Backyard DIY Part 3- Chicken Nesting Box

Part 3 of my DIY Weekend involved building a nesting box. I left this to last because I had put qa lot of thought into how I was going to build it. 

When I first bought my block, it had not fences and people would often dump rubbish on it. Usually cans, wrappers and the occasional random item. One day I discovered a wooden drawer a passer by had gifted me with. Whilst old, it is in perfect condition, so I kept it to use for a project. I was thinking it'd screw some wooden legs on it and make it into a planter box. 

My dad then suggested that I should use it as a nesting box. The drawer is so old, any toxins in the wood would be long gone, so perfect and safe for chickens. 

I cut four thicker lengths of bamboo about 40cms long to make corner posts, four long lengths for 'beams' and floor 'stabilisers' and four short lengths for 'beams' and floor 'stabilisers'. I then assembled inside the drawer, as show above to ensure all the pieces fit. Several had to be trimmed to ensure they were the correct length. I then drilled holes in the ends and connected all the pieces with zip ties.

Next I drilled holes along the top and bottom pieces and inserted thin pieces of bamboo the entire length of the box. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of this step. The thin lengths of bamboo gave additional support to the structure.  I planned to weave very thin pieces of bamboo through the supports to create something like a woven basket. I wove about half of the rear wall before deciding that it was too time consuming and I couldn't get a tight enough weave. I then considered using rags and doing a cloth weave, but I didn't want to waste my cleaning rags. Then I remembered that as a kid, my neighbours and I used to make huts out of branches with paperbark woven between the branches. I thought that the same technique could be used for the nesting box. And it did.

The completed nesting box is a little messy-looking but I like it. And the chooks seem to like it too.

Chooks exploring their new equipment

All three DIY projects in the coop. 

The girls roosting on the nesting box,
one chook is in the nesting box. 

Now all I have to do is wait until the girls are old enough to start laying and there will be fresh eggs to be enjoyed.

Backyard DIY Part 1- Water trough

My parents have decided to get some chickens. Their main purpose would be as egg producers, but also as pets. Its been 20 years since my parents had chickens. We had them for a few years as kids, but our cattle dog and foxes eventually ate them all.
My dad built a chicken coop a few weeks ago from a kit and its been settling/ airing since.

Chickens need three basic things- Food, Water and Shelter. I've decide to build a Water Trough, a Feeder and a Nesting Box from whatever I had lying around or could source for free. So basically, this meant Bamboo creations.

I went and harvested a heap of Bamboo from where it grows on the roadside not far from my parents house. I went to a 'Building with Bamboo' Workshop at The Planting Festival, back in May. From this Workshop, I learnt that Bamboo is best cut down with a fine-toothed saw. Turns out its true. The last time I cut Bamboo, I used my large-toothed pruning saw. This time I used a run-of-the mill building saw (can get them for about $7 from Bunnings). Wow, was it so much easier and faster than the struggle of the large-toothed saw.

I cut and loaded up a ute-load and took it home for 'processing'.

Ute-load of Bamboo

Bamboo

I chose a large, solid piece to build the Feeder and Water trough out of. This particular Bamboo is a species of 'clumping bamboo'. They grow tall and reasonably straight. Bamboo consist of several segments, each segment is hollow and watertight. This is what I was planning on taking advantage of for the Water Trough.

Bamboo Length

Cheap saw, bamboo with rectangle cut out

I sawed the bamboo on either side of the two segments so that I had one intact central piece. I then used the saw to cut two lines perpendicular to the bamboo piece. Using a chisel and a hammer, I chiseled along the piece of bamboo from one cut to the other cut. Then I was able to pop out the whole centre piece in one chunk. For this method to work, it is important to understand the structure of the Bamboo. The bamboo fibres run vertically up the bamboo and it is prone to splits on the vertical plane. By using the saw to create vertical cuts, it is then very easy to split off the whole rectangular piece. 

Next, I cut a small cylinder of Bamboo and split it, using the chisel. I drilled holes through these two pieces to create a stand for the water trough and drilled holes through the larger segment.  I next mounted the water trough to the stand pieces, wedged a small stick of bamboo through the holes and viola! A DIY Bamboo Water Trough

bamboo stick as a nail

Water Trough in-situ in the Chook Pen. 

Practical Garden Art

A few weeks ago, Gigi and I spent the weekend beautifying our veggie patch and building a worm farm. We have bit of variety in our garden now and I've been thinking a lot about garden markers. I've seen some very lovely ones on 'etsy' and 'made-it' but have wanted to make some myself in the spirit of living simply and being frugal.
I saw an inspiring picture on the Internet and thought it would be a great activity for Gigi and I to do together. We collected a variety of smooth rocks of varying size from a nearby river and spent the morning painting them. 

Gigi decided she wanted to use her hands rather than a paint brush. Rather than rocks decorated to look like veggies, as per the inspirational picture, our rocks are decorated with Gigi's hand-prints and foot prints. Not only are they a cute garden decoration, but they are also a nice bit of memorabilia. 
We started off by washing the rocks in vinegar and water with a scrubbing brush. After they had dried off, we painted them with some old art paint I had. I think the paint was water based acrylic, so after it dried I sprayed it with a can of paint sealer specifically for toys/crafts/outdoor ornaments. Hopefully it waterproofs Gigi's lovely works of art. The cost of the project was $10, which was for the can of sealer. There plenty left, which we can use anther day. We now have some lovely and unique garden markers, had a great day in the garden and only spent a small amount of money.