General Update-090919

I worked on the chicken coop today. I purchased some more chicken wire and poultry staples. I placed chicken wire on the sides and end. I also ran some wire from the chicken house to the end post, I then took some wire-cage clamps that I was given to build wire cages, and clamped the top of the fence to the wire.

I layed two bowed 2"x4"s across the middle and end poles of the chicken yard, then ran three strands of wire from the chicken house, across the top of the center board and anchored it to the end board. This is intended to help support the chicken wire roof pieces of chicken yard. Since I widened the yard the chicken wire can't sit on the top evenly... so disturbing for a perfectionist! They should be flat and stretched tight but alas, they're wavy!

I will add a board screwed to the poles that runs along the ground between poles the length of the yard. The chicken wire is lose at the bottom and animals would be able to climb underneath. I think a board will add some strength and allow me to tack the chicken wire on to the board.

I also noted that one of my rabbit pellet trays was cracked and sagging so I bought a 1" steel brace and screwed it in. I hope it will hold so I don't have to take it all apart and replace the broken board.

I also bought two 2"x4"s to use to brace the bowing rabbitry roof. I will jack up the roof to remove the dip then screw in the new boards to brace it.

I priced rabbit feeders and waterers online from BASS. I think I will need to spend around $50+, and about the same for the waterers so not looking forward to spending that money however I think It will save me some grief in the end. The waterers are adapters for 2 liter soda bottles that also come with a bracket to hold it to the cage. I will start with 10 bottles but will probably end up putting two bottles in each fryer cage.

The feeders are the self-filtering type that allow the feed dust to fall through. They will range from 11" for the fryer cages to to 6" for the breeder cages. I will also make hay racks out of wire caging.

I researched nest boxes and will begin to build them soon. I found a great site that showed how to make ten nest boxes with one 4'x8' sheet of plywood, however the boxes were too small. The basic design is easy though and should be no problem to build. I will try to finish up the chicken coop this or next week then move on to the nest boxes.

Tony
Cantonment