New Hen Pen coming soon!

It’s a fine day, sunny with a few clouds, supposed to get up to 59 degrees F. So the day is come that Frank and I will finish the old project for the “new hen pen” which began last Spring, and fell away to do-nothing-status as it became a giant that I couldn’t move anyhow, and was just “overkill” IMO.

So we are now fitting it out with finishing touches for Winter use, and plan on making it so useful as to be more “modular” friendly, a super proto-type for future better building practices.

I did some work the other week, and I was well pleased with it.

I made a lift of side for the back of the A framed unit, out of our fence extra pieces, cypress.

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The Cypress wall is only over the top half, and below that is ugly chicken wire, bulking out, not flat. 🙁 I couldn’t get it right all by myself that day, but it’s just there and can be taken off and made better in the future. Over that we’ll be putting a metal roofing panel for Winterization.

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I also fitted on a piece for a door to the egg laying nest area. It’s hinged.

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Here’s the big door into the unit, the other side of the A frame from the cypress “wall” I made. It’s hinged.

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We still have to trim out some pieces inside to cover gaps by the doors, and also make another door-like structure to fill in the space on the other side of the big door.

Complicated sounding, moreso that it really is.

Here are the two ends of the untit. First this one is the handled side. It’s not totally done yet.

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And this end is the side with the wheels. This is the side that will be changed to have a “hatch” to mate it to other pen pieces. It’s only temporarily sectioned off for winter.

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Don’t be impressed, it’s a mishmosh of everything. I’m only proud of it by the standards of it actually WORKING soon, and being better than what we have done in the past. 🙂

Some of the future residents, the Australorps today:

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Bad photo of them … they are much prettier than that! The lighting and angle were both bad, I just stuck the camera inside the pen under the roof and chanced it.

We may divide the middle to put ALL the hens in the pen but not mix them. I want to get them all in there somehow. The Australorps were laying again, but the last few to four or so days they haven’t laid a thing. So I want them in there with a better laying area, and protection from the elements, and someplace where we can run a light out to them easier.

The side with the nest area is where I want to put them. And the other side I just want a door there where there is nothing currently, so that I can put the other birds there in a sectioned off area and get to them for feed, water … eggs? Yes I want them to lay!

It’s a winter thing, just want to get them in there so we can rip apart the old pen and make something new out of the remains. And reclaim the Super Yard for some chicks in the spring too.

I have many ideas for making modular pieces of A-Frame and rectangular shaped pieces, merging them together modularly as desired. Just getting them working is what we need to do.

Yes, there are plans for pens out there. But they all come about from people doing what they need to do. That’s what we are doing. Not really re-inventing the wheel, but using stuff we have for proto-type usable things, and making things as custom as we can to really work, and make that something to market sometime, hopefully. With cheap products … fancy looking, but not really fancy to make or expensive to buy, tools to use general tools. My desire is to make things that are ergonomic, esthetic, and fun to use (for people and birds). All within an Agrarian, Conservationist mindset of principles.

This A-Frame isn’t put together as the basic parts of it, as I want future A-Frames to be made [I didn’t build this, DH and FIL did] . It’s too heavy and just redundant use of big pieces of wood. It should be light, and that makes it movable, and it should then be able to be staked to the ground, hooked onto other pieces to increase weight as a sitting product, but unhookable for moving to another spot on the grass.

I think from the prospective of being small and a woman, in need of moving things myself, which would mean that younger folk could also move what I would be able to move. I am what is generally refered to as an average 12 year old’s size … in height. That makes for challenges in a giant world. Making something to the highest denominator means it’s out of my class, whereas lowest adult denominator in our family means it’s accessible by all adults and older children 🙂