The Eggs Have Landed

As the incubator arrived during the week, we set it up today and calibrated the thermometer. Against two others it seemed to be 2 degrees under, so we have the heater set so the thermometer is reading 35.5 centigrade, which is really 37.5 - the ideal temperature apparently.

We then went to Perfect Poultry in Lightwater where they had loads of birds - lots of beautiful varieties. We came away with 15 eggs of various types, so we'll just have to see what comes out!

The man there took us to see his hatching shed - we saw chicks in their brooders, and then he opened an incubator and pulled out a couple of eggs which were just starting to hatch. The kids held them in their hands, and you could feel them wriggling about inside the egg, and if you held it to your ear you could hear them cheeping.

The picture shows the eggs resting after their transit next to the incubator. They will go in tomorrow, and then we have 21 days of turning them every 8 hours.

Chicken Furniture

While Amy was painting away, Ollie and I made the nesting boxes and the perch. That's pretty much all the building done for the house itself - the run is the final step.

Julie is planning to buy an incubator on ebay, so hopefully we will get some eggs very soon ...

Weather Proofing

The weather has been terrible this week, so we took the brief opportunity yesterday to put the sealant in the ridge join and get some fence protector onto the wood. It has been very cold since, and started raining in the night, so I think some of it might have been washed off again!

The Final Door

This picture shows the human access end with both doors complete. The doors both slot down into "holders" and then require a simple fixing at the top to secure them. The holders and the door handles are all made of short sections of the same timber-with-corner-cutout used for the chicken door runners. With complete foresight we would have worked out the total length of this required and made it all in one circular saw run.

As a slight modification to Clive's design, we fixed two extra vertical timbers between ground and floor height, so that the outer pieces of the lower end are fixed ply, and only the centre section is a removable door. This was mainly because we couldn't get a single piece of ply big enough for the bottom section out of the remains of our 8'x4' ply sheet, but also makes the lower door lighter and a less awkward shape to handle.

It went dark again by the time we finished on the Sunday, so some end-of-day-two pictures will follow.

Chicken Access End

Ollie fixed on the chicken access end of the run. This includes another vent, runners for the door, and the door itself on a pull cord. We also realised that we needed a cross-piece underneath the door for it to close down onto rather than falling unceremoniously to the floor. The runners were made from 2x1 timber, with a corner cut out using 2 cuts from a circular saw to create the slots for the door to slide in.

Human Access End

Amy screwed on this fixed top part of the human-access end of the ark. Note the pleasing soffit vent for intruder-free ventilation! You can also see that we attached the roof timbers slightly asymmetrically to allow one to butt against the other - the join will be sealed with some exterior joint seal if it stops raining ...

Day Two

As it was dark when we finished construction on Saturday (!), here is a Sunday morning picture of where we got to - essentially A frames, floor and roof. You can see that the carrying handles are made of two longer pieces of the roofing timber, with some minor shaping with a jigsaw.

Stage 1 Complete

Here is the end of the first stage, with the floor in place, and 3 A-frames in place. The whole thing is an exactly equilateral triangle, with all internal angles at 60 degrees.

There is an extra cross-piece at floor level on the end A-frames which is flush with the side pieces as well as the one screwed on from the back, as we will need this to fix the door latches onto.

There is also a cross-piece quite near the top on the (human) door end, as this part of the end wall will be fixed, but the rest will lift out.

Construction Begins

As Julie's parents are staying with us this weekend, it seemed a shame not to get started, so the sawing and fixing began. First we made 2 A-frames for either end, both with a cross-piece around 50cm from the bottom onto which the floor of the house would be fixed. We then worked out the length of the floor from the shiplap roof pieces which I'd had pre-cut by the timber yard at 110cm.

Having made some cut-outs in the floor piece for the A-frames, we then joined the floor to the A-frames. The third A-frame (no bottom cross-piece) was then constructed "around" the floor so that the floor would have support in the centre.

Before starting to put the roof on, we used the now-assembled structure to mark out the pieces of plywood we would need for the end walls.

A Delivery ...

OK, so now I've caught up with the present. I ordered the timber for the construction a couple of days ago (note the excellent combination of imperial and metric measurements!):

2 x 1 timber: 55m

4 x 1 timber: 6m

6 x 1 timber: 1m

22 m 150mm wide shiplap for roof (2 x 1.5m; 18 x 1.1m)

An 8' x 4' sheet of 9mm hardwood ply

2 x soffit vents

I guess I will update on whether this turned out to be the correct order.

All of this came from Champion timber in Edenbridge, and cost £124. I guess the eggs will pay back in about 20 years. I don't even like eggs ...

Anyway, today the wood was delivered, disappointingly left on the drive, so task no.1 was to carry it around the back of the house - the kids were keen to join in which was an encouraging start!

Making Plans

Last Saturday, Ollie and I drove down through a beautifully frosty Ashdown forest to visit Clive, Jill and family in Newick for me to take pictures and measurements of their chicken house which Clive built last year. Clive revealed that he studied technical drawing for a while, and I went away with some most excellent hand-drawn plans and accompanying measurements.

Here is a picture of their chicken house and run ...

Chicken House

I am starting this blog as my wife Julie has persuaded me to get chickens, so as a post-Christmas present I have decided to construct a chicken house as a project with our kids Amy and Ollie. Huge thanks must go to my friend and co-musician Clive Saunders who inspired me with the design for the construction ...