The Other day I moved the little broody coop we rear chicks in and the floor of the sleeping compartment fell out of it!
Not what I wanted to happen. Especially as it was not long before we were planning to head off for the weekend. And that sleeping compartment keeps a mother hen and her chicks safe from predators at night.
So I stopped what I was doing and set about fixing it. I didn't want to loose any more chicks to predator. This pen is worth investing some time in, like all wooden infrastructure on a smallholding or homestead, it takes a bit of time every year to keep it all running.
This isn't the first time I've repaired this coop in the 15 years or so since I built it. I doubt it'll be the last either! Luckily it was a fairly simple fix and didn't take too long.
I'm trying to make filming things something I do, hopefully this video is interesting to some people. Let me know what you think in the comments.
I really like that coop design. My wife has been after me to make something for a few chickens in our backyard. I've been buying time by telling her I will just as soon as she figures out who will babysit the birds while we are on vacation for two or three weeks over summer. She still hasn't figured out that part yet.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently about 70% of the way through of building a new coop like this from scratch and filming it for a video, so expect a video on it before Christmas. It would be handy for me to have a second one and my editor agreed it would make a good magazine article.
DeleteWould you not fit mesh to the underside of the floor?
ReplyDeleteThe sleeping area? Or the day time area? I like them to be able to get at the soil and grass during the day.
DeleteBoth. Especially on the grass area so they can't dig themselves out.
ReplyDeleteThe sleeping area is solid wood. the grass area the idea is to let them have access to the ground and the grass. I've never had one dig out, I've had a few get out if I've put the pen on rough ground before now, but I've learnt to have a few boards around if going over ruts and just place them by it. I like them being able to get at the grass and to dig a hole to dust bath if it's dry. the pen gets moved daily.
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