Certificate of Occupancy

Big day last Saturday 5/9 as I issued the Certificate of Occupancy to the Bufflehead Farm Chicken Coop.  Finally finished netting the Run.  And had to pick up another feeder and waterer.  But I get ahead of myself.

Last post, which was a month ago 4/10/15, I had finished the sheathing and was ready to start roofing.  Never did a roof before.  Started with 15lb roofing felt stapled to the sheathing.

Added the triple tab shingles including a first course of a new shingle cutting the tabs off to give the first row a solid cover.  Then a full sheet of triple tab, across and up.

For the crown you take waste tabs; or new ones left over, and nail them across the top, covering the nail heads of each tab by the one to follow.

Paint the trim and the body.  Then I gave up my search for 2 x 2' windows and went on-line to find cheap windows.  Found shed windows but nothing close to 2'x2'.  Did find 12" x 16" windows.  $70.00 for both windows including shipping.  Much better than $108 EACH from the local Home Depot.  But it meant that I did have to reframe and patch the window openings to accommodate the smaller windows.  I actually like the smaller windows better.

Windows in, and paint touched up, time to start on the chicken run.  The idea was to build a 12' x 8' run that would start at the coop and end at the garden fence.  At some future date we wanted to build a chicken gate from their run to the garden.  In the fall when all is harvested we would turn them loose in the garden to eat all the leftovers, roots, vines and any bugs lurking. (Photo bomb by Gabriel)

Plans called for a run that would be 5'4" high.  That does not work for my 6'3"self.  So I modified the plans and created a taller run.  Pretty simple 2x4 frame walls braced at top and bottom.Photo above is the end wall which meets the garden fence.  Then I added the side walls and attached them to the front of the coop.

Built a simple screen door out of some spare cedar planks I had in the shop.  The brass door knocker is a brass casting of "Marley's Ghost".  The literary among you will recognize Marley as the ghost who haunted Scrooge in Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol.  I acquired this knocker when I bought a rather odd house in Arlington Virginia that had a bunch of weird stuff like this left by the previous owner.  Been moving it around with me for 15 years so figured this was a good place to use it.

Then had to screen the whole thing in with one inch chicken netting.

All in all it came out pretty good I would say.  So we moved 4 of the 7 chicks that we bought out to the new coop on Saturday May 9.  They had all been staying in a large cardboard box in the garage.  They seem to like the new digs.  Plenty of room, and lots of fresh air.  4 of the 7 chicks are a few weeks older so in a couple weeks we will move the 2 Silkies and the Rhode Island Red into the new coop as well.

 

Chicken Coop Construction Part 2

Almost two weeks have gone by since the last post and we have enjoyed good weather and longer days so much progress has been made on the chicken coop construction.

As of the last post  I had the wall framing up. So it was time to make the gables and attach them to the wall framing.  Gables were made from 2 x 4s cut at 30 deg and fastened to gussets made from OSB. 

I then attached the gables to the wall framing using hurricane ties.

Then I started cutting plywood for the wall sheathing. 

 And the roof

 And the back wall which will have two large doors which should make cleaning the coop much easier.  I know I wouldn't fit in the small chicken door in the front.

 The opening on the side walls will have the nesting boxes with a hinged lid for egg gathering.

 So now that the sheathing is on I can build the framing for the nesting boxes.  Two identical boxes, one on each side.

 Once framed I add more sheathing for the nest boxes.  You can see the vertical dividers in the nest boxes providing 3 nesting boxes on each side.

 Here's the chicken's eye view of the nesting boxes.  Fill those with straw or wood shavings
 and you have the equivalent of your grocers dairy case.

 

 Then I built this roosting box.  There are two of them.  Going to line the bottom with linoleum for obvious reasons and then they are mounted two feet above the floor of the coop.  Just a couple pieces of plywood fastened to two 2 x 2s.  The end plates are plywood with a hole for a closet rod and then I seal up the open end of the holes.

 Here is one of the roosting boxes mounted.  The other one sits on the same center support and to the left. They just lift out for cleaning.

And roofing is done,  Nesting box lids are also roofed (rooved??) and hinges installed.

 So far I think I have about 40 hours invested to this point.  I don't think I could make a living building chicken coops.  I still do not have my windows.  Trying to find something used.  Guess I'll start painting next.

Chickens; the Gateway Farm Animal

They say Chickens are the gateway animal for rural residents.  Everyone starts with chickens which are relatively easy to care for and produce wonderful eggs and; we are told, hours of entertainment.  Once hooked one moves on to "harder" animals like goats and pigs. 

So you cannot have chickens without a place for them to live safely

Taming the Green Tsunami

No peaceful sylvan setting exists here at Bufflehead Pond Farm... not yet, anyway.  We can maintain our illusions with a restful view of the duck pond, or the full moon rising above old growth Douglas firs, or the raucous peeps of thousands of tiny frogs along the banks of the wetlands. But while it seems idyllic on the surface, we now know that the forest is hungry for our land and intends to devour it all. Undaunted, we wield chainsaws, heavy tractors, shovels, loppers, scythes, rakes, and are seriously considering purchasing a flame thrower.

But I digress.