Roofing

We have decided on a roof for the run. Originally we were going to mesh it (and bought plenty of mesh for that reason) but after chatting to one girl on the forum, I have fallen for corrugated roofing called Coroline. It is available in B&Q. We DID ring around and our local place where we have been getting our wood from can get it in for us but it will be dearer than B&Q. Much as I like to suport the wee guy - gotta go with the cheaper shop.

The only problem has been the fixings that come with the sheeting. They are simply nails with a plastic cover and retail for £3.96 for a packet of 20 in B&Q. I have spent hours trawling the internet, eBay etc for them but they can't be found for les than this . . ..  . HOWEVER . ..

I have JUST THIS MINUTE found more Coroline stuff here. The packs are a mere £0.96 plus vat which is a big difference from £3.69! For this price you could afford to buy the plastic, throw the nails away and find your own screws huh?

I am trying to do as much as possible on the cheap i.e. using up old fence stain rather than going for a new tin in a different colour and savaging for old fence posts for the chickens to stand on but the shed is new and the wood for the run is new.

I went through to order these from my link (Blanchford) and found a strangeness on the postage. £5 to COLLECT or £12 / £14 to DELIVER (sounds like a lorry rather than Royal Mail) so I rang them and got a really really nice guy who said *oops - that doesn't sound right* and sold me 6 packs over the phone, took credit card details and charged me a reasonable £3 to post them.

The whole lot came to a few pence over a tenner instead of £24! One happy camper.

However, I have to admit that after seeing a photo in the forum with a compound mitre saw in it we DID splash out on a cheapy one in B&Q and that has made the project sooo much easier! Can you imagine cutting all that wood with a jigsaw?

I decided on a shed because we like *wee projects* and I fancied kitting the inside out myself and needed to partition the space between chooks and storage.

We couldn't afford a Cube (didn't want an Eglu) and although I would be happy with a second hand Cube there are never any available on eBay that aren't Pick up only. We are in Northern Ireland.

It is amazing how much we had lying around that could be used for this project rather than buying new stuff.

NO CHICKENS YET Every weekend I think "By this time NEXT week" but Iain's Mum is currently in hospital and by the time we get home, get out and go visit her and then get home again it is too late to be doing anything in the evening and Iain works on a Saturday so progress is extremely slow.

Moving Along Nicely

We have started the building of the run. The basic frame work is now in and we have had loads of fun making it all up as we go along. There is no way you could have tried to design this with formal plans - we are finding weird things cropping up and have had to deal with them on an ad-hoc basis. It IS looking fairly substantial though so far :D

Getting Serious

I am now at the *serious end* of chook hunting and have seen the advert in Farm Week for a local person who has various breeds available.

This has helped me focus on my search for particular breeds and am now ready to make genuine enquiries for the actual birds.

I have 6 breeds I am interested in. I could go for one of each but may start with only 4 birds. They are:

Barnevelder,
Maran,
Rhode Island Red,
Wyandotte,
Welsummer and
Sussex.

The first two are *possibles* (due to me not being able to commit to a definite amount of free ranging immediately) and the last four are *definite* wants.

It feels good to have a couple of definite-maybes in mind - makes it all more real.

To Turf Or Not To Turf

The back garden is paved with 2x2 horrible-grey-but-practical-flag-stones with gaps in them which we call the flower beds.

I inherited the garden like this and never really liked it but never came up with a solution until now.

I have decided that there is a lack of grass in the back garden (plenty in the front but that isn't chook friendly) and am thinking about lifting a staggered area of 27 of the flag-stones which will divide the garden up a little more and give a little texture to what is quite drab looking.

If I lift the flags there will be a recess to fill with top soil which I don't have. I will then have to seed the whole area. And then wait for the grass to come. And then do some praying for non-patchiness.

If I go to B&Q I can buy turf for £2.48 a square meter. Or. 50p a square meter for the dying off and left lying without any sunlight for too long stuff.

I thought long and hard about this quandry. Whether to turf it at all. Whether to turf it with the cheapy stuff. . . I thought too long and by the time we went back to B&Q the turf was no longer there!

We may come back to this idea in a while - make it a new project for when the run is done and dusted as it really would open the garden up to us again.

Recycled Wood

Yay! We have just found loads of wood in work which has been left over from previous jobs. I can recycle this as batons and shelving in the shed. This has pleased me greatly!

Yay for never throwing anything out!