Building the MkIII hen house, part 1

We’ve needed a new poultry house for some time, but the workload has been such that it’s been put off repeatedly. However, we now have nine Scots Grey chicks that need to move out of the brooder to make way for the next batch of chicks, Peggy is tying up the other small poultry house, and all the larger houses are in use. That made it time to get to work. The new house will be used mainly for housing chicks from two weeks to 16 weeks, as a broody house or as an isolation house so it doesn’t need a laying box, which makes the job easier. This time around I had four reasonably large pieces of salvaged exterior seven-ply for the walls, plus some timber for the base frame (made in the same way as the last one) and reinforcing blocks.

The base frame is a 30-inch square (exterior dimensions). The dimensions came about as the longest piece of timber I had was 30-inches long while the doors into the outbuildings are 32 inches wide, allowing us to move the house through the buildings. I cut the two side walls first. These taper from front to back (24 inches high at the front, 21 at the back) and are 31.5 inches long (to allow them to overlap the ends of the front and back walls. It’s a quick job to cut them if you’re using power tools, but it takes quite a lot longer if using a hand saw as I did. (Electricity is expensive, but we have plenty of time and it’s free.)

Cutting the front and back walls is slightly more tricky. The front wall is 30in by 24in (outside face) while the back is 30in by 21in (outside face), but the tops need to be cut with a mitre to match the slope of the side walls. With a circular saw, all you’d do is mark the line and match the angle of the saw blade to the angle of the cut, then remove the excess timber. With a hand saw, you have to mark the cutting line on both sides and take a lot of care.

When cutting the mitre by hand, it’s important to use a saw with a stiff blade and fine teeth. I started the cut by laying the board flat, then sawing with the teeth at 90 degrees perpendicular to the ground and the blade at the correct angle. Once I’d cut about two inches in, I stood the board on end with the cut uppermost and slowly cut down the lines, keep the saw aligned on both the front and back of the board. It’s important to make the cut slowly and evenly or the saw blade will wander.

I do use power tools from time to time—mainly where they can make a big difference to the job. I could have cut the pop hole in the front wall with a coping saw, but I’d have had to drill a very large hole in the centre of the pop hole to allow the frame of the saw to fit in (the board being too large for the coping saw frame to move around the outside). It would then have taken considerable effort (and time) to cut the pop hole accurately. By using the jig saw, all I had to do was drill two small holes in the centre top and bottom of the pop hole and then cut a side at a time. It also means I can keep the waste wood for another job.

With the walls all cut, I laid them out on the ground before getting the boys to stand them up so I could check for fit. Everything went together without problem, so it was time to start assembly.

I began by standing the frame on its side and clamping the rear wall to it, making sure they were at right angles to each other. Don’t start with the side walls as these will overlap the ends of the frame and are more difficult to position accurately. The wall was screwed to the frame with four 2in decking screws. Don’t be tempted to simply drive the screws in—drill pilot holes first and countersink each one. This is particularly important when screwing into the ends of the plywood and the wooden frame as the timber will split without pilot holes. The front wall went on next.

The side walls went on next, again with clamps used to hold them in place and ensure that the angles remained true. Three screws were drilled into the back of the sides (where they overlap the rear wall) and four into the front, but if I’d had more screws I’d have used four for the back and five for the front.

A further visit to my stores of salvage turned up a piece of varnished three-ply and a long length of plastic U-channel. The channel will make excellent, non-stick runners for a sliding door, which will be made from the varnished three-ply. As it was approaching dinner time (for the livestock and for us), I had to call a halt after nailing the bottom runner in place.

The house still needs reinforcing blocks in the top corners (to be made from the plank standing inside the house), a removeable floor (which will sit on the frame at the bottom), and a roof (to be made from another piece of seven-ply covered with roofing felt). However, we’ve made a good start and I should be able to finish building it in a day. 

If I’d put a second frame in at the height of the rear of the side walls the floor, which is built like a tray with rope handles, would be very difficult to remove. By putting blocks in at the top corners of the walls, there’s enough room to tilt the tray up and lift it out. The exposed ends of the seven-ply will be covered with sheet metal, cut into strips and folded into an L-shape. When complete, the house will be given a couple of coats of preservative on the outside, limewashed on the inside and sat on skids to keep the damp at bay. More details to come as I get the work done.