The Quest for the Mouse-proof Chicken Coop: Chapter 6

Covering the coop with aluminum was a huge time eater. Spring was coming chicks were arriving and I am covering one side of a wall every few days. Oh yeh. The other problem was that I was running out of flashing. I started out with a 5o foot by 20" roll plus about 20 feet of recycled siding flashing. I was going to need another 50 foot roll and of course it wasn't on sale any more. I ended up underestimating material every where though not by much. Just enough to have to buy another box of nails or a few more bolts or some more tubes of caulking. Every time I ran out I had to make a trip to town and that took more time. However, things were beginning to take shape.

All the panels were insulated with Styrofoam and left over insulation board from another project. As I was happily building this aluminum box and leaving a window to give the ladies some light I remembered a camping trip I took when I was in high school. We built a solar oven with aluminum foil. We baked a really great pizza in it. It was an aluminum box too. It occurred to me that I might be making a great chicken cooker so I decided to add some vents above the window to allow heat and moisture to escape. Another trip to town. I found some cheap vents and installed them on both side of the panel. More time.

The roof panel was just a flat panel. To get it to mesh with the rest of the house I nailed a couple of 2x2s to the inside to set down into the house. It was bigger then the old coops roof and I gave it a overhang above the window. In spite of its size it was much lighter than the old roof. (Don't use old asphalt shingles on a portable building. Very heavy.) The new roof was really light. So light that a good Kansas wind was going to send it flying to North Dakota. I decided that I would use bungee cords to hold it on and since I needed something to hook them to I would use drawer handles to give me a place to grab the roof when I moved it. Its a crime how much a simple little handle costs. I decided that it would be more fun to make some. I had some pieces of aluminum stock from a door grill that I had replaced. (Did I mention that I never throw anything away?) They were fairly easy to cut and hammer into shape. It just took a little time. I made an extra one for the door.

Up to now time had been the big problem. The door was scary. I created another little insulated panel but had to guess at the correct size to make the frame. There was no good way to determine the exact amount of clearance needed for the flashing. (Did I mention that I was running low on my second roll of flashing?) My door ended up fitting a bit tight but it was just enough to keep the door from opening accidentally. Cool. Hinges were a bit of a problem. They were not aluminum so I was afraid that they would corrode the sheeting. I used a piece of left over bicycle tubing rubber and installed it between the hinges and door clasp.

I was getting close to finishing but the devil is in the details and there were lots more details than I was counting on. (Did I mention that the chicks had arrived and were growing by leaps and bounds?)

(to be continued)