AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Trying to keep my hubby focused is a big problem he is only half way into building and its the last day of easter so not looking good for the monday finish date I hoped for

ahahahaaa.... so easily to get distracted ! sounds like me.... i cut down some posts to size today... then having a 5 hour break so far.... might actually put the posts in the ground later.... MAYBE ! i did also take the roof off the current pen.... so i guess i will at least have to put that back up or do more work to finish it by tonight (OR) just lock them in the coop for the night and procrastinate longer....

Okay so it's the last day of the Easter break & the girls are all tucked in to their new home.

It's not totally finished, but we have 99% of it done. All that is left now is to create the doors of the storage area underneath the girls roosting area and to finish the painting.

One thing we did discover today is that the sun bleets into their pen all day (due to the pen facing north) and they have very little shade inbetween 1:30pm & 3:30pm, so we will have to rectify that problem ASAP. For the time being we have tacked up some shade cloth to increase the amount of shade they have. I have painted the majority of the pen in a really light taupe colour so their nesting boxes are not hot when they go into them to lay.

When I get to work tomorrow I can use the computer to post a picy of the semi-final result.

Hope everyone else's pen building went well over the weekend.

Happy Easter once again
Chicka-Dee

That's eggsciting, Chicka-Dee, looking forward to the photos!

Ooooooh Chicka-Dee, I cant wait to see the final product.

I am about 60% way through... it takes ages on your own and scavenging for wood and bits in the shed and house with no real plan ! ain't going to be any painting here... that's just another job. More work. so all wood colour will be my chook pen and the metal colour too. I also had to lift the chicks into the coop this afternoon. as the coop is now raised and i don't have any steps up for them to get in yet... hahahaha. they were all a little weirded out about it all at first. but after i put some food in and they realise their hay was changed, they were happy again eating their food and scratching through the hay for seeds.

But so far i have spent $00000.00000 YAY ! not a single dollar spent. My scavenging efforts are paying off so far. I'm pleased my father was a building hoarder before he passed...

Okay so here it is....

The painting still needs to be completed and we still need to sort out what we can do for getting the girls more shade during the day (as the shade cloth is not a very attractive feature!). We have decided to just lean a few bits of sheeting against the coop wire during the day at this stage, but don't want to fully sheet it as I like to sit and watch the girls in the morning while I drink my coffee. Any suggestions on how to improve it will be appreciated.

I don't like the colour I have painted the nesting box lid and am leaning towards painting it RED to jazz it up a little. The girls all lay their eggs in the morning before the day starts to get too hot so I am not concerned about the red attracting heat from the sun in the afternoon, so the colour will be more of an asthetic thing. Im also thinking of getting a few things to put up on the outside wall of the coop, but not sure what yet. It definitely needs something though as it just looks bland.


Cant wait to see what yours looks like BFLF and I am soooooo jealous of you spending $0 . I don't have a hoarder of building materials in my family so we had to buy most of the materials. All up I believe the coop has cost us about $400, but I have seen what some people get for $400 and I am more than pleased to have paid that to get what we have now.

Looks great . Very envious . My late father in law was a carpenter the gene didn't pass down!

Thanks HH

I don't have a carpentarial bone in my body either! This was all the hard work of my wonderful hubby. Bless his big cotton socks.

Chicka-Dee that looks GREAT !!!
looks much more structurally stable than mine !!! LOL. Are the chickens already moved in ...




Same + a Electrician. don't ask me how to do anything along those lines though.... i'm the dodgiest dodgiest worker ever. i'm holding the tin on (the coop/night part) with a bunch of bricks at the moment... LOL . only because i cant reach that far up and back to nail it down... i need to ask a favour of my GIGANTIC brother in law to help just with that part as silly me put the coop up without the roof and cant get it down again unless i pull apart most of it again . also the chickens showed me this morning that they can FLY from the coop to the top of the entrance gate.... and since i haven't put the wire on the raised the sides yet, that could be a problem during the days until i finish.
no wait... they cant get in the coop in the days because i still haven't put steps leading in... haha problem solved... just have to tuck them in bed each night until i do all that... hehehehe

coop building has to wait till late this afternoon... i'm going shopping.

Wow Chick a Dee that looks fantastic. I am going to show this to hubby as this is just the sort of design we have on paper. So far I have the two end structures complete, about 1/10th done. At least we have made a start. I would be interested to see the inside. Have you a mezzanine floor so that their bedroom is completely sealed from preditors? What type of wire mesh did you use and did you also put it on the floor.