In the early hours of February 16, President's Day, sleet fell from the sky. What was suppose to be four to eight inches of snow turned out to be an inch of ice enveloping everything and anything that wasn't covered. Temperatures were in the 20s and wouldn't get above freezing for the rest of the week.
As a precaution against digging predators, we used a long strip of secondhand chicken wire and made a 'skirt' around the perimeter of the dome. Railroad ties, stones and leftover wood - whatever we could find - were laid on top to hold the fencing down. Now all we needed were some chickens! Note: grass grew through the fencing, which made it quite difficult to move the dome when the time came. Since we never did have any problems with predators trying to get in the dome, we removed the 'skirt,' and so far, haven't had any trouble with predators getting into the 'locked' dome. This was done on March 23, 2012. The door was made from electrical conduit connected with PVC elbows. We ran out of electrical conduit and used a length of PVC pipe we had lying around for one side of the door. Chicken wire was then wrapped around the pipes. The door was attached to the dome with shoelaces: three on one side to act as hinges and two on the other side to 'lock' and 'unlock' the door. It works well. After a year or so, the shoelaces broke but were easily replaced. We never had any trouble with predators getting into the 'locked' dome and went to using only one shoelace to 'lock' the door. The door was built on March 23, 2012. I posted on freecycle.org that I needed some chicken fencing and was offered a bunch of used chicken wire in differing lengths and widths. We had a four foot tall section that we wrapped around the bottom of the dome and secured with twist ties at the base. Wire was then used to connect the top of the fencing to the dome. Of course, we left a section open to attach a door later. This was done on February 27, 2012.
What is a chook?
- Aussie slang for 'chicken' Reasons to build the chook dome:
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PattiI've been inspired by Henry David Thoreau to live the life I imagine. I want to live without depending on dirty fossil fuels; to grow an abundance of healthy, organic food; and live in a home built with natural materials like cob. I'm not there yet, but I'm working on it. ArchivesCategories
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