Goat Feeder with Video

Anybody who feeds goats alfalfa hay, knows that if you simply put the bale on the ground, about 25% of the hay goes to waste. OK, maybe not anybody; but nobody told me. I had to learn the hard way!

I decided to make a raised goat feeder out of pallets (what else would I use?). After some quick research, saw what a basic feeder looks like and went to work. 

It is important to work with pallets that are all the same size. I can't stress that enough. If one of your pallets is a different size that all the others, your project won't turn out properly. Also, be sure to use heat treated pallets. For more info on this topic, click here. 

So I gathered all my pallets, screws and screw gun. I used the pallet with a plywood surface as the "bottom" of the feeder so less hay would fall through. I laid this pallet on it's side on top of one of my "side pallets" and started screwing it together. I then flipped it over and repeated the process. The hard part was getting the pallets to balance as i screwed them together. A spare pallet came in handy. Not only did it brace the pieces for me, but since it was the same size, it was the perfect measurement. 

 
 

















Once I had my "H" shape, I laid it on the side to insert the 2 pallets that would hold the hay in a "V" shape. I used a whole bunch of screws and screwed the whole thing together. The screws I used were the exterior drywall screws and deck screws. This would help ensure that the feeder stays here for a while. 

I ran out and got a bale of alfalfa and stuck it in the top. The goats were thrilled. I did have to remove a slat from each side so that they could get to they hay. Once i did that they went to town! I also added a sheet of masonite on the bottom so that less hay would fall through. 

Too Slo to Go Pro

Can you find me in the above pic? (no, not in the cut-off short shorts)

The wide part of the course.

So, I rode the Old Fashioned Mountain Bike Race in Flagstaff yesterday. This race was tough, but fun. I learned a few things during this race that I thought I'd share. 

First of all, I had only 3 goals for this race:
1. Have fun. 
2. Enjoy the experience. 
3. Not injur myself. I managed to accomplish all three of my goals! Granted, they weren't lofty goals, but this was my first mountain bike race. I didn't expect to place or win, i just wanted to go out & have fun. 

So, I'm pedaling along and I immediately realize that I should have trained for this race. About 90% of this race was climbing. I hadn't really ridden in the whole month prior to this race and it showed :(. My lungs burned, my legs ached, and I just didn't feel in sync with my bike. Lesson learned; next time - train!

I also learned that I need to ride more single track trails, which is to say trails that are just wide enough for a bike or hiker. When I do go out and ride, I typically don't challenge myself enough. Descending a single track is a blast! Imagine winding in and out of trees, maneuvering over and around rocks, at speeds that may tempt you to hit the brakes. Fun stuff! I'm sure I had a silly grin on my face the entire time. Climbing single track trails, however, is a little more challenging. There are typically exposed tree roots, rocks, and other obstacles not to mention squeezing in between places that is just barely wide enough for your tires. There's no shame in hoping off and carrying your bike over obstacles that are too difficult to ride. I wasn't the only person to employ this tactic!

I also need more practice at clipping in and out of my pedals on a single track. There were, more times than I'd like to admit, instances where i found myself on the ground because I either couldn't un-clip fast enough or I'd un-clip the wrong side. No biggie. Nothing more than a scraped elbow and bruise on my arm & ego. I may look into a skills clinic at the local bike shop to get some tips & pointers. 

Overall, I'd say my biggest downfall was conditioning. Next year, I will be ready. Next year, I will train, ride this course more (this was the first time on the course), and just ride more before the event. 

Here are a few observances during the race:
1.  I (used to) fancy myself a climber - I need to climb more. 
2. I LOVE this sport. The camaraderie of everyone out there was incredible. 
3. Flagstaff is awesome for mountain biking!
4. I need to ride more. 
5. The cycling community in Flagstaff rocks!
6. That old lady on the trike with the basket full of croceries was faster than she looked. 
7. I can't wait for my next event, be it road cycling or MTB. 

Below are some pics from the ride:
 

Got a little dirty

Bike was ready to go

My cool beer socks!

Just about to cross the finish line. 

The Bug

I recently sold my MTB, The Purple Pig. That bike, while fun, was a bit of a beater. The equivalent of "rock skis". Aside from the cosmetic issues, it also had mechanical issues. A noisy bottom bracket, untrue wheels, and poor shifters are only the beginning.

I found a new MTB on Craigslist and traded my old dart board for it. This bike is much newer, lighter, and is full suspension (great for an old guy). I've been enjoying riding this bike a LOT! To say that I'm once again obsessed would probably be a fair statement. I've been trying to ride at least twice a week to get back into somewhat decent riding shape. After each ride, I'm already looking forward to my next one. While riding this morning, I found myself wondering "how can I make this my job"? Wouldn't that be sweet? Either testing new equipment or exploring trails. Hmmmm. I will probably have to stick to recreational riding. That's OK, I still love it.

The other day, I rode straight out my front gate into the forestry area and had a blast! If anyone wants to come ride some sweet trails, let me know. I did learn a lesson today...Carry tools! Shortly after I left, my handlebars became loose. Loose enough so that they would twist in my hands. Not good. I had a multi-tool in my CamelBak so I could tighten them some. My bike tool would have fixed them for good. Guess what I'm doing tonight...packing my tool kit for this bike.

When I'm driving from customer to customer, I can't help but look out and wonder what kind of trails might be just off the road, or in the canyons, or mountains, or.... My mindset has gone back into a cyclist's one. I may need counseling...

Am I Getting Soft?

Back in the day, I used to ride a hardtail MTB; that is a MTB sans suspension. No front shocks, no frame shock, just a bike. I rode that bike over all sorts of terrain and thought nothing of it. My buddy and I would hit the trails HARD almost every weekend and sometimes not know where we'd end up.

Now, I ride a full suspension MTB with a GPS in my pocket. Have I gone soft? Not at all. I look at it as riding smarter. This technology didn't exist when we were tearing up the trails in Southern CA. Well, front shocks were just coming onto the scene, but I didn't have 'em. The suspension takes some of the shock from the trail so it doesn't transfer to your body making you able to ride longer (as long as your legs and lungs can hang). 

I went for a pre-work ride this morning and certainly appreciated the technology. I appreciated the suspension as I screamed down a trail at 25mph. I still felt the washboard trail  in my arms but it wasn't quite as bad. I certainly appreciated the GPS when I missed a turn in the trail and ended up in some dude's front yard. I was able to locate the correct turn and get back on track. Since I was riding before work, I didn't have the luxury of "figuring it out" as I went. 

I heard an interview with Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top who relayed a story about his guitar strings. Blues players traditionally use pretty heavy (thick) strings for better tone. BB King told Billy that he was working too hard by using such heavy strings. Basically, the newer technology in guitar string development made it possible to have the tone without working so hard. The same goes with mountain biking. There have been a lot of changes in the equipment. Why work so hard?

I still consider myself an old skool mountain biker, but I may have to revise that thought. Old skool in mind, body, and spirit; but taking advantage of modern cycling technology. Definitely NOT soft!

Girls Gone WILD!

    

If you were hoping for a video of drunk twenty-somethings flashing their boobs while sticking their tongues out, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed here. This is a video of how my [chicken] girls act when I give them treats such as worms, grubs, or crickets. Enjoy!

Coopzilla Video Tour

Here's a video tour of my latest creation, Coopzilla. 

 

Combining Flocks

I finished building my new coop finally! I am calling it Coopzilla because it's so big (at least compared to the old ones). In the old "compound", I had 17 birds. In the most recent acquisition, I had 24. They were in separate coops with separate runs since early January. They were neighbors, sharing a pallet wall so they could get used to each other. 

With Coopzilla, I figured it would be a perfect time to integrate the two flocks. It would be completely new to both flocks so there wouldn't be much territorial fighting. Just the normal pecking order stuff. 

I locked the 24 birds in their coop last night with the idea that we could carry the whole thing to the new location next to the yard and let them all out. My neighbor was kind enough to come over in the morning to carry the coop full o'chickens over. That sucker was heavy! I think I tweaked out my back a little. We got the old coop over to it's location, cut a hole in the fence for the door, attached the ramp, and opened the floodgates so to speak. Chickens were falling over each other to get out of that coop. It was pretty comical to watch. I threw some scratch (aka "chicken crack" on the ground to keep them occupied which worked perfectly. Now to get the others. 

Since the "compound" birds are not all self contained, moving them required a little more strategy. I brought the dog crate into the yard and threw some scratch in it. Most of the birds rushed the crate and stood at the doorway pecking away at the scratch. I nudged about 4 of them inside and closed the door. I was able to catch a few more and put them in as well. Again, my neighbor was on hand to help carry the crate full o'chickens over. We opened Coopzilla's yard door, stepped in and let the girls out. The rest of the birds were on to me when I cam back with an empty crate. One looked at me as if to say "hey, where did you take those other birds?". I tried the same method of put some scratch in the crate, but they weren't having it. I had my son close the door to the coop so they had to stay in the yard and then he and the neighbor's daughter helped me catch the birds one by one. I have to admit; I'm no pro at catching chickens, that's the neighbor girl, but we rounded the last of them into the crate and carried them to join the rest. Piece of cake. 

There was the typical fighting among birds. They were all in a new environment so there needed to be a pecking order, literally. It was funny to see Elvis try to take on one of the other roosters only to have the third come join in. I was curious to see how it would go between the roosters. Elvis has shown aggression in the past and the other two are about as cool as cucumbers. I have to admit, it was nice to see Elvis get a bit of his own medicine. They have SO much more room now. The newer flock was in such a small coop, they were pecking each other so much they were losing feathers towards their tails. This new yard is bigger that the other two yards combined. At 384 square feet, they have plenty of room to roam. The inside of the coop is 128 square feet, about 4 times what both coops were. Not to mention they can now roost way up high inside which they like to do since the coop is 8 feet high inside. 

I put a feeder and a couple waterers in the yard and a feeder inside and everybody is seeming to get along. I even got 3 eggs in the new nesting boxes, which I didn't expect. I thought the stress of the move and new "friends" would prevent any laying. Nice to be wrong this time. So they're getting along during the day. It will be interesting to see ho they do when it becomes dark and they all go in to roost. i suspect there may be some more jockeying for position. We'll see.  

UPDATE: Didn't hear much from the chickens last night as they all went in to roost. I checked on them after dark and most were on the roosting poles I set up. They filled them from the top down. Only a few could fit on the highest roost and it was full. They gradually filled the lower two poles. A few birds were in the community nesting box and 4 were in one of the other boxes. I set up a couple cinder block on end out in the yard with a 2x3 between them for them to sit on during the day (you can kinda see it in the background of the picture above). Barry White & 4 of his ladies were roosting there. It had to be cold for them. I think I will take that thing down and see where they go tonight.   

Whitebeard is clearly the dominant rooster of the 3. Barry White, true to his name is definitely the ladies' man. Poor Elvis is just the young punk kid trying to figure out where he fits. 

"Whitebeard"

"Barry White"

My Healing Crisis

A healing crisis is when you experience symptoms or reactions from diseases or toxins that are released during a cleanse.We have seen such crises with my son and bad gut bacteria die and we get another positive growth moment. 

I recently had my own healing crisis. Without getting into too much detail, there has been some custody drama with the X. I originally filed to have my child support reduced when I became unemployed last year and the other party became greedy. I'll just leave it at that. 

As you can imagine, this was VERY stressful. It was stressful for me, my family, and my marriage. It was a rough time. Life pretty much sucked. 

Then something miraculous happened. My wife & I realized just how much we mean to each other, how we need each other, and how much we love each other. Whaat could have easily driven us apart actually pulled us closer together. 

This event has recharged my marriage and made me fall back in love with my wife (not that I was never not in love with her). And she has fallen back in love with me. This event has put the spark back in our marriage back to when we first got married. My youngest asked the other day" How you guys hug so much?" to which I replied "because we love each other". She then said "you guys didn't used to do that". She's right, after 10+ years of marriage, and 14+ years of being together, things tend to get complacent. This event has revitalized my marriage and life is awesome once again!

Sometimes you just need a slap in the face to make you realize just what you have. I've been slapped and I realize once again that I have everything I need.....my wife & my kids.

Goat Barn Tour

Here's a short video tour of the goat barn I made from pallets & reclaimed plywood. 

The goal was to give the goats a shelter to get out of the weather and use as much reclaimed materials as possible.

Enjoy!

Avocadon't!

Turns out that yummy green avocado is bad for your animals!

A friend of mine and fellow chicken farmer found this out the hard way when one of his chickens became sick. He was able to figure out that the avocado scraps given were making his bird sick because avocados are toxic to animals. 

I found an article from the Avocado.com on the subject you can view here. So beware before you feed sparky chips & guacamole!

By the way, guacamole can be literally translated to "green shit"!

A Word on Building with Pallets

If you choose, like I have, to build with pallets; there are a few things you should know. First of all, pallets are very sturdy, and usually hard to break. That's why they are used for shipping. Many times they're build out of a hardwood like oak. When you are selecting pallets for building,please consider the following:

1. Always ask for permission to take pallets from the place you are taking them from. Many times, companyies contract with other companies to come take their pallets and pay them a fee. The store basically sells their pallets back to recoup some of their costs. 
2. Never use pallets from a grocery store. Remember the e coli outbreaks? That stuff can seep into the pallets that all the tainted lettuce is on!
3. Get all of you pallets the same size. Standard pallets are 40" x 48". If you have all the same sized pallets, the chances of your project turning out square is better. If you're not building a structure, but just using them for the slats, this is still important to make sure all your slats are a uniform length. 
4. I once read that, in order to use the pallet slats, you had to cut along the side stringers and rock the piece from the center stringer to get a usable board. This works great except, now you're left with a shorter piece of re-usable lumber. I break down my pallets with my trust pry bar and big-ol-hammer. I'll do a video blog on how to break these down. It's not that hard and you get more usable lumber from the pallets. 
5. All pallets are treated for pests. Bet you didn't know that. The international export standard, ISPM 15, requires that all wood packaging material be heat-treated at a core temperature of 56 degrees Celsius for a minimum of 30 minutes or that it is fumigated to a prescribed specification with methyl bromide. This regulation eliminates the presence of pests found in wood thereby protecting crops and forests in other parts of the world. NEVER use the chemically treated pallets. Most pallets have a stamp on one of the runners (thicker pieces usually a 2x4). If the stamp reads "HT", that means "heat treated", you're cool. If it reads "MB", stay away. That stands for "methyl bromide". 

Methyl Bromide is some serious shit. If you uses the MB pallets, and you have other animals around that may chew on wood (my dog does, the goats...), they can be seriously harmed. For more info on MB read here. In my opinion, it's best just to stay away from MB treated pallets. 

Here is a stamp showing that the pallet was heat treated:

Well, there you have it; everything you didn't think you wanted to know about using pallets as a building material. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below.

Chicken Coop Tour

Here is a video tour of the old chicken coops. There are currently 2 separate coops and yards sharing a common wall. I will post a tour of the new coop as well. In the new coop, both flocks will be integrated into a bigger coop & yard.

Need Some Feedback Please

Not that anybody reads my blog; but in the rare case that someone stumbles across this, I need your feedback. 

I'm thinking of incorporating videos in my blog, both instructional & informative about the events around here. Would this be a viable outlet or would you prefer to read my lame ramblings? Leave me a comment and let me know what you think please. 
Thanks, 

Eric

Hey Buddy, Can you Spare Some Change?

Life is all about change and change is good. In the past couple years, my life has changed completely. This blog will no longer be only about cycling (hence the new name). While cycling is still a passion of mine, I have acquired additional passions. Passions that are exciting, fulfilling and scary all at the same time. I hope you will join me on this journey of change.

If you were to tell me 10 years ago that I'd be living in Flagstaff on 4 acres with three kids, two cats, a dog, 3 goats, 35,000 bees, and 40+ chickens; I would have said you were nuts. But that's exactly where I am and I love it! 

No longer in the midst of suburbia where my house looked like the neighbor's whose house looked like his neighbor, and so on; I am now "in the sticks". I have added a couple more roles in my life as well. I am now a chicken farmer, goat raiser, gardener, constructor, and maintenance person. I will be writing about these topics as well as cycling and anything else that may pop into my head as I'm clearing tumbleweeds or mucking out the goat barn. 

I hope you will join me on this adventure, it's sure to be interesting!

What's in a Name?

So the title of my blog is "Life in the Bike Lane". In the past, almost all my posts were about cycling in one way or another. 

Now that I live somewhat remotely; there's so much more going on in my life other than cycling,  and much of my cycling isn't in a bike lane or even concrete for that matter; it might be time for a name change. 

Here are a few that I'm kicking around:
My Life
Life as an Urban Farmer
The Homestead

What do YOU think I should call it?

Pallet Chicken "Compound"

One of the goals of moving out of the burbs was to be more sustainable and grow our own food. Before we had the infrastructure to put in a proper garden, we decided on raising chickens. 

Chickens. How hard could it be? I found someone selling 4 hens on Craigslist and contacted her.  We picked a morning that would be best for me to come get "the girls" and the ball was set in motion. Now, I need to build a coop. 

I had been reading about building a coop out of pallets and thought that it would be fairly simple to do. Since we have a dog, and I don't trust him around our chickens, I decided to also build a yard for the girls instead of letting them free-range in the yard. We also have fox, coyotes, & stray cats to contend with, so a yard was definitely in order. 

I decided that since we only had 4 girls a coop 2 pallets wide with a yard 3 pallets by 2 pallets would suffice. The coop was pretty straight forward. I used pallets for the floor, walls, and roof. I had some plywood left over (from something) so I put that down as the floor. I brought the girls home and put them in their new coop (closing the door) while I worked on the yard. I figured since these hens were laying already, they wouldn't be able to get through the slats in the pallets. WRONG! It probably looked comical to any passers by to see a guy building a coop and chasing chickens back into it as fast as he could board up another hole. As I look back, it was pretty funny. 

I will take you through the process of building what I now call "The Compound". My goal was to spend as little as I could on this coop and maximize recycled materials. 

They say that urban chicken ownership is an addiction, and it is. We now have 16 hens and a rooster and the "coop" has grown and seem to continue to do so. 

Step 1. Collect a bunch of pallets. My original plan was to build the coop 2 pallets wide and 1 high. 10 pallets, no problem. The yard will be 3 pallets by 2 and one of the walls will be the coop for 18 total. I used slats from extra pallets to close the gaps to prevent future escapes. I think for this part of the project I used about 25 pallets in total. The great thing about using pallets is that all the scrap can be used elsewhere or burned.

The above picture is the completed coop and the start of the yard. I used some cinder blocks left over from the burnt down trailer on our property to raise the coop up off the ground some. The coop is held together entirely with bailing wire. I had an old roll of it in the tool box and didn't really have a need for it until now. Truth be told, I think it was my dad's old roll which makes it vintage bailing wire. Shortly after this picture was taken is when I put the girls in and started rounding them up as I built. 

This is Ginger. I named her Ginger after the chicken from the movie Chicken Run. In the movie, Ginger was the ring leader and always planning the next escape. She was the one hen that I chased the most back into the coop. Unlike the movie, the goal has never been to make her into a pie. 

Coop and yard complete. I bought a bale of hay to put inside for the girls' comfort and the nesting box. 

Here's a pic of the nesting box. Of all the research I did, it was almost unanimous that having the nesting boxes accessible from the outside was a great convenience. This way, we won't have to crawl inside and get the eggs. You can also see the gaps in the pallets that needed to be filled. At this point I started using some screws to attach the boards to the nesting box frame. The frame was built from pallet 2x4s and the boards are pallet slats. For the hatch, I used an old piece of 1x12 I had laying around. So far in materials, I've spent $0!

I had some field fencing left over from the fencing in the front and back of my property so I used some of it to cover the yard. This serves 2 purposes; 1 hens can't fly out, and 2 predators can't fly in. 

The nesting box. I had it divided in half in case 2 hens wanted to go in at the same time. Turns out, they take turns AND like to use the same side. I thought that maybe each girl would have a preference. Nope. All the eggs are on the same side typically. I also needed to hinge this lid. Being the cyclist that I am, I happened to have a blown bike inner tube so I used that as the hinge. I added a couple eye hooks and bungee cord to prevent Ginger for organizing another escape plot. 

Our very first egg! This was laid only about 30 minutes after completing the coop. I walked away and was putting my tools away when I heard "the victory call". I went over to see what was going on, looked in the nesting box and found this.

Here's a look inside the yard. I didn't want the door to be too big so another piece of scrap plywood was used to shorten it. I also used more cinder block pieces to close up the holes under the coop (Ginger-proofing). You can see they love to kick the hay around and much of it flies out the door. 

Our neighbors, who also have chickens, had a hen that kept escaping over their fence and messing up the garden. They didn't want to get rid of her, so the natural option was for "Chickmine" to join or flock. She was the smallest and lightest of their flock and could fly over their fence. Since our yard is enclosed, that wasn't going to be an issue. 

Since we had another hen, I thought the roost might be getting a little crowded. The roost, by the way is a tree branch picked up from the yard and cut to the right length. It took a little time to find the right diameter and length, but the kids helped and it was done. Since the roost was getting crowded, I did what anyone else with a chicken addiction would do. Build a room addition! Same concept. I used 4 pallets and secured the escape routes before giving the girls access. I decided that since I was building another room, another nesting box would give the girls a choice. I also added an access door for myself or anyone going in to clean up poop. Yeah, me. I'll have a picture of those later in this post.

I had to trim the pallets on the end at this point because they hung over the bottom. Piece of cake. A good hand saw took care of this task. 

Early in 2012, we bought some baby chicks with our neighbor. They bought 2 and we bought 2. It was getting to be summer and the chicks were old enough to be introduced to the flock. Their 2 had already been introduced so it was time to bring our 2 over. 

I did some internet research on the best way to introduce new babies to the flock and the majority of owners said to introduce them inside a "tractor" within the yard to let everyone get used to each other. Ok, now I gotta build a tractor. Keeping with the re-purposing theme, I used some left over lumber (2x3s), some pallet pieces, some poultry wire that I found, and 2 pieces of flexible water tubing left over from running the water line to the house, and viola! One chicken tractor! I wired everything together with bailing wire of course. I put a little cove on top to keep the sun out made from an old chicken feed sack.I also built a little nesting box for them should they get the urge to nest. Total cost $0!

Enter Elvis & Lightening. These are 2 of the 4 hens we bought with the neighbors. Elvis is the tall one named by Torrey, and Lightening is the little one named by Matthew. The kids have had so much fun naming the chickens. So far, we have:
Elvis
Lightening
Ginger
Marti, the striped one that looks like the zebra in Madagascar.
Goldie, the fluffy golden one
Chickmine, from the neighbor
Thunderhead, the Rhode Island Red

We thought Elvis was a hen until one day we heard the cock-a-doodle-doo of a rooster. I guess that's what happens when you name a hen Elvis. 

With the tractor in the yard, it was getting crowded. The girls didn't have a whole lot of space to scratch and forage, so it was time for an expansion of the yard!

I added one more pallet to the width and one more to the length making the new yard 4 pallets by 3. With this extra width, there was no way the field fencing top would stay up. I bought, yes, bought some pvc conduit and made arches for the wire fencing to rest on. I guess it's kind of re-purposing since that's not what pvc conduit is made for, just not recycled. I also decided to make the yard  taller so I wouldn't have to duck walk inside when changing the water or cleaning up the mess they make. The little ones have been integrated into the flock and everyone seemed happy. We were getting on average 3-4 eggs per day. 

I usually make a habit of checking the "farm and garden" section of Craigslist. One night, I found a lady thinning her flock and looking to get rid of 4 hens. Considering my addiction, naturally I called. She was selling her hens for $10each. They were already laying and just needed a new home. She also had a rooster that was not so nice to the girls and was picking their feathers off. We decided to integrate these girls to our flock at night when they are roosting. It is said that sometimes if you add new hens to a flock at night, the flock accepts them as if to think "were these girls here before and we just didn't notice"? So she brings over the hens and gives me 2 extra hens because she's thinning her flock. Our flock just almost doubled. 

The girls were doing fine in the coop. They were all getting along with only the occasional squabble (establishing the pecking order) literally. At this point Terri is telling me "No more chickens . 13 is enough. how many do we really need?" 

Fast forward a couple months. I'm driving back from a business trip in Albuquerque and talking to Terri. She asks "what are you doing tomorrow?" "Working, why", I ask. "Someone at school is giving away 4 chickens, you need to go pick them up". It seems my addiction is contagious! I picked up the 4 "new girls" the next day and put them inside the yard while inside the dog's crate (pictured at the top of this entry). The one that looked like Marti was going crazy after a couple hours. Picking fights with Marti, Elvis, and anyone that would come close. She was pacing and going a little loco. Get it? El Pollo Loco? Never mind. I let the new girls out and "the new Marti" quickly established herself at the top of the pecking order. She now rules the roost!

Now it's really getting crowded in the coop. Yep, you guessed it. Time for another room addition.

I had a long pallet that we were using as a table for the kids that I decided to use as the back wall. 2 pallets for the floor, 2 for the walls, and we have another room! This is called the big room since it's the biggest addition (so far). For the roof, instead of pallets, I used an old door that I had in the yard. Before you start thinking my yard looks like Fred Sanford's, I replaced a door at the kids' school in the spring and took the old door with the intention for using it for a shed. This need showed itself first. The pink bin on top is the scratch for the chickens. Basically cracked corn that encourages them to scratch in the yard. I have to keep it up high because the goats like it too. 

In the above picture you can see the second nesting box and the access door between it and the big room. A closer-up picture is below. 

Being the hardware geek that i am, I used a door hinge for the nesting box this time. To be honest, the inner tube hinge wasn't working all that well. I replaced it with a door hinge as well. 

Here's a view inside the access door. You can only see one of the roosts but there are two more behind it. The funny thing with these chickens is they love to come see what I'm doing. Maybe it's because I'm usually the one that delivers the table scraps to them. Elvis is always keeping his eye on me. Anytime I'm checking the coop for possible additions or repairs, he's right there. I think he's trying to tell me that he's the head rooster. 

Here's a picture of the first nesting box with the new hinge. I also got some fiberglass corrugated roofing materials from a guy on Craigslist. I put that on top to keep out the rain. I had a small piece of gutter left over from my house gutter project so I added that on to collect rain water for the girls to drink. I only had enough corrugated material to do 2/3 of the roof, so the other part has a sheet of plywood that the same guy on Craigslist was giving away. 

This is a close up of the "hinge" to the yard gate. Periodically, we have to go into the yard to clean up or refill water. I took a piece of rebar that was laying in the yard and drilled some holes down one edge of the pallet and now it's hinged. We secure it with a bungee cord to keep the girls in. 

This is a look inside from the opposite end of the access door. You can see a couple 2x4 roosts and a branch in the back corner. On the right side of the screen, you can just see Elvis' tail feathers. Again, he's keeping a careful watch on me while sitting on the fourth roost in the main coop. There is another 2x4 roost in the big room. The 2x4s came from pallets that I took apart to use the slats. 

Here is a picture of our happy hens in the yard. The plastic contraption is for their feed and the 2 metal ones are for water. The main feeder is inside so that the food doesn't get wet. I had no ideas that chickens drank so much water. We started with the smaller water conaitner and found ourselves refilling it every couple days. That one holds 2 gallons of water. I found the big one on Craigslist for $5 along with the plastic feeder and another plaster waterer. Naturally, I snatched them up. 

Here is one of the new girls in the nesting box. I try to keep plenty of hay inside for their comfort and so they can build their nest each day. They all seem to have different preferences of the nest so it gets built and rebuilt several times a day. During this process, hay seems to disappear. 

This is our compound. I've learned so much about building with pallets and chickens form this project that I am already planning in my head what I will do differently next time. You're probably thinking "next time?!". Yes, I would like to take what I've learned from building this compound to do it right. This one, as you've read was put together quickly, and added onto , and added on to. I'd like to build one structure and not have it look like a "shanty town". I have some ideas for keeping the coop cleaner, and easier to manage. Some of my ideas include an easier cleaned flooring such as linoleum, some storage for cleaning tools and feed, making it easier to enter, rig up some sort of solar electricity and make it more weather proof. By taking my time, I can do it right. I'll probably start sometime next spring or summer. 

I think in total I have about $40 into this compound. Not too bad considering that much smaller coops cost hundreds of dollars. The goal wasn't to be completely cheap, but to re-use materials for this project. The only "new" materials used was the conduit and the hinges. Everything else was re-purposed materials.  

I hope you enjoyed reading about this project. Next up, is the goat barn and storage shed/shop. But until then...maybe I can expand the yard some.

 

Update: We have more chickens! I need to step up the new coop & make it bigger. I will document the progress as I go and post plenty of pics!