Fatjay picks up chicks!

Handloader109 · Jun 26, 2022

Looking good. I know it's a late question, but you appear to be in a subdivision. I'm sure that it is legal to keep chickens and there isn't a limit to the number you can have.... just sayin. I'm in Arkansas and most towns here allow a few hens, and zero roosters.

fatjay · Jun 27, 2022

I got all the walls up, window fitted, painted, and ice and water shield up. I am completely worn. I was hammering the roof in the dark. Everything is heavy, and exhausting. But it's supposed to rain tomorrow so I needed to get it done.

fatjay · Jul 1, 2022

Got the eve skirts cut and painted. Top front trim installed as a test. Bottom walls done. And the rear wall removed and flipped so it would line up right. Little slower than I'd like but getting there. Tomorrow I plan to throw on another coat of paint, finish the egg boxes, and trim. Trim boards are already painted before going up. Then I'm thinking of getting shingles.

And the auto-chicken door closed at 8:52. Light sensing, in the morning it comes up, in the evening it shuts. So far it's working. Runs off AA batteries with a claimed life of a year, but I'll replace them every 6 months.

fatjay · Jul 2, 2022

Bottom of the egg boxes and fronts are on and painted. Started trim work. I hate trim work. So much. All the angles cutting and if it's not perfect I hate it.

The holes in the front of the egg boxes are where the mail-box style doors will be, they'll fold down so my wife can collect the eggs.

EddieWalker · Jul 3, 2022

You might want to rethink the roof over the nesting boxes and install shingles or metal there.

fatjay · Jul 3, 2022

I am thinking about that, I'm not sure what to do yet. I can revise that when I figure out a better solution.

I went to TSC and to my surprise, they had 15% off for active duty and veterans. So I picked up fencing, posts, and 3 bags of feed. Came home and made my own post driver. Then finished up some trim. Strung a line for the chicken run and marked 8' for the posts. Put 3 in and realized I think I want to do 6', I bought 4 extra just in case. I'm going to do a 3' door in 4x4's. I was surprised how well the post driver worked.

https://imgur.com/ntO8aqz

buckeyefarmer · Jul 4, 2022

Looking good.

fatjay · Jul 4, 2022

Did fence today and got the window screwed in and adjusted. Need to do window trim. That 100' spool of fence is a real bastard to drag around. Caught my fingers more than once. Nailed it to the coop and installed post. Those post ties are a pain to figure out but once I got going it wasn't bad. I think I need to install an anchor to the first post so I can pull it tight.

fatjay · Jul 5, 2022

I hate dealing with fence. But it's 95% done. Picked up landscape timbers to pin to the ground and nail the fence to to prevent critters digging under. Picked up rebar so I can nail it into the ground to hopefully deter predators from digging under it.

fatjay · Jul 7, 2022

Bought 240 ground pins 6" long. "Do home fix easy way" strait from china. Stuck them in to tie the fence to the ground all around. Drilled some holes in lanscape timbers and pounded rebar in to tie them to the ground. Finished the fence on the perimiter, and the bottom piece of trim screwed in to hold the fence secure to the bottom of the coop.

I'll fence in the rest of the coop bottom as well. Tomorrow I hope to get the fence door framed and fence door in so I can stop climbing through the window.

Then coop doors which I painted this evening, finish man door, and hopefully move the chickens in friday.

I know it doesn't look like much has changed but it was about 4 hours this evening.