Phew… thank god that’s over. I had a tarp bungee corded over my coop for the last couple of months, and every time I went outside, I thought I’d died and gone to the Hell of Trucks on Blocks. I don’t even know that I have pictures of it since I was so bummed about it.
I spent this entire weekend rectifying the situation:
The trickiest part was getting the 16′ long 2×6s home. I drive a Rav4. It’s the not the ideal lumber hauling vehicle. Anyway, after lots of near chicken decapitations from trying to hold up the cross members by myself, I enlisted my new Executive Facilities Manager, Chariti, to help, and things went much, much easier.
I did 10′ 2×6s across and 2×2s as purlins. Then I climbed up there and stapled chicken wire across those to keep the hawks from eviscerating the ladies.
Next, I think I’ll install some hooks so I can slap a tarp up there when the rains come. Or maybe not. There’s plenty of room under and in the henhouse if it gets wet. Still, I’m not sure I wanna deal with the muck myself. Regardless, I was too tired to do anything else on it by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around.
“Hell of Trucks on Blocks”—-
LOL!! I still think my chicken coop has an air of “Beverly Hillbillies” about it when I see Danni’s chicken coop (Critter Farm). Mine is just a 6 x 10 dog run that has been retrofitted with hardware cloth and then plywood for sides and a roof.
Congrats on a job well done.
Wow – that looks like a huge job to try to tackle yourself. Good thing you had a woman there to help!
Hi Ceecee… it’s not fair to compare ourselves to Danni. How are we supposed to live up to that kind of standard? Actually, my tarp was not only very… toothlessly mullet-y, it was slowly losing structural integrity every time it rained. The recycled fence parts that I’d made it out of were giving way so that it filled with hundreds of pounds of water. It wouldn’t have made it another heavy rain.
Amen, Princess. It adds a lot of discipline to my ADD approach to projects to have a woman standing there smirking– in that hand on the jutting hip way– at my lame-o one-man construction short cuts.
I’ll bow down to you as the Beverly Hillbilly White Trash king if, and only if, you used zip ties in your previous “roof”. Zip ties are the new duct tape!!
I considered them, but in the end, I went with as assortment of mis-matched bungee cords. They gave it such a nice random, criss-cross, post-apocalyptic feel. In the Thunderdome, no one will have rolls of duct tape or bags of zip ties. Just lots and lots of bungee cords, mowhawks, and clothes made out of football protective gear.
My that’s fancy. My flock currently shuns their coop, probably because it’s not up to their high standards.
Fancy. Hah. At this rate, I figure my eggs are costing about $200/dozen. Just a couple hundred more dozen, and I’ll be even with the $5 CSA eggs.
Assuming I don’t buy any more food for them. Will chickens eat styrofoam?
Oh, pshaw! My new coop may be quite (ahem) structurally sound, however you haven’t seen my klugy (clue-gee) chicken run, now have you? You are positively Beverly Hills with both of your set-ups. Zip ties?! Bungee cords??! I scoff at the lot of you. My tarp (although brown) is secured to my 3′ dog pen panels (bending and swaying as we speak) with good ol’ wire twistee ties…you know the ones that wrap around the tops of loaves of bread? I can be as white trash as the rest o’ ya…so don’t go thinking yourselves are all better than me.
Okay, Danni wins the trashiest chicken run contest with bread ties! Bread ties?? Girl, be careful, your hens might eat those if they fall on the ground.
If you were smart, you might say you built it to give way in case one of your donkeys got in? Like that would ever happen.
It’s not flimsy, you’re just protecting your 4-legged friends.
Ya’ll crack me up! Thank you. I needed a good laugh today.☺
Wow, I’m glad to see you’re not going to have flapping tarps hanging around anymore – the horror, the absolute awfulness of the possible ‘white-trash’ comments from neighbors! It’s enough to keep them from being allowed in town limits completely! Whew- you dodged that bullet just in time! … anyway – you could also get some of that clear corrugated greenhouse roofing stuff to slap up there to keep off the rain… just a thought!
Nice Em. I think you might be able to participate in my new Passive Aggressive Forum.
Believe me, it needed doing. I was bummed out every time I looked at my tarp. If I’m going to be out there as much as I am, it should be pleasant to look at.
Funny that you mention that clear corrugated stuff… it’s what I used for my BoyShack.