Finally, A Place To Sit - Building A Chicken Roost
Today was a good day! It rained yesterday, so the Big Man was able to have a couple days off from harvesting. Honey-do list time!
Last Friday, I bought some materials to build our chickens a roost. While my mom watched the kids, I got to work. I was going to use a hand saw again, but quickly gave up and told myself it was time to learn how to use a circular saw.
Check! I was able to cut my boards to length in seconds. Ok, so they weren’t straight cuts, but there’ll be time for practice later.
Instead of using butt joints like I used on my gate, I decided to try rabbet joints. I used the circular saw for one cut, but didn’t feel competent enough to make the other cut.. so that’s why it turned out like this. Hey, it still worked!
After accomplishing a couple of those, I thought there’s got to be a faster and easier way to do this. That’s when I thought, why not hand drill into the board so the screws can reach further down?
Voilà! Now that is a redneck life hack right there!
Now you might be asking, “Why didn’t you just use a power drill?” I would have loved to! However, we borrow the Old Man’s because the Big Man hasn’t bought his own yet. And knowing my husband as well as I do, I knew it would have been useless trying to get him to remember where he put it last.
After finishing the front and back of the roost frame on a sweltering 83 degree day, I gave up and decided the rest could wait until I had access to more power tools.
Fast Forward to Today
We picked up the power drill from his parents’ place and got to work. The plan was to have the Big Man hold boards in place for me while I put everything together. Being the gentleman he is, he ended up doing all the work, while I told him what goes where.
The project got done so quickly, I didn’t even have a chance to take progress pictures! How did anything get done before power tools??
The Old Man’s powerful handy drill. It’s smoking hot...seriously, it was smoking.
Finished product!
We used 4x2’s, leftover 2x2’s, and 2” and 1 1/2” rods to make this 4’x4’x4’ chicken roost.
They’re getting so big!
Hey that came out pretty dang good!
I am thinking before long you will need your own tools and tool bag and yes FEEL THE POWER in those tools is awesome ;-)
I think so! Most of the time, my projects are put on hold simply because I don’t have the tools sitting around. I did buy a little cheap attachment set for screwdrivers and power drills. Man does that come in handy!
The chickens are really enjoying their new roost!
I find a tool bag really keeps them all handy.
Very impressive
Thank you! I enjoy building these small projects!
howdy Sunday @hebrewhousewife! another fun post and successful build! hey what are you guys harvesting this time of year?
you did all this in the sweltering heat of 83degrees! lol. how did you ever survive that? ya'll are tough up there!
love the redneck hack!
this your first batch of chickens?
Hello janton! It’s wheat harvest time here in the valley.
I survived by going back into my cool air conditioned home! We may not tolerate heat well, but I bet we beat most everyone when it comes to cold!
Thanks, I thought it was rather crafty!
Technically, this is our second batch. The first got mauled by our dog.. So this is our first survived batch.
howdy again @hebrewhousewife! you got that right about the cold, I like four seasons but your winters are a little long and hard for me. Sorry to hear about your first batch of chickens, ouch.
So how do you keep the dog from doing that again?
It’s not so much the cold that’s a big deal, but that wind is brutal!
We have a fence put up around the coop, so that keeps him out, although he still pesters them.
ha! that dog, is it Big Dog or just dog? anyway that dog still wants to get those chickens, wow, I wonder if he will ever get used to them?
yeah that's true about the winds especially when they blow hard, painful!
It's great seeing projects like this. Those chickens will enjoy that roost. Because chickens do! @ironshield
I’m glad you enjoyed it! They’re already using it, so we must not have done too bad a job!
You have a "Big Man"? I have a "Big Dog". I also have a husband, but I call him "the man" generally. I like vague titles.
I love those little feather-footed fancy birds. I don't have any fancy ones. I'm sure they will appreciate your work.
I asked my husband what he wanted to be called, and he came up with the “Big Man”. The “Old Man” is his dad. Aliases are popular here on steemit. The trick is to find one that hasn’t been used yet!
Those fancy birds are brahmas. We chose them because they are supposed to fair better in cold winters. I really like how they look too! I think we’ll proably stick to the white variety of chickens. They stand out so nicely. What variety do you have?
I've tinkered with most birds that don't do well in the cold :) I have a hodgepodge right now - a couple leghorns, Java, Easter egger, etc., along with a few mystery breeds.
Nice! And being able to use some wood that you had laying around is nice too! Looking forward to seeing how you do the laying boxes!
Definitely! It’s nice to get some stuff that was just sitting around put to use and out of the way! I’ve been looking up cheap ideas on laying boxes, so I don’t think those should be as much work. We’ll see!
Amazing! We have some wasps attack lately in the garden but as soon as this is finish I will definitely do something super similar and get few chickens!
Thx for great content
That doesn’t sound good! Other than the wasps, how is your garden doing?
I love my chickens. I’d definitely recommend trying to raise some of your own.
This is really something, animals help us a lot and being able to help them back is a good thing (y) plus they look really cute altogether <3 Good work
Yes, they are some great looking birds aren’t they? My husband suggested putting up a temporary fence around the garden when harvest is over so they can peck around in there. So we may do that. I agree, if we help them, they help us!
That's true, a very good advice he gave you. So basically it's like a playing area for them now. When we seeing the next one about the birds? I feel like being a fan friend of them already :D
There they are!!!
Oh they are almost grown, they grow so fast. They are beautiful.
I just love the breed.
The roos can be a handful though, aggressive breeders.
I had my other Roo Sylvester on trail camera fighting a hawk to protect his hens. The chip got ruined, I was so bummed.
Handsome is a gentler nature. They are all unique.
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