3R Home and Barn Project

[EddieWalker]

Rob,

Another awesome display of ingenuity and thinking outside of the box!!!! Why build a simple chicken coop when you can create something unique and special that you will be proud of. The color choice just adds to the overall appeal of it.

Well done.

Eddie

 

[radioman]

wow! you continue to inspire us still rob! I am still in the process of thinking of where I am going to put the chickens that I am growing as well. ITs my first time and have 6 chicks that is about 2 weeks old now. they seem to be outgrowing the box i put them in. Your idea looks ideal for me too, however i would put a double swinging doors on the long side for better cleaning access.
What wire did you use for the bottom to prevent the chickens from falling through? I love the wheels you put on and how you figured how to make it easy to go up and down with a lever. (not sure if that is within my capabilities )
Will it be ok if I copy your idea ? It looks like what i need to do for my chickens as well.

 

[hobie]

Rob and Lorettta, Youa re a dynamic duo! That is a work of art! Brian

 

[3RRL]

Thanks guys ... great comments and I'm glad ya'll like the coop.
The ability to make it mobile in a flash and with very little effort is the key for a portable coop. It can be done several ways as long as you have the ability to get the coop on the ground and up in the air (on wheels) for transport. I chose the linkage method but there are other ways to do it, of course.
The wire on the bottom of the coop is the same as what's on the sides and top ... just regular chicken wire. The small chicks don't fall though it. Their big feet walk on top of it, even in transport. Seems like they like getting pulled around from place to place. They just go about their business in the coop like nothing's going on. They crack me up !!
Rob-

 

[3RRL]

Jumping back to Loretta's garden, we finally got her new Tiller up and running.
This was a Tiller we bought along with many of the other implements when we got her tractor over a year ago in January 2008. After reading the instructions, lubing it up and checking the bolts, we hooked it up to her 284 Jinma. For the first go 'round, we set the depth at only a couple inches just to get used to it. Loretta made the first passes of her new garden to what she wanted.
Here are a couple photos of Loretta and myself trying it out.
Rob-

 

[3RRL]

It's hard to believe what it looked like before she started all this.
That whole area has now changed in appearance from what it used to look like to what it does now. If you recall some of the previous photos, here is a comparison of the garden area before her tilling project.



Later on in the week she set the depth to maximum and completed the contours or her garden.
Man, that tiller does a super fine job. Loretta was very excited about all the smooth fluffy Earth she had churned up. Now it's ready for all the vegetables she wants to plant. We just completed pressurizing the non pressurized water tank line, so we will run some sort of drip irrigation in the garden area later this week.
Look what that area looks like now. Look at the finished raised beds she got with her tiller.
Rob-

 

[dfkrug]

So we took a break from the gardening and plumbing to make a chicken coop last week. We took into consideration all the tips to make a comfortable coop with lots of roosting bars. It's screened all around and on the bottom too. It's a 2 story coop and it's also portable. Loretta tows it behind the ATV. We made it very easy to hook up and take off with it.

Very nice, Rob and Loretta!

They call that a "chicken tractor". You can buy them ready-made, too, but
not as good as yours. SO appropriate for TBN, BTW!

 

[3RRL]

Very nice, Rob and Loretta!

They call that a "chicken tractor". You can buy them ready-made, too, but
not as good as yours. SO appropriate for TBN, BTW!

Thank you Dave,
We saw some coops for purchase in the magazines. They were all very nice too.
But we wanted to make our own with a little different shape and easy to move around. Of course, we used all scrap materials we had left over from construction and some of the tractor projects. The pins, bushings and bolts were scrap pieces from injection molds and the pipe was left over from the irrigation project behind the house. The paint and stain was also left over from the house. The metal roof used to be sides from a shed I had down in Rancho. Now it's part of the chicken coop too. The only thing we had to buy were the hinges for the front and rear doors.
It was truly a fun and rewarding experience to turn all that scrap into a home for our chicks.
Rob-

 

[TBDonnelly]

Of course, we used all scrap materials we had left over from construction and some of the tractor projects. The pins, bushings and bolts were scrap pieces from injection molds and the pipe was left over from the irrigation project behind the house. The paint and stain was also left over from the house. The metal roof used to be sides from a shed I had down in Rancho. Now it's part of the chicken coop too. The only thing we had to buy were the hinges for the front and rear doors.
It was truly a fun and rewarding experience to turn all that scrap into a home for our chicks.
Rob-

So, what you're saying is you built the chicken tractor for, well ........er......um..........chicken feed?

Incidentally, the wheel set up is really, really neat!

Don

 

[jinman]

Rob, your chicken tractor is really unique. That almost looks like a design that could be mass produced and sold at farm and ranch stores. Heck! Since the wheels are so big, it seems you could put a pull handle on the front and have the option of pulling it by hand or a quick hitch to a riding lawnmower as there are probably more people with those than ATVs. It's a very nice design, and I'm sure your chicks will love it.

Do you think the chicken wire is small enough to keep out rattlers? I recently had to isolate one of our kitties and built a mini kitty kennel. I used chicken wire on the outside. The very first night, my wife heard a commotion and went out to find two raccoons terrorizing the poor kitty. They were reaching through the chicken wire to get to his food and making a mess of his water. In the end, my kitty kennel was a bust because my wife would not leave the kitty in it at night. We ended up using the laundry room for kitty isolation.

That tiller really does a nice job too. You and Loretta will love that fluffy soil. If you want to reduce your water requirements, you can cover those raised beds with poly and keep the moisture in. They are doing that with melons and some other crops around here. For a small garden, it may be more trouble than it is worth, but I'm going to experiment with poly next year in my own garden.