We have coop. Phase two.

One must be centered before one works

This past Saturday morning was a lovely morning. So lovely in fact I had a little to eat and then went right to work on the next phase of the coop. I am calling this phase two, the addition of a base and a door. There will be a phase three in a few months, which will be the addition of a nesting box.

 

She asked to help all day long, so when I could, I did

I am going to keep this post simple. I hope. I hoped the same thing for phase two, but things got a little complicated. I spent a good amount of time squatting or sitting and just looking at what I had assembled so far and trying to figure out the next step. I had dimensions I had to work with in on paper, but everything else was either in my head or being made up as I went along.

Fitting the floor

I built the base. It was fairly simple, but then fitting to the existing coop, well, that was one step above simple. It eventually fit, with some skill saw and router action. I then thought up this contraption about a removable floor. Why removable. Well, the thought is for ease of cleaning. I don’t know if that is how it will work out in practice, but in theory and build that was what I was going for. I ended up making three sections. They fit, but I have not yet done the remove and clean thing yet. The last build for phase two was a door. This was the most straight forward and simple part of the build. I even added a little flair. I had two hinges that had a bit of rust on them. I don’t know what I bought them for years ago, or if I even bought them, I might have found them. However they came into my life, they were here and they had a bit of rust on them. I brushed them a bit with a wire brush and then had the thought I should hit them with a little paint. I walked over to the paint basket in the garage and the first can and color on top was a nice purple Jenn had use to paint Geneva’s bed. Perfect I thought. A minute later, I had purple hinges. I found a latch, again, I have no idea if or why I had bought it, but it was bought and paid for at some time by someone. I was and am very proud of the door. But it is just a door.

  

Base done, floor done, door in progress

The door also made me realize something about my design and building skills, or lack there of. I really enjoy designing and building useful things. Mostly to do with general home function or gardening and now farming. I think this is because of a few things. One, things don’t always have to look like a finished piece of furniture or cabinetry. Things can look a little rough. Two, function is ahead of form but does not need to be completely ignored. Three, because of one and two, you can use what you have, or use less than perfect materials. And fourth and last, you can fudge a little, well, a lot. If something doesn’t fit, make it fit. Shave something down, cut something more. If it is too small, add more wood or screws or glue. You just have a lot more leeway.

The door

So, base, floor and door. All complete and functioning as intended, except the floor. It is still unproven as a removable cleanable floor. The chicks like it. I have been throwing all sorts of beat up and old vegetables in there and they love it. Geneva puts all sorts of stuff in there too. One problem that has presented itself is they peck at the chicken feeder a lot, and a good amount of feed falls out and through the floor onto the ground. I am going to have to make some sort of fitted tray to put under it to catch and recycle some of the feed. The door does make the day to day feed and water refills a non-issue.

A peek on the inside

In closing, and to talk about the chickens at least once in this blog about chickens. They are doing well. They eat all the time and seem to like their new house. I held both of them in my lap for a while the other day and they seemed to be very happy and content to just sit there. And man are they warm. On a funny, and not so funny note. I guess either flies or mosquitoes have been landing on my feet and ankle area. Well, when the chicks are around me, they see those bugs as a meal, but in pecking said meal they peck me as well. The first time was funny and startling. The second time lost some of its humor. The third time, flat out not funny. I have to keep my eyes on where they are in reference to where I am standing, or I might feel an unexpected peck. Sounds funny, but it definitely sounds funnier than it is. It's tough being a chicken farmer. Even slightly hazardous, but just slightly.

Free ranging

We have coop. Phase one.

The stars aligned. The materials, materialized. And last Saturday, the coop came to be. It all started like many Saturday mornings do. I made some tea and went out to the back yard to enjoy the tea and watch the chickens. They were still living in the Rubbermaid coop in the garage and like to get the outside time and eat grass and seeds and bugs. I then wanted to keep them over in the grass area for a while so I moved their cardboard transporting box, but that still left about a three foot gap. I then went into the garage to look for a piece of wood or a piece of something to fill that gap. Then I saw them, purchased over ten years ago, the left over stainless steel shelves from the shelves we bought at Costco. I grabbed one and brought it out back. It worked like a champ. I then thought. I have two of these, and these would make perfect sides for the coop. It all came together in my mind. It literally is almost the exact length of the grass area we have. And if I make the middle part two feet wide, it will be almost the exact size of the width of the grass area. Two feet is also the width of the wire material I bought with the floor of the coop in mind. It was all coming together. Now time for action.

I brought the shelves back out to the garage and took a quick mental inventory of the wood. My first thought and first hurdle was how was I going to affix the wooden frames to the metal shelves. I started down this road of what nuts and bolts do I have or what would I need to go to Home Depot or Lowes to get. Then it hit me. Like a ton of redneck bricks. Zip ties. Simple, strong, adaptable, on hand and paid for. A few cuts later I had the top and side frame pieces cut to length. A few zips and trims and I was hyper impressed. On to the surface.

For the surface I was going to use leftover pieces of the replaced deck. I just needed to cut them to length and standardize the width. Many of them were cupped from repeated harsh sun and wet cycles over the past year. I wanted them to lay nice and flat and tight, but how. It then hit me like a ton of yankee bricks. Wet wood. Wet wood is much more flexible. Just as you would soak your reed for those basket weavers out there. Raise your hands. Mom, I see your hand. Any others? Well, anyway. I just happened to have acquired a little kiddie pool. I filled it up with water, and started to throw my cut pieces in the water. This is when Geneva really started to “help.” She, still in her long sleeve and long pant pajamas, started to stand on top of the wood in the pool like a very unstable raft. A few wobbles later, pants wet, and then she sits on her raft. Wet butt. In the end, wet everything. But her fun meter, it was pegged. As was her smile meter. Sorry, no photos available of the raft.

Once my cutting was done, I got a nice drink of ice water. Now on to the build. I just started to screw and glue. This puppy was going to be as solid as possible. Big screws into the ripped 2 x 4 and little screws into the 1.5 x .5, and glue all around. It came together nicely and fairly quickly. Only hiccup was to cut three custom widths to finish it up. Easy.

Then it was done. Just like that. I carried it to the back yard. It does have a little weight to it, but not that bad. I put it in it's place. Put the waterer and feeder under. Threw the rotting spaghetti squash under. And last but not least, scooped up Princess and Fairy and inserted them into their new home. Oh, I also zip tied another piece of wood across on the inside. Makeshift perch.

 

Fairy chilling

It's now Tuesday night. Everything is still working like a champ. The birds are working out their 8 square feet of grass fairly well. Pecking and scratching away. Eating the grass and whatever other food scraps we throw in there.

I am calling this coop phase one. That is intentional and with good reason. The plan for phase two is building a base for the coop about a foot or so high. I plan on putting the wire on the bottom for the poop to fall through as much as possible. I am then going to place some sort of catch tray below that to catch the poop so it can be removed from the area to lower the smell factor. Then phase three, I plan to make an access door on one end and a nesting box on the other end. Timeline, soon.

That was a lot about the construction of the coop. The update on the birds. They are getting bigger. They fight over bugs. They are not as much fun and don’t like to be held as much. That is the update for now. Thanks for reading.