Around the Farm

Spring and nice weather means getting a few things done around the "farm"...

The goats are settled in nicely. The weekend we got them we tossed together this little pallet shelter. It took us a few tries to find a good placement for it, but now it's their favorite spot. They can often be found napping on the roof or underneath in the shade. In the afternoons when I feed them, I pour a little bit of treat up on the roof for them. It keeps them out of my way while I fill the chicken feeders.

We cut the grape vines way back this year. They were getting out of control. The extensive pruning didn't seem to bother them too much, they were sprouting new growth just a few days later.

We cleaned out the shed as best we could so it was more useable for farm storage. Eventually we will have to either tear the shed down or jack it up to put a cement slab under it. The floor is rotting through. I would like to have a little chat with the person who thought a wood floor on an irrigated lot was a good idea.

You'll have to look carefully at the next farm "improvement". It's just two staggered lines of string on some fence posts. It doesn't look like much but we are hoping it keeps the chickens from jumping the fence on the side of the unfriendly neighbor dog. Unfortunately, we have lost several chickens that way.

I saw the idea in a chicken magazine. I liked this solution because it was easy, cheap, and not too ugly.  If you look at the photo below you can barely see the string. The idea is if the chickens are under the string and try to jump on the fence they will get caught in the string and fall back down. If they try to land on it they will quickly find it isn't sturdy enough to support them. I haven't seen any of the chickens try to land on it or get caught in it. I guess we won't know if it's a success until it isn't, but we haven't had any chickens go over the fence that way since we put it up. We have found one in our part of the yard a few times though; so, hopefully, it is making a difference.

We added a small double trough to the goat shelter so we could put out goat minerals and baking soda for them.

Since we cut the little door in the coop a couple years ago this little ramp was just resting on a cinder block. The chickens never moved it even once. The goats, on the other hand, knocked it over about 20 times a day so we finally used a couple small hinges to keep it in place. One of those why-did-I-wait-so-long-to-do-that type of things.

You'll also notice the piece of scrap wood across the chicken door. This allows the chickens access while keeping the goats out. The goats would love to get in there and eat all the chicken food if we'd let them.

Have you ever watched a goat drink? It's pretty cool. They don't drink like a dog. They suck the water in. Elf has a long neck and you can actually see the water going down as he drinks. I once read goats like fresh, clean water (who doesn't?!) and these guys really do. I dump and refill the water every day and as soon as it's full they run right over to get a drink.

I made a small compost bin out of some of the old fencing. Hopefully some day we can use the compost in a garden.

This little tool (a 10 inch taping knife) has changed my chicken keeping methods. We installed a poop board about a month ago and it has been working great! I use this taping knife as a scraper and clean up the poop daily in about 10 seconds. It keeps the coop so much cleaner and helps save on bedding costs since we don't have to replace it nearly as often. The poop goes right into the compost bin (see above).

The "farm" from the back corner; the big coop, little coop, and goat shelter. I am hoping to paint them "barn red" soon.

Everyone's favorite chicken: Loosey. Looking pretty good for being one of the two oldest gals in the bunch. She's still as friendly as ever.

There are still a million things to do and when we finish those they'll be a million more, but it's always nice to make improvements, especially if they are relatively cheap and easy like these!

It All Hinges on This

The coop was looking good, but we were still missing a very important part... the door! This was a small problem because we weren't exactly sure what we wanted to do for the door. I read on a chicken website about one guy who used a $20 wood screen door on his coop. That sounded great to me! Unfortunately, we didn't come across this helpful tip until after we framed the door and the only cheap screen doors we could find were not the right size.

Ana White had instructions in her plan for a door but it required a tool we didn't own (Kreg Jig). After much discussion we decided to just buy the Kreg. The good news is it worked great! And as an added bonus we can now build all kinds of things with Ana's plans... she's a big fan of the Kreg.

The door is basically a frame with hardware cloth in the top opening and a little bit of leftover siding for the bottom panel. We custom made it to fit our opening. We used 1x4s since Jerry was concerned it would get too heavy if we used anything else. It really looks great! 

Jerry chose the hinges and a little handle. There is also a little hook and eye lock to keep it closed. We plan to add a spring so it self closes so our little chicken wranglers don't leave it wide open and let the dogs birds out.

If you look closely, you can see the chickens are in the coop checking out their new digs. I was actually brave enough to let them sleep out there! I thought they might get chilly but they survived the night and have been sleeping in there the past few nights without any trouble.

For now I just put a scrap of siding over that cement block by the door to act as a ramp for them to get in and out. We plan to cut a little chicken door on the side for them. We also need to add a roost and nesting boxes eventually as well. We put up a little bit of chicken wire to make a "yard" and keep them contained for now. When they are a bit bigger they'll be allowed to roam a bit more. So except for a few finishing touches... it's pretty much done!

In case you missed them:
The Coop Part 1
The Coop Part 2
The Coop Part 3

The Coop (Part 3)

From 3/23/13:

Another weekend! You know that means... more coop building!! Jerry took the day off and was out bright and early Friday morning. No rest for the weary. We also had an early morning delivery. Can you see that 15 ton pile of rock in the background? (That's another project and another post!).

First up, roof rafters! These were the most complicated of all our cuts and didn't work out exactly right, but they were close enough. "Good enough for government work" as my mom would say. Ha ha.

Once the rafters were up we used the staple gun to put chicken wire over the triangles at the top. We thought these openings would help keep the coop cooler since hot air rises and all that. As an added bonus we didn't have to cut the siding to fit! :) We framed out windows but have decided to see if these openings provide enough ventilation before we cut holes in the siding.

The rafters are long in the front to provide some shade in the afternoon and to offer a bit of protection from rain. Ana White's plan had the door on the shorter side and no overhangs on either side. We moved the door to the taller side and added the overhang.

We took a break for lunch and Jerry went to the store for siding then... it was back to work. After watching several You Tube videos on cutting siding, Jerry decided to buy a large sheet of insulation to cut on. He laid the siding down on the sheet of insulation and set the circular saw to cut just through the siding. It worked great! Much better than trying to balance a floppy piece of siding on sawhorses.

The first piece up!

Then we worked our way around.

Siding goes up pretty quick (relatively speaking). The front will be open and didn't need siding so a short time later we were putting up the last piece!

It was looking pretty good! Like a real coop! This is where we stopped for the day.

Saturday we moved onto the roof. The roofing product we wanted to use (Ondura, if you are curious) was out of stock, and possibly not available for some time, so we decided to go with it's cousin called Tuftex. It worked out nicely. It came in 10 feet sheets and our roof is exactly 10 feet from front to back. That meant only one row of sheets and no overlapping seams in that direction.

I didn't get any photos of the process, but it was pretty straight forward. We got five sheets. They overlap and are held down with special screws that create a seal to keep water out. We chose the tan color hoping it would be cooler than the darker green color they make.

Since the Tuftex was pretty floppy and long it needed support in both directions so we had to add some horizontal purlins to the roof. 

I didn't get any pictures but Sunday after church we stapled chicken wire to the front and put in vinyl flooring. We read it is easier to keep vinyl clean. We used the cheapest peel and stick tiles we could find. It ended up the cheapest tile was a "wood floor" pattern so it doesn't even really look that different from the plywood. You won't see it anyway, it will be buried under several inches of bedding (and chicken poo).

The only thing left to finish are the doors. We started working on the people door, but ran into a few technical difficulties and ran out of time so the completion will have to wait until next weekend. We haven't decided exactly where the chicken door will come out yet. Then, of course, we'll have to make a little chicken ramp too. No chicken coop is complete without a little ramp! If you see any fun signs that say "Chicken Crossing" or "Fresh Eggs" let me know!

In case you missed them:
The Coop Part 1
The Coop Part 2

The Coop (Part 2)

From 3/17/13:

After a week off we were up and running again. We started by framing the back wall. Then we leveled the floor frame on some concrete supports. I should back up and say after we decided where we wanted it and mowed the back lot we leveled the floor. Originally, I envisioned the coop in the far back corner. A few things made me change my mind: the neighbor dog and access to water and shade. This location also makes more sense as far as keeping an eye on the chickens throughout the day and access to future eggs.

With the floor frame level(ish) we were ready to lay down the floor. It looked like a stage at this point and we all tried to think of at least one line of Shakespeare to share "on stage".

The walls went up pretty fast after that!

Since we were out of materials we decided to call it quits for the weekend and do some other yard work. I'm looking forward to seeing the real form take shapes when we add the siding next weekend!

The Coop (Part 1)

This is from 3/9/13:

We finally got to work on a more permanent home for the chickens. I see the wisdom in the whole "have a coop ready before you even get chicks" thing now. They do grow really fast!

Part of the delay was figuring out what kind of coop we wanted. It seems that most plans we found are a small box like coop with an attached run. That wasn't what we wanted. Our chickens will be able to roam around our back lot so our coop didn't need an enclosed run. Coops in AZ are quite a bit different than coops in colder parts of the country. We need to worry about chickens overheating not keeping them warm.

We found two plans we liked and basically took things we liked from both to design our own. We wanted a decent size (go big or go home!) and fairly simple to build (carpenters we are not). The two plans we melded together were this Chicken Shed from Ana White and this one.  We knew we could trust Ana's plans... we used her plans to build our bunk beds and they turned out great! Her coop was just a little smaller than we wanted. The other one was too big. Yes, we're like the Goldilocks of chicken coop builders!

After a trip to both Home Depot and Lowes for lumber we got started. First we framed the floor. Easy peasy as JD likes to say. Next up: figuring out how to use a Swanson Speed Square to cut an angle. YouTube to the rescue!  Once we figured that out, we got the front wall done in no time. You can't see from this photo but the top is angled (at 15º) to slope the roof. We still haven't decided how tall the door will be or what the front will be made of. I am leaning towards leaving it completely open, enclosed only with chicken wire, since it gets so hot here. Or maybe a half wall. We'll see. Like I said, we are a lot more concerned about keeping the gals cool than keeping them warm.

Of course, we had a very large work crew helping. Annabeth was on clean up.

Here she is giving Jerry some helpful advice while he works. She blinked every time the hammer hit a nail.

Then she helped move the finished wall out of the way. She is a really strong!

Hayden and JD picked up all the scraps for us. Then they used them to build various things.

Jerry is an excellent foreman. He also does most of the heavy work and the math. I never was good with angles and fractions!

By the end of the weekend we had three walls (front and both sides) framed.

Then the weekend ended and we had to put the project on hold for other things like work and school. Next weekend we'll be back at it!