FAST AND EASY making a door for the chicken house

Planning poultry pens

 Mr J and I are so pleased with how well the chicken walkway has worked for us (and the chickens) that we have decided to build further runs in the chickens' fields and to that end I have ordered some more of the roofing battens like those that we used for the walkway.

 Rather than runs that use a building as one wall, the new runs will be freestanding, well not exactly freestanding as they will be anchored into the ground, but they will have four sides made from posts and netting.

Our thinking is that we could create a series of large runs that, during lockdown, will provide covered areas that the chickens can use and for the rest of the year we can leave the doors open for them to access the runs or remainder of the field.

The runs would allow us to keep family groups together which would be especially useful when we want to ensure that a set of females are breeding with a particular cockerel. The downside to this plan is that I will be back to cleaning out several small houses instead of using a deep litter bedding system in the chicken shed. But that seems a small price to pay for being able to ensure that the correct male is with the girls that we want to collect eggs from.

When we made the walkway it was very much a hit and miss affair, we didn't have a firm plan of how we'd do it and just felt our way through it. For the next pen or two, we will have a clearer idea of how to put the wood uprights and cross piece together to make the structure that we want.

The only part that we really struggled with, when making the walkway, was making a door or gate that fitted the allotted space. Making it the correct size was simple enough, but to stop it from twisting out of shape was more tricky, not helped I think, by the uprights each side of the door not being a) completely perpendicular and b) not being completely in line with each other. It's something we will work on for the next pens.

Once the new pens are completed I will section off an area inside each one that the chickens will not have access to and I will grow some vegetables in it. Then when lockdown happens next year, there will be some cabbages or other green leafy vegetables that I can feed to the birds by opening the restricted area a little at a time. And of course, even if there is no prevention zone order next year, the chickens still will be fed the leafy green vegetables during the winter months.

We haven't decided as yet whether the new pens will have a gently sloping roof like the chicken's walkway or a pitched roof like the duck run (above). I think the gently sloping roof option will be easier to build and as neither Mr J or I have advanced construction skills, the simplest option may well be the best.

The other design of run that I will build from this wood is a mobile run about four metres (13 feet) long and one metre (just over 3 feet) wide with handles at each end to help carry it. It will be a low run about 90cms (3 feet) high. This will fit on top of the raised beds in the annual vegetable garden and once lockdown is over, will allow me to put the chickens to work on the raised beds. They can eat the weeds and any crops left in the bed, till the soil and add manure to it. A few chickens should be able to make light work of the bed preparation in a couple of days and each evening they will be allowed to return to their usual house for the night. 

This was fairly successful last year when I made a makeshift run and now we have the opportunity to make sturdier and mobile raised bed chicken runs I am keen to have them ready for the chickens to go into once the lockdown ends.

The raised bed chicken runs will then be used to cover brassica crops to protect them from cabbage white butterflies and cabbage moths, both of which did substantial damage to the January King cabbages and red curly kale. Having dual purpose mobile runs means that we won't need to find a place to store the runs when the chickens are not in them.

The local builder's merchant have just delivered the wood and I'm heading out into the chicken field to do some measuring up. Although, I'll have to walk past the kettle on my way, so perhaps first of all, I should have a cuppa!

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Completing the chicken walkway

Finishing the chicken walkway had become a priority during the week and I had ordered some more debris netting to cover the roof and it arrived on Friday. So having signed for the parcel, I hot-footed it straight to the walkway and wrestled with the 20m length of material to get it up and spread out over the roof. I trimmed away the excess length leaving enough at each end to be able to fold it down at each end and secure it to the stable wall at one end and the walkway framework at the other.

Mr J fitted the door at the end of the walkway that opens out onto the chicken field and I fixed the last section of chicken wire to the end and secure it onto the chicken shed. I treated the ground with a disinfectant as a precaution in case any infected wild bird poop was lurking on the ground.

Hooray! We have completed the chicken walkway and the birds are ecstatic. It is marvellous to be able to give them an outdoor space after six weeks of them being shut away in the stable. The stable had plenty of natural daylight in it, but it didn't have the fresh air flowing through it in the same way and it certainly didn't have direct sunlight to warm their backs.
As if to serve as a reminder that the rest of the chickens have a somewhat cobbled together space outdoors (although they do at least have some outside space) Diesellette, the daughter of Diesel, managed to squeeze out of the hitherto secure fencing and flew up onto the chicken shed roof. One quick shake of a corn-filled bucket brought her back down again and I returned her to her enclosure and used yet another cane to peg down the chicken wire that she had wriggled underneath. Perhaps she was envious of the nice new chicken walkway that the other flocks are enjoying.

It feels as though as fast as we resolve one issue another one arrives and so at some point in the next week or so, I will tackle the makeshift outdoor space that the Jersey Giants, Australorps and Diesellette have and create something more permanent for them.

As I anticipate that lockdown will become a regular event, I am keen to create more permanent spaces that the chickens can be in when their movement around the smallholding is restricted by law. But, if we never have another lockdown, we will have created some very useful spaces that we can separate the different flocks to live in when we want to isolate them into breeding groups. And should we ever decide not to keep chickens any more, we will have fabulous fruit cages in which to grow crops of soft fruit. Win - win!

If you haven't discovered my latest project yet, you can find my vlogs (videos) on my YouTube channel. Today I hope to make a video about sorting out the cobbled together chicken run, but to get myself ready to tackle the task, I think I'd better put the kettle on and make a cuppa!

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Chicken walkway Part 2

Having made a start on the new chicken walkway on Friday, (read about it here) we spent part of the weekend and most of Monday working on it too.

For the first time since we moved here I spotted a ship or perhaps it is a boat, whichever it is, it was a vessel on the River Severn beneath the Second Severn Crossing. Little events like this are important to me, I find a huge amount of pleasure in just enjoying the moment.

 Late on Sunday afternoon, after the chickens had been locked safely into their houses, I 
strengthened the door to the chicken palace. It is made from three pre-fabricated panels that I have strapped together with cable ties. I've now added 2x1 wood along each side to hold panels rigid and to give me something to which I can attach hinges. 

Mr J continued to knock upright posts into the ground and then we fixed cross bars and roof supports to them. The walkway/run measures 8.25m long and 2.25m wide, it's a bit of a beast. We had to work our way around the pallet on the floor as it protects a drain access (man hole type thing) which doesn't have a metal cover on it, just a piece of rotting wood over it and the rotting pallet over that. One of my tasks this week is to find a suitable metal cover for the drain access.

Once we'd got all the posts into the ground and the horizontal bars and roof supports, Mr J cut the excess off the top of the posts., 

While he cut the uprights, I cut two lengths of chicken wire and used cable ties to join them to create one large sheet of chicken wire to cover the roof area.

We wrestled the chicken wire roof into place and secured it with a few strategically placed cable ties. It took a bit of jiggling around and more than several choice phrases, but it is now at least over the roof struts ready to be fully secured into place.

Then I stapled chicken wire around the lower part of the run, it continues across the ground by about 40cms which will help to secure the chicken wire to the ground and hopefully deter any digging predators.

Mr J then put together a door frame and I covered it with 1/4 inch wire mesh.

Today I have continued to secure the roofing wire to the beams, trying to pull the tension across the width as I go. I then attached some clear plastic and windbreak fabric to the upper section of the side. I didn't have enough of either material to complete the job, but that will do until I buy some more windbreak fabric. I will fix chicken wire to the outside of the upper section too, but on a day that is less rainy.

So we still need to hang the door and put the scaffold netting over the top of it, but it's almost completed. The girls have been very curious about what we are doing and I'm looking forward to being able to let them out to play in it.

Of course I have overdone it this week and Mr J is back to work tomorrow after his first well-earned week of holiday from work since he began his job at the start of August. Finishing the walkway may have to wait a few days while I rest and recuperate. 

I'll start that process by putting the kettle on and making a cuppa!

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A new chicken walkway

The chickens in the stable are beginning to go stir crazy because despite having a reasonably good size space in which to spend their days, they aren't used to being confined. The process of getting them from their chicken shed to the stable in the morning and back again at dusk is starting to irritate me too.

The chickens don't really like being herded or carried back and forth the thirty feet between the two and Mr J and I thought it was about time to tackle the issue. We thought that if we create a covered walkway between the two, then the dawn and dusk double quick march could become a meandering stroll. If I enclosed the walkway completely with chicken wire and covered the roof, the chickens could then spend as much time as they liked out in the covered walkway or be inside in the condo.

 I spent some time looking carefully at the space at the back of the stable to work out how I might create the walkway and on Friday three hundred feet of treated battening was delivered from the local builders' merchant.

Mr J cut ten of the lengths in half.

And cut points on the ends of ten of the pieces.

I positioned the first couple of pieces of wood on the outside of the rear stable wall, but trying to screw so many screws in by hand was going to mean that the building of the walkway would take an awfully long time and probably more than a few tears.

So this morning we took a trip to the local DIY superstore and bought, amongst several small pieces of ironmongery that I wanted, a cordless screwdriver and cordless drill. 

My life is transformed. Okay, so not on a grand scale, its not climate change being reversed nor poverty being eradicated, but on a 'this is going to means making things is simple' scale, it is a big deal.

When we got home Mr J made a cuppa and I read the instruction manuals, then I headed out into the garden to continue making the frame for the walkway. I managed to put in the next two uprights, two roof braces and one long horizontal brace before the rain forced me to abandon my task and head back indoors.

Weather permitting, I will continue building the frame tomorrow and I may even finish the woodwork. I will then cover the frame's top and sides in chicken wire and also the roof area will be covered in scaffold netting to prevent wild bird poop from falling onto the ground from above. I will create two doors in the walkway, one near the stable door and one at the far end going out into the chicken field. By having two doors in the walkway, we will be able to have free movement into and around the walkway once the birds are allowed to free range again.

We plan to leave the walkway in place after the lockdown is lifted as I am sure that some sort of lockdown will happen again next autumn when the wild birds are migrating again. This way the infrastructure (and structure) is in place to allow us to respond quickly and get the birds inside and under cover as soon as the Prevention Zone measures are announced.

If we ever decide not to keep chickens or to move them to another area on the smallholding, I will be able to either dismantle the walkway or I can use the walkway as a fruit cage. 

Yesterday's blog post was about vloggers who have inspired and entertained me and very kindly Dan at The Grass-Fed Homestead mentioned my blog on his most recent vlog (you'll need to watch this episode to the end if you want to see the mention). I also noticed that James and Dee at Happy Homestead have mentioned my blog and said some very kind things about us. It is especially nice to be a part of a network of enthusiastic homesteaders who are supportive and caring.

As I type it is late in the day, Mr J has already done the evening chores and so I need to head to bed, without my usual post-blog cuppa!

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Building a duck run

When the Avian Flu Prevention Zone was announced on December 6th I spent a couple of days getting the stable conversion completed so the chickens had their splendid condo and creating the chicken palace, so that was them safely under cover and the ducks had to make do with a very makeshift space with a tarp slung over some bamboo canes, which didn't stand up to the wind and rain very well.

We ordered a large pen which arrived very quickly and had easy to follow instructions for putting it together. It was really a two person job, but as Mr J is out of the house from shortly after dawn to just before dusk on the days that he works, I tackled putting it together.

 Once I had worked out which piece went where the construction was relatively simple.

 The roof sections went together first.

 Followed by legs on one side.

 And then on the other side.

Followed by the base poles. The large heavy duty poles slotted into connecting pieces and were held in place with wing nuts. It took me a couple of hours to build the frame, which I then fixed to the ground using the ground pegs supplied.

Getting the chicken wire over the frame was a different matter. The instructions say its a fiddly job that requires patience and oh boy, they were right! About 1000 cable ties later, the netting was on. The hardest part was getting enough tension across the chicken wire while I also tried to fix it to the frame using a cable tie. 

You can see on the right of the photo that I hadn't yet pulled the chicken wire tight before fixing it to the corner post. The metal of the chicken wire has quietly shaved a layer or two of skin from my hands and I have dozens of tiny cuts on the back of my hands from the spiky ends of the chicken wire. 

The end result is great. The run is 6m by 4m and has a skirt of chicken wire around the outside to discourage burrowing predators.

We've put tarps over the top of it, but have decided that this not only makes it quite dark , but the crinkly, crackling noise that it makes in the wind is not very nice for the ducks, so today I will be ordering some scaffolding netting which will offer protection from any falling wild bird poop, but will let in a little more light and be less noisy.

Yesterday it was announced that the lockdown will continue until the end of February, so I am pleased that we've opted for a more permanent structure to keep the ducks safe and secure. Once the birds are allowed to free range again we can use the pen for raising this year's ducklings, giving them a much larger space than the ducklings had last year, but one that keeps them separate from the adults.

Now that the duck run is ready for the ducks to move from their makeshift space I can turn my attention to creating a pen for the chickens. They have been inside for a month and tempers are starting to fray (their's, not mine). Big White in particular is starting to get aggressive, which is unusual for this breed.

I will create a run from the chicken palace so that the Jersey Giants and Australorps have some outside space. I plan to build a covered run that leads straight off the chicken palace, sanitise the grass, cut a pop hole in the wall of the building and then allow them out each day for some fresh air and scratching.

After that I can work out how to create a similar covered outside space for the chickens in the condo. But, before I head outside to tackle anything else, it's time for a cuppa!

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