Quote:
The plans for the gazebo are here (if you passed elementary math and have some spacial logic you can resize them):
http://www.buildeazy.com/fp_gazeboimp_0.html
The 3-D modeling software is free from Google and called SketchUp
Framing is most likely 4x4 posts under the nesting area and 2x4 for supporting beams and 2x2 for decorative type stuff. As we have a free "too good to trash" site for building materials at our local dump... it may depend on what they have. We would really like to build it out of as much "recycled" materials as possible.
The roof will hopefully be out of vinyl roofing... but may be metal.
The floor of the roosting box may be bare ground with pine pellet deep cover method (I think that was the rightish term... I am learning). The nesting box will be linoleum with pine pellets... easier for cleaning and disinfection if needed.
The insulation idea comes from my second choice plan. Hold on to your seat...
Wattle and daub!
My BF and I (and the kids in fact) are re-enactors at the Virginia Renaissance Faire. My second choice plan was a wattle and daub structure in historical Tudor fashion! Wattle and daub is not hard... but IS messy and can take some upkeep for the exterior when it will be subjected to harsh weather. On the inside and covered with a lime plaster... it should outlast the rest of the darn coop! LOL
Roosting perches will be free-standing PVC pipe wrapped with vetwrap. We use these for our parrots! They are able to be made in any configuration your mind can dream up, available in different diameters to give feet a workout, easy to disinfect, clean, remove, and change... and you just replace the vetwrap every 6 months to a year!
This coop will be used in conjunction with a large chicken tractor that will be housing the young birds while we build this monstrosity. While we work on the coop, the tractor will be clearing and preparing the ground where we hope to put our garden in late spring/early summer! With any luck, the youngsters will eat and kill off the vegetation where we want to plant (a layer of grass clippings will be tossed in regularly and the tractor will be moved every other day to cycle around the area... we want a BIG garden.) and will self till and fertilize the spot as well! They will of course have shelter at one end for nightime and a roof on a good portion of it for inclimate weather. They will not need the nesting boxes for a good few months after all!
After this, the tractor can be used for spot weeding and as a "poultry playpen" if we are gone for most of the day and they cannot free-range at all.
We hope to have about 6 Welsummers. Perhaps just a few Americaunas for egg fun. Also a few Silkies for my daughter for 4-H and brooding out any babies we may wish to raise. I am still looking for somewhere to get a quality Wellie Roo and nice silkies. No luck as yet.
If I build it... willl they come do you think? LOL
