Mother's Mini-coop
(Page 3 of 3)
February/March 2003
Story and Photos by Steve Maxwell
Apply a coat of nontoxic, one-time wood finish. We used a powder made by Valhalla Wood Preservatives that is mixed with water, strained and applied with a pump sprayer. The solution wets the wood's surface, soaks in, and eventually turns the wood a dark, weathered gray.
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Mesh and Roof
The mesh and roof help tie the structure together solidly. We chose finch welded-wire mesh, although other options may make more sense where you live. We fastened the mesh to the sides of the coop that are unsheathed, but left the bottom of the pen open to maximize the chickens' scratching opportunities. If you want to protect your lawn, or anticipate problems from small nocturnal predators such as weasels, you may want to cover the floor with wire mesh. Fence staples do a great job of holding the mesh in place.
To sheath the roof, nail 1/4-inch-thick, exterior-grade plywood on top of the 3/4-inch-think strips of solid wood that frame the coop's edges. Although we selected thin plywood for its light weight, one of its drawbacks is that it's too thin to take roofing nails. We secured asphalt shingles to the sheathing with beads of roofing adhesive. Rotate the coop so one side of the roof is level, and fasten the shingles with blobs of adhesive, using nails wherever rafters are located. (The kind of roofing adhesive that comes in a caulking tube is the easiest to apply neatly.) Run a line of single shingles along the entire ridge of the coop to keep important wood joints dry and to hide the sharp, raw edges of the wire mesh.
Finish up by installing wheels and an axle (if you choose to use them), door hardware and replaceable "rot" strips of wood along the bottom of the stroller (to protect the frame from decay). We used scrap pieces of recycled plastic lumber for our rot strips, secured with counter sunk screws. You also could use real wood, replacing it when it gets soft.
Water
To minimize our chicken chores, we installed an automatic waterer made by Edstrom Industries. It includes a suspended reservoir tank that feeds the trigger cup (a small float-controlled water bowl — see photo in the Image Gallery). You can hook up a garden hose to replenish the tank automatically, but there's really no need when you're watering just three or four hens. The 1-gallon water supply lasts a long time. Individual cups with valves are just a dollar each. The reservoir tank costs about $40, but you could easily fashion your own from a lidded plastic pail.
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