[Aidy]

Been following the progress of the build and it is looking very good indeed, however may I make a suggestion if its not too late, I may of missed it but if not, I would suggest a layer of weld mesh underneath the onduline to help prevent any vermin entering the coop from above.

[hillfooter]

Oh my goodness what a wonderful coop!  
  ^ That's a pic of me being very impressed.

Oh!.....................so you really don't look like your avatar at all then?

PS Aidy's idea with the mesh is certainly worth doing if not too late.
HF

[Diggit]

The mesh idea is a good one. thanks. I'll see what I can find this weekend as I want it out of the garage so the roof needs to be on pretty soon.

I put the roof sheets on for a couple of pics to see how the final look was. The colour was my wife's choice! 





May need another coat yet as it still looks patchy but I'll wait and see how it dries first!

I've only painted the edges and left the insides to give the wood chance to breath as suggested.



Stopping on the way home from work tomorrow to get the catches and the handles for the main back panel. Should be outside this weekend. You may notice some of the underside not yet painted. I haven't got room to work underneath so my mate is coming on Saturady to help me to flip it over for a coat on the underside. Hopefully be in position in the garden on Sunday so I can start to work out the run 

[joyfull]

looking good 

[hillfooter]

Hi Paul,

Have you sealed the internal joints as a further measure against RM.  I must say you've made a lovely job of it.  Lot's of access should make cleaning a doddle.
HF

[Diggit]

Thanks HF and Joy,

I will be running a small bead around all the internal edges. As I need to flip it over to paint the underside I was Leaving it until the job, I'll go over all the internal screw heads too as they are sunken into the wood slightly!

[Aidy]

Looking good mate. Dare I ask one little question please...
The roost bars, they are going to go higher than the nest boxes aren't they, only (andHF prob best to advise) I read that its best to make sure the nest boxes are lower than the roost bars as the chooks look roost at the highest point, so if the nest boxes are higher than the bars they tend to want to roost in the boxes.
Really hope my fears are put aside.

[Diggit]

Thanks for the tip. I wasn't aware of that Aidy. I'll have a search around and see what others say. It's not a problem to change as I haven't cut the roost bars yet. As it is now, it's designed so the the entrance is level with the top of the bars and they step down slightly into the box. I could steadily raise the height of the bars so that they are higher at that end if required.

[Casey76]

Or you could block off the nestboxes at night

[hillfooter]

Looking good mate. Dare I ask one little question please...
The roost bars, they are going to go higher than the nest boxes aren't they, only (andHF prob best to advise) I read that its best to make sure the nest boxes are lower than the roost bars as the chooks look roost at the highest point, so if the nest boxes are higher than the bars they tend to want to roost in the boxes.
Really hope my fears are put aside.

For a small house it's not not really practical to arrange the roosts to be significantly above the nestboxes and having the roosts a few 10's of cms above the nestbox entrance wouldn't have a lot of effect.  I've had houses where the roosts were slighly above the nestboxes and they still roosted in the nestboxes.  I think they find the warmth and security of a small enclosed space to their liking. My current houses have rising roosts but that does'nt seem to encourage them to always use the roosts.  It's very house and temperature dependant just where they feel comfortable roosting.

Traditionally in commercial laying sheds the roosts are placed high with dropping trays beneath them and because hens naturally would lay on the ground so the chicks can get in and out, nestboxes are placed low down.  Hens don't fetch food for their chicks like wild birds but take them out foraging for food which when they find a tasty beetle they will throw to the chicks.  Chicks are pretty independant and mobile from shortly after hatch unlike wild birds chicks.

If you can arrange that the roosts rise up slightly from the entrance that's not a bad arrangement but I wouldn't spoil the design to acheive it.  See the design of the Lenham roosts to see the idea.

By the way laying houses aren't intended to be used for hatching in and to do this you need to set up a separate house for a broody to hatch and brood in.  These are usually at ground level with open fronts with a grill which allow the chx through but restrains the broody.

HF

[louiseb22]

Hi diggit
Can you tell me what program you used to produce the drawings??

[Casey76]

Hi lousie, you can download the basic program of google Sketch Up for free

And you can draw 3D projects quite easily... like this



As I have a serious aversion to Photoshop, and unable to do even the simplest of things in there, google is nice to use by comparison.  A little fiddly for me, but but I suspect if you are in anyway CAD minded, easy to use!

[Diggit]

Hi Louise. The programme is Google Sketch Up. Its a great little programme for things like this and its free to download too and there are lots of tutorials around the internet to help you get to grips with it 

Another couple of hours this morning.

Bottoms up!


First coat on


Then I knocked up a quick gate whilst the first coat dried. It's very basic as it's only temporary. I want to keep the dogs away from the area where the chickens will be. This will help me to keep the area clean from doggy stuff and give them chance to settle before I introduce them.



Then after a second coat I was able to flip it back to the right way up and fit the handles and catches.





I'll have a pic of it out in the garden tomorrow! 

[louiseb22]

Thanks Diggit, I'll give it a look.

[Diggit]

Now in position in the garden!





Next job will be the run