Chicken feeder lid

I'm on a week's vacation, so I'm logging all the different little projects and things I've accomplished.

For the last few weeks I've noticed that the chicken food is disappearing from their hopper faster than it used to.  Or at least it seems that way.  I'm wondering if a mouse or rat is getting in there and having dinner.

The land that our house is on had a lot of miscellaneous from my wife's grandad, who used to collect "useful" things.  Among other things were some stump caps.

Stump caps were used in a traditional form of housing around here:  they used to build wooden houses that were elevated up on knee-high or waist-high "stumps" -- basically, wooding pilings.  Elevating the houses allowed cool air to pass under the house.  However, the termites would sometimes attack the stumps.  To prevent the termites from getting into the framework of the house, stump caps -- which look like large pie tins -- would be placed between the stumps and the frame of the house.  This would block the termites from the wooden framework.

So, today I took one of the stump caps; crudely punched a long-ish hole in it -- and placed it over the feed hopper. 

We'll see if it prevents any food theft.


--GG

Backlog of eggs

We have four chickens (hens).  They're mostly pets, in that they produce three or four eggs a day -- but we rarely eat the eggs.  We like eggs just fine, but we just don't around to using them.

So, once or twice a week, I bring them in to work and hand them off to various co-workers.

However, the state government shuts down for the week between Christmas and New Year's -- so I didn't go to work -- so we had a huge backlog of eggs.

So, one day I fried up five eggs, and had them for brunch.  And then that afternoon I fried up three more, for an afternoon snack.

Pepper; no salt.


--GG

Chickie house update

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've mostly finished the chicken coop.

I still need to take some good photos of the chicken house -- but here's some views of some of the specific components that I finished after getting back from our road trip. Basically, over this weekend:  and today I started on the major ''shed tidying'' project.


The first photo (below) is of the sliding latch.  This has been installed for a while -- but I came across this photo that I hadn't yet used, so I'll raise the topic again.  Basically, because there's some ''play'' in the latch, I intentionally installed it at a 30 degree angle, so that it always falls to the left.  This allowed me to be more precise with its placement. 

Also, instead of using the loop that came with the latch assembly to keep the shaft from pulling **away** from the doorframe, I reversed the position, hammered the loop flat, and used it as a wear plate (i.e. to keep the wood on the door from wearing away).  The shaft of the latch now forces the door closed:  this is a more structurally sound arrangement, as the four screws holding the shaft mounting are bearing the load, rather than just two screws for the loop.

That photo was taken a fair while ago:  before I installed the screening, as well as the handle.


Below is a photo of the door handle that I constructed for the outside of the door:

It's made of two pieces of wood -- an L-shape for the top and vertical portions, and a short, angled segment for the ''spacer'' at the bottom.  I designed it to be weather-resistant:  there are no gaps in the top portion, and there is no place for water to get stuck (and cause rot) where the lower segment connects to the vertical. Plus, I gave it a few coatings of Danish oil (finishing oil).


And here is the door handle for the inside of the door:

This handle is a simpler design: three pieces, with the two shorter ''spacer'' pieces notched into the vertical section.  Since this handle is under shelter (i.e. inside the chicken coop), I didn't worry about weather resistance as much -- although it still has a few layers of Danish oil (finishing oil), as well.

Both are made from lagistromia branches, from The Lady's grandmother's front yard. I've had the branches for two or three years, and I still have some segments that I'll eventually use to make other things.


This windowsill protects the chickies' feet when they roost there.  During an earlier phase of construction I'd borrowed my brother-in-law's angle grinder and cut this window in the front of the metal shed that I was converting into the chicken coop.  I did this for ventilation:  it gets hot around here during the summer.  I didn't have time to install the windowsill before we left, so I just draped several layers of newspaper and cardboard over the bare sheet metal edge -- so they wouldn't hurt their feet -- and held it all in place with a small C-clamp.

The window still involved my cutting a two-by-four into an L-shaped cross-section, and leaving parts of it long, for aesthetic purposes.  You can see the parts that have been left long -- it's the far left and far right of the windowsill.


This is the inside view:

You can see that the **inside** of this piece of wood is even with the verticals of the window hole -- in contrast to the horizontal extensions that I retained for the outside.


This is a closer view of the outside of the window sill.  I added the little plus-signs to the photo to illustrate that I've ''clocked'' the screws.  This is a practice that my dad showed me when I was a kid, helping him around the house:  orienting the heads of screws in the same direction is a subtle sign of professionalism.  And once you know about ''clocking your screws'', you'll notice this (or the lack thereof!) in a lot of places -- such as the switchplates and wall outlets around your home.

And finally, here are the happy residents!

Three browns and a black one.  The browns in the rear are standing on a two-by-four screwed to two upturned plastic flower pots -- a little perch that I'd whipped up for them a few months back.  The feeder (foreground) and watering trough (behind it) are hanging from wires that are tied to the two-by-four beam that supports the tin roofing overhead.



So, except for two tasks, the chicken house is completed!  The chickie house is still operational -- but I can't cross it off my list until I (1) install a turnbuckle to keep the front frame from sagging (the weight of the door is skewing it sideways), and (2) move the pile of ''Grandad metal pieces'' from the back left corner of the chickie house, so I can then properly bury the anti-predator mesh.


--GG

Chix rest

And, here's the chicken roost that I made.  It's intentionally ''rustic''-looking:  it would've been easier to just build something out of broom handles and two-by-fours.

I made the roost out of branches from a wattle tree that had been in our back yard.  It spontaneously started growing in our back yard (from seeds in bird poop?), about the time we moved in.  It grew for about three years, then died off when the outflow from our waste treatment system kept flooding that area of the back yard.  (Note:  It wasn't yechy water.  It was tertiary-treated, so technically (supposedly!) you could drink it.)

I figured it would be neat to use part of that tree in a project.  So, I did.


You don't get a sense of scale from the photo, but the top bar is about as thick as the handle of a baseball bat.  The front ''feet'' are as thick as the end of a wooden baseball bat. 


This was just about the last thing to be done for building the chicken coop.  Still gotta post a photo of the whole thing...


--GG

To not lose your tools

While in the (ongoing!) process of building the chicken coop, I've discovered that it's pretty easy to misplace tools on the lawn.  And damp grass isn't very good for them, either.

I've discovered that it's better to lay them on a scrap of wood.  This keeps them together, provides contrast so you can see them more clearly, and keeps them off the damp lawn.

It's even **better** if you toss them in one of those $3 tool totes.  You can also find them in the aisle with the brooms and mops, labeled as ''laundry caddies'' or such.

The item pictured isn't part of the chicken coop.  It's a raised veggie garden frame, at The Lady's request.


--GG

Slow pan upwards

I rather like this.

It's my back yard, and my children's (somewhat rusty) swingset.

Although I miss the weather (and all the nice people I know) in Seattle -- it's still pretty neat-o to live in Australia.  Exotic (to me, anyhow).


--GG

Chickens in the bathroom

As you may recall, we have four (or five?  I've lost track) chickens living over at The Lady's parents' house.  And I'm in the highly-prolonged process of building a chicken coop.

Meanwhile, we have four formerly-baby chicks living in a plastic tote in our second bathroom.  During the night we leave the heat lamp on, and a towel covering the tote (there's also a board across the tote, so that they can't jump out).  During the days that one of us is at home -- and during the late afternoon, after The Lady picks the kids up from school and daycare -- we let them run around in the fenced-in children's yard just outside the back door. 

The fence is about as high as my waist, and the little chickens can flap and semi-fly, but only about the height of my knee.  So, it works.  Gives them some outdoors time.

I'm polite to the chickens, but they're not **my** pets.  The Lady gets their food and water, and cleans out their cage (currently with wood shavings in the bottom; I dump them on our potted plants, as mulch).  And the kids do a lot of cuddling with them.  So by the time they're fully-grown, they'll be **very** used to being handled.

Here's a video clip of the boys in the bathroom, cuddling the chickies.

Also:  our How to Care for Your Chicken books (we have three, so far) indicate that chickens tend to sleep in the highest perch possible.  I guess they feel safest doing that.

I looked out the window one day and noticed that all four of them were perched on my woodworking stump -- just hanging out .  Funny.  :)


--GG

Big toolbox

My shed is basically a big toolbox.

(Cultural note:  What Americans would call a ''(detached) garage'', Australians call a shed.  Also smaller, garden sheds, woodsheds, workshops, etc.)

During this remarkably drawn-out chicken coop project, I stage all the tools that I'm actively using in the doorway of the shed.

Big jug o' juice (to keep hydrated:  I drink one of these a day.  It's actually diluted to about 1/4 strength).  Extension cord.  Various clamps.  Jar of paint.  And etcetera.

Then, as I use them, I bring them out to my work area, next to the chicken coop.  I either place them on the ''raised garden bed kit'' (the pile of lumber) that The Lady purchased about two weeks ago (which I have not yet assembled -- because I'm still building a chicken coop!), or else on my sawbench.

And then, slightly after dark, I gather everything up and put it back in the entrance to the shed.


The chicken coop project is interesting enough.  But I'm looking forward to completing it, and moving on to other tasks.


--GG

Clever hinge

Still plugging away at the chicken house.

Here's a component that I'm rather pleased with:  the door hinge.

Instead of getting a pair of regular-old butt hinges (insert juvenile joke here) -- like these: 

I decided to do hinges my own way.

I can't tell,. from the Wikipedia article on ''hinges'' (which is also where I found the term ''butt hinge''), the type of hinge I made.  Basically, I put a long screw through the door fame of the chicken coop, into the top and bottom of the door.  I used a few washers as spacers, and I lubed the washers with WD-40.

Here's a shot of the washers, approximately in position:

The one below has a ''tooth'' that I created, using a hacksaw and pliers.  I've drilled the hole into the wood, through the center.  The other washer is resting on top of it, waiting to be modified as well..

Here's a closer look at one of the washers that I customized.  As I said, it has a tooth that drives into the wood.  That keeps the washer in place, relative to the wood -- which ensures that the metal washers will wear against each other, rather than wearing into the wood (and eventually burrowing **into** the wood, which would defeat the ''spacer'' purpose of the washers, as the bottom of the door would end up rubbing on the lower door frame.

I think it's well-engineered.

 --GG

Different chickens

So, Mum has been keeping our five(?) hens over at her place.  But it's been about a month, so she's becoming attached to them.

Meanwhile, they had two or three egg incubators at the kids' daycare, which hatched about a week ago.  Which generated about twelve baby chicks -- which then needed homes.

So today (Friday) we took them home.  Three yellows and a black one.  The kids have named them (I don't remember the names, but The Girl spontaneously made up a poster which includes the chicks' names).

So we might end up with just four chickens.  Or nine.  Or some number in between.

Once I finish the chicken coop.


--GG

Marking knife

The property that we live on used to belong to my wife's grandparents.  And grandad was a bit of a hoarder:  if he found something that was potentially useful, he'd bring it home and put it in a shed, or in a pile somewhere in the backyard. 


This means that there are oddball stashes of things all over the place.  Like this pile of metal bits and pieces -- bracket, car parts, whatnots -- that I discovered when clearing the brush for the chicken coop in-progress.



I found this item somewhere in the yard, two or three years ago.  It seems to be a homemade half of a hinge -- or a hinge that has been bent.  I've placed it across my work glove to provide a sense of scale.

I'd always intended to make it into a marking knife, which is a knife used in woodworking to make a very precise reference line:   more precise than a pencil mark, as a knifed line is very thin.

But, I was waiting for a grinding wheel, to shape it.  Finally got one for Christmas -- and then it took me another four months to actually set it up!

The above photo reflects what it looks like after I used the wire wheel on my bench grinder to clean up the loose rust and crud.  So this is an ''almost-before'' photo.


My aim was to make it functionally (but not stylistically) into a marking knife like the one to the the left:  two bevels, with a flat back that is the ''reference surface'' that is pressed against the ruler, trysquare, or other reference item.




To do this, first I used a hacksaw to cut off the tip, at an angle, because I knew it would take a long time to remove that much metal through grinding.

Then I used the grinding wheel to shape it, and put on a knife bevel.

I didn't bother further sharpening it on a whetstone, as it just needs to be sharp enough to score the surface of wood.


Below is the mostly-finished item. I used it in the laying-out process on a side project I've somewhat started:  seems to work.

In the photo below, you can see just how curved it is.  But it still works as a marking knife.  Depending on whether I'm marking the left or right hand of the reference item, I hold it in a pencil-like grip, or else in a handlebar-style grip.

Here (below) you can see my efforts at flattening the back of the knife.  The back needs to be flat, all the way down to the tip, so that the tip will mark the surface of the wood perfectly in line with the ruler, trysquare, or whatever.

So:  functional, and unique.  Clearly a ''user-made'' shop item.

Seems to work.  :)


--GG

Long time chicken house

This chicken coop is a long time coming. Spent all day today (Saturday) working on it. Again.

If I made it smaller, or was more slapdash, it would go faster. But --

-I'm building it to last 5-10 years -- maybe longer. So I don't want to do things that will bother me for the next ten years, every time I see it: things like beams not properly vertical (or horizontal), or joints not quite lining up. My rule of thumb is that I can see an error from across the yard -- and it's right next to another building, so things off-vertical will be obvious -- then it's worth fixing.

-I want it sturdy enough that I don't have to fix things in just a few months. Also, it'll be sturdy enough that if we ever stop having chickens it can be a decent storage shed.

-A web search indicated that you need a certain square footage per chicken. Rather than build it for the bare minimum, I ended up making it a little large. From my recent experience, I've found that it's not the physical size of the parts (or the finished project) that takes up time -- it's the amount of handling. For example, building a two foot by two foot by two foot storage box takes the same amount of work as a four foot by four foot by four foot box. More cost for materials, sure -- but the same amount of time.


Anyhow: it might get done by the end of this weekend. Probably **not** -- but it'll be **nearly** done.

Maybe done enough to move the chix in, anyhow.


--GG

Further progress

The chicken coop project that would not end...


So far, I've spent two days on a weekend clearing brush; a four-day weekend plus a regular (two-day) weekend levelling the ground, assembling a shed kit (without instructions, and the shed was slightly mangled from the last time), and starting to build the wooden frame for the "yard" (including paining some of the lumber). Oh, and getting up an hour early this morning to do some minor things for it.

I still have about half the frame for the yard to do; plus build the door to the cage; plus string up the heavy-duty chicken wire. We bought the heavy-duty stuff because the local snakes apparently can force their way through the thinner-gauge fencing.

I'd **hoped** to be further along this recent weekend: I hadn't expected to **finish** -- but I thought I'd at least have the frame up (i.e. just the door and the chicken wire remaining). But, I ended up cutting three pieces about a foot too short: the plans for the chicken coop changed, but I forgot to update my measurements. So, I had to make a special trip to buy three more lengths of lumber.

Ah well -- it's an interesting project. I've planned out -- and executed the entire thing myself. The exceptions so far were having The Lady hold up the sheet-metal walls of the shed while I attached them (I tried doing it myself, but every little gust of wind made the wall flop over), and having my brother-in-law and his son help me lift the roof into position.


I'm taking daily ''progress'' photos. I just haven't grabbed them off the camera yet...


I **might** get it finished by the end of this weekend. But somehow I think I'll be just a **little** short.


--GG

Chicken coop

Or: "Very expensive chickens."


So, a few weeks ago my brother-in-law found some chickens wandering around. The Lady had been considering -- for the past year or so -- getting some chickens. No one else in the family wanted the chickens (hens) -- so we get to have them. But for now, Mum is watching them: they're locked in the shade house (like a greenhouse, but backwards: it's to keep plants from getting too hot).

Here in Aussie-land we don't have a formal separation of church and state. So, Easter weekend is a four-day weekend: Good Friday and Easter Monday! I spent most of Friday and Sunday (we went to church in the morning), and all of Saturday and Monday, working on building a chicken coop and caged-in yard. Unfortunately, I'm only halfway there.

I'm hoping that I get get a lot more done this upcoming weekend.

And have bought lumber, screws, and chicken fencing. I won't say how much we've spent...


I'll post some"before", "during", and "after" photos when I **do** finish...


--GG