Portage River Farm
Notes on our struggles and successes on our family farm in rural Michigan.
(Pinckney, Michigan)
12 May Tue 2009
Framing In The Coop Floor
The coop project has been slowly moving forward. After the concrete pie
rs were dry we mounted short lengths of 4"x4" post to each pier and began building up the framing for the floor from there. Hopefully from the photo (made with Janet's cell phone) you can make out the method we used.
After we nailed all of the joists in place we added a second 2x6 to the two long outside edges for strength. We also finished up the connection for the water and electrical lines and filled in the ditch.
The drawing is my attempt to show how we are building the coop in the absence of a decent camera. The lines that are shown surrounding the coop are my refe
rence points for the fencing that I plan to install to segregate the enclosure around the coop into separate yards. That way I can control access to the different portions and rotate the chickens to different pieces of ground to give the vegetation time to recover (more on this later).
rs were dry we mounted short lengths of 4"x4" post to each pier and began building up the framing for the floor from there. Hopefully from the photo (made with Janet's cell phone) you can make out the method we used.
After we nailed all of the joists in place we added a second 2x6 to the two long outside edges for strength. We also finished up the connection for the water and electrical lines and filled in the ditch.
The drawing is my attempt to show how we are building the coop in the absence of a decent camera. The lines that are shown surrounding the coop are my refe
rence points for the fencing that I plan to install to segregate the enclosure around the coop into separate yards. That way I can control access to the different portions and rotate the chickens to different pieces of ground to give the vegetation time to recover (more on this later).
The kids have been a big help in moving this project along. They have been relieving me of grass mowing duties which is a massive load off of my shoulders. They have also been helping me directly with the building project. It has been great to spend time with them as we work. They seem to enjoy it as well except for the clouds of black-flies that have been harassing us each evening!
(Click on the images to blow each image up for a closer view.)
John_3
12:00 AM EDT