let’s start by looking at the inside changes:
As you may remember, we built two chicken pens inside the shed part of the coop. we tore out the separator wall and expanded the top up into the rafters which turned the two pens into one big space, which will become the bantam’s new coop.

So, how do these little guys get to their separate run?
The answer: Think of a “Hamster Habi-Trail”!
That’s right, we added a hallway coming out of the new coop running across the old self of the shed through the opposite wall to access the run.

Here is the new sliding door at the end of the hallway that opens to give our bantams access to the run.

Looking down the bantam hallway from their run towards their pens/coop.

Check out our Golden Sebright in the hall… how cute is THAT!

Next, lets discuss the bantams New, out door, filtered, watering fountain.
Here is the fountain with a single nipple, cut from the big bird’s fountain:

Now, fallow the water pipe passing through the coop’s shed:

And Walla, it connects into the Big Chicken’s filtered water fountain line:

Finally, the bantam’s new outdoor run construction.
Placing and concreting in the beams:

Fast forward in time a day of construction, filled with blood, sweat, and tears:

Notice the Totally Cool stairway going up to the hallway door?

The only thing left is to add the red roof and to stain the new run…
Which I will post when done.

 

[Steadfast]

This is a photo of out 3 baby Bantam Chickens.
For whom all these goings on and hair pulling is for.

You have heard of chickens being “underfoot”.
While working on the run, this one became "under arm".

Teaching the new baby bantam how to use the new water fountain.
With the “experienced” Golden Neck Bantam looking on in approval.
yes, she did figuire it out...

Here is the new Bantam run with it new roof installed.

Normally,
I would have installed a thinner roost,
but these adolescent (previously pen-bound) bantams are not so good at their acrobatics yet.

We hung their feeder from a swing set chain so that they would not kick stuff into it,
and be forced to "go outside" to eat.

Bantam coop’s new sleeping roost latter.

 

[Steadfast]

NOW, Its Getting cold at night around here. 40f and below.

So, I had to build winterization walls for the bantam coop.
(The new removable walls still need some wood stain)

I installed the triangles at the top and plexiglass onto windows of the big chicken's tower.

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