Adventures in Chicken Coop construction, part 1
So, I'm down in my parents house, helping my dad build a chicken coop and run to house the chickens they're getting soon. I got down Friday night, and started doing stuff saturday.
So, on Saturday me and my dad planned the coop, and I also got started on the little job that we also had to do, converting a piece of deck fence into a gate. For anyone who knows my parents deck, it;s one of the fence panels which are on each side of the bench at the back. For anyone who doesn't know the deck:
(I cheated, that's it now that it's a gate. But I didn't take a before picture)
So I cut that out of its frame, and then figured out exactly what was needed to make it into a gate. Which was then done later. Saturday evening me and my dad sussed out the basic design and got it essentially sorted.
Sunday morning whehn I got up my dad was getting big into coop designs, and had the idea essentially finished. We then moved the (full) compost bins was a base for the coohich were occupying the space the coop needed to be in, and also tore apart the desk whose metal frame we were using as a base for the coop. Sunday evening, my dad finalised the design and got something he was happy with, and we made a plan for tomorrow that he would swing out to the hardware shop in the morning, pick up long woodscrews and fixings for the gate from earlier (hinges and a bolt), then wake me when he got back.
So, this morning I was woken up when he got in, went downstairs, got breakfast and assembled the gate:
And then we moved onto the real job. We quickly realised that the garage doors we were going to reuse would be way too complicated if kept intact as doors, and would need to be torn apart and their boards used. Which meant my dad had to nip back out to the hardware shop to pick up some lengths of 3"x2" to build a frame, and some even longer woodscrews (to go properly through the aforementioned 3"x2")
While he was away I got started on cutting the floorboards of the coop, and then when he got back I started cutting the frame pieces from the 3"x2", and then assembling the frame, while he dismantled the door, resulting in him producing:
And me producing:
By the time we decided to break for lunch because A. we were hungry and B. the battery in the electric drill had died. Putting in 3 inch screws by hand? No fucking thank you.
So after lunch (delicous roast beef sandwiches, omnomnom), we got back to work. My dad kept at his boards, taking out all the staples, while I finished the frame off and screwed in the floor:
At this point we stopped for a bit to figure out what else we could do today, with respect to the various places we needed to put in doors and other door like objects, and decided that we should add another cross beam into the frame, to better hang doors off. We also used that beam to support a roost and then cut and screwed on the boards of the first wall:
And from the other side (with my dad looking on):
And that;s where we stand at the end of today. Hope to get the coop finished tomorrow, and the run built on Wednesday. Hopefully that won;t gang too aglay. WIll post up again this time tomorrow or so.
So, on Saturday me and my dad planned the coop, and I also got started on the little job that we also had to do, converting a piece of deck fence into a gate. For anyone who knows my parents deck, it;s one of the fence panels which are on each side of the bench at the back. For anyone who doesn't know the deck:
(I cheated, that's it now that it's a gate. But I didn't take a before picture)
So I cut that out of its frame, and then figured out exactly what was needed to make it into a gate. Which was then done later. Saturday evening me and my dad sussed out the basic design and got it essentially sorted.
Sunday morning whehn I got up my dad was getting big into coop designs, and had the idea essentially finished. We then moved the (full) compost bins was a base for the coohich were occupying the space the coop needed to be in, and also tore apart the desk whose metal frame we were using as a base for the coop. Sunday evening, my dad finalised the design and got something he was happy with, and we made a plan for tomorrow that he would swing out to the hardware shop in the morning, pick up long woodscrews and fixings for the gate from earlier (hinges and a bolt), then wake me when he got back.
So, this morning I was woken up when he got in, went downstairs, got breakfast and assembled the gate:
And then we moved onto the real job. We quickly realised that the garage doors we were going to reuse would be way too complicated if kept intact as doors, and would need to be torn apart and their boards used. Which meant my dad had to nip back out to the hardware shop to pick up some lengths of 3"x2" to build a frame, and some even longer woodscrews (to go properly through the aforementioned 3"x2")
While he was away I got started on cutting the floorboards of the coop, and then when he got back I started cutting the frame pieces from the 3"x2", and then assembling the frame, while he dismantled the door, resulting in him producing:
And me producing:
By the time we decided to break for lunch because A. we were hungry and B. the battery in the electric drill had died. Putting in 3 inch screws by hand? No fucking thank you.
So after lunch (delicous roast beef sandwiches, omnomnom), we got back to work. My dad kept at his boards, taking out all the staples, while I finished the frame off and screwed in the floor:
At this point we stopped for a bit to figure out what else we could do today, with respect to the various places we needed to put in doors and other door like objects, and decided that we should add another cross beam into the frame, to better hang doors off. We also used that beam to support a roost and then cut and screwed on the boards of the first wall:
And from the other side (with my dad looking on):
And that;s where we stand at the end of today. Hope to get the coop finished tomorrow, and the run built on Wednesday. Hopefully that won;t gang too aglay. WIll post up again this time tomorrow or so.