Well, so, heres the thing. I have a whole post on farm updates that Ive been working on for youbut it was feeling a little lame to write which is usually a sign that its going to be lame to read and Im up past midnight for the fourth day in a row this week, which, actually, kind of wrecks my life more than it used to when I was a young little insomniac But I still wanted to give you guys a quick update on some things that have been going on around here. So. This isnt a farm update (thats coming soon, I swear) but it is a quick look at another thing Ive been working on after midnight this week:
Those are not my chickens, obvnot a black feather to be seen among them. That flock of pullets belongs to one of my friends who has a farm down the street. He texted me on Monday night and said that he lost a chicken to a coyote the night before and was understandably worried the coyote (or other predator) would come back repeatedly and continue to break into the coop he had set up, which is both fair and likely. Keeping chickens is a pretty constant battle against things that want to eat them.
He also happens to live on farm with a lot of awesome barns on the property (Im a little jealous) and one old shed that was previously used as a chicken coop. I suggested that we could pretty quickly build a coop similar to the one I built in my own barn that would keep his chickens all snugged up and safe. I have done this before, after all
So heres what we did:
I bolted a couple of 2x4s to the ground, and then built a wall with 3 spaced studs to hang 1/2 wire mesh on.
I also spent a fair amount of time balancing on a 24 rafter, doing things like knocking a decades worth of walnut casing and squirrel poop off of the loft
Dont worry. Im an expert.
We also tacked up a ton of wire mesh
And then, on Day 2 I built some nesting boxes, a roost, and finished off the wire. Then we lured the Nugs in to check it out
One of the most fascinating things about chickens is that if you build the coop right, they intrinsically know that this is their space. Even after only being in there for a few minutes
These girls took almost no convincing to hop up on the roost and settle in for the night, even while we were still tacking wire mesh up on the wall
I cant even tell you how much fun I have on projects like this. Maybe because I spent so much time stressing about and building my own coop, that its such a relief to be able to build a second one using all of that know-how in half the time.
Either way, the chickens are happy (and you know I have a soft-spot for Nugs), I got to use my power tools for a project that was both fun and farm related, and we can all get a good laugh out of the fact that I didnt think I was going to be building any type of coop this year, and have already finished a duck house and this emergency chicken coop. The joke is definitely on me, but so is all of the fun Cant ask for more than that.
http://diydiva.net/2015/07/emergency-coop-building/
Those are not my chickens, obvnot a black feather to be seen among them. That flock of pullets belongs to one of my friends who has a farm down the street. He texted me on Monday night and said that he lost a chicken to a coyote the night before and was understandably worried the coyote (or other predator) would come back repeatedly and continue to break into the coop he had set up, which is both fair and likely. Keeping chickens is a pretty constant battle against things that want to eat them.
He also happens to live on farm with a lot of awesome barns on the property (Im a little jealous) and one old shed that was previously used as a chicken coop. I suggested that we could pretty quickly build a coop similar to the one I built in my own barn that would keep his chickens all snugged up and safe. I have done this before, after all
So heres what we did:
I bolted a couple of 2x4s to the ground, and then built a wall with 3 spaced studs to hang 1/2 wire mesh on.
I also spent a fair amount of time balancing on a 24 rafter, doing things like knocking a decades worth of walnut casing and squirrel poop off of the loft
Dont worry. Im an expert.
We also tacked up a ton of wire mesh
And then, on Day 2 I built some nesting boxes, a roost, and finished off the wire. Then we lured the Nugs in to check it out
One of the most fascinating things about chickens is that if you build the coop right, they intrinsically know that this is their space. Even after only being in there for a few minutes
These girls took almost no convincing to hop up on the roost and settle in for the night, even while we were still tacking wire mesh up on the wall
I cant even tell you how much fun I have on projects like this. Maybe because I spent so much time stressing about and building my own coop, that its such a relief to be able to build a second one using all of that know-how in half the time.
Either way, the chickens are happy (and you know I have a soft-spot for Nugs), I got to use my power tools for a project that was both fun and farm related, and we can all get a good laugh out of the fact that I didnt think I was going to be building any type of coop this year, and have already finished a duck house and this emergency chicken coop. The joke is definitely on me, but so is all of the fun Cant ask for more than that.
http://diydiva.net/2015/07/emergency-coop-building/