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Chicken coop TARDIS.

Started by solarb, Oct 02, 2012, 11:54 am

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solarb

Oct 02, 2012, 11:54 am Last Edit: Oct 02, 2012, 12:11 pm by solarb
Hello everyone. I joined last night and this is my first post.

I started building our TARDIS in the summer and got half way through the build before I stumbled across TARDISBuilders. Since discovering the site I've been looking through the build diaries and archives over a few weeks while I carried on with the build. I really wish we'd found this resource earlier, there are some stunning projects on here and some nice solutions to problems that the first time builder comes up against. Our build is 95% finished but I did take a good number of photos along the way so I'd like to post a retrospective build diary.

We acquired 4 ex-barn chickens in the summer as pets. They're friendly little souls and we built a run for them around and under the children's trampoline which is otherwise a dead area where nothing grows. Temporary accommodation in the run was a dog kennel and although they seemed to like the kennel it was certainly not ideal. Egg collection and cleaning was a pain and we knew they would need something better before the autumn.

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Three chickens hiding.

Buying a ready made coop wasn't going to happen. After all, anything decent is expensive and where's the fun in owning something that anyone can have? After a little head scratching and having the more ambitious plans vetoed by Mrs. SolarB the girls (that's 2 daughters, not chickens) and I came up with the idea of a TARDIS for a coop. I drew some quick plans and the shape seemed to work well for a multi floor chicken coop.

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TARDIS coop.

The coop is approximately ½ size and stands around 6' tall with three interior levels. The ground floor is for the storage of sawdust and other materials and isn't accessible by the chickens. The first floor is nice and gloomy for nesting while the second floor has a full 270 degree view of the garden and is ideal for chilling and watching the world go by. Access to the interior is via an integral ramp hidden behind a sliding panel. Full height double doors on one side open for easy cleaning and egg collection without having to enter the run.

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Madame de Pompadour, River Song, Sally Sparrow and Rose.

After spending some time on this forum I now know that there were many different TARDISes(?) and that our coop is not a copy of any specific model but rather a generic structure that anyone will recognise. It's a little too short to match classic Police Box proportions but the floor size was dictated by the correct square footage required by four chickens and the height was fixed by the size of the plywood I was going to use for the walls.

In addition to the correct floor size, the coop also had to be:
a) Flat packed into manageable sections for ease of building and assembly.
b) Inherently waterproof.
c) Cost as little as possible.
d) Chicken friendly.
e) Easy to clean and collect eggs.

I'll post the construction photos tonight.

DoctorWho8

Welcome!  You actually are the second person this year to make a TARDIS chicken coop. :)  Who knows, maybe you'll see something in this one you might want to incorporate on yours.
http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=3390.0
Bill "buk buk bacaw" Rudloff

warmcanofcoke

Welcome. I look forward to your build.  :D
why doesn't the Guide mention them? - Oh, it's not very accurate.
Oh? - I'm researching the new edition.

daveninja

Quote from: DoctorWho8 on Oct 02, 2012, 02:01 pm
Welcome!  You actually are the second person this year to make a TARDIS chicken coop. :)  Who knows, maybe you'll see something in this one you might want to incorporate on yours.
http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=3390.0
Bill "buk buk bacaw" Rudloff


I clicked on this thread thinking someone had bumped my thread (the one DW8 linked above), haha.
I need to post updated pictures of the coop features of my build; i'll try to get to it asap.
I just have to get a St Johns sign, finished one last police box top sign and do some final paint touch ups and waterproofing. then i should be done (at least until it starts raining and i find new things to fix). Oh yeah, i need to do the little squares above the posts that connect to the first tier of the roof. I keep forgetting about those.

My tardis has been housing the chickens for more than half a year now. We started with 4 chickens but the Donna of our group died about a month ago from a respitory problem. The windows have been open all summer and the chickens have been suriving the 90-100 degree temps and laying lots of eggs.

solarb

Oct 03, 2012, 11:45 am #4 Last Edit: Apr 17, 2013, 11:32 am by solarb
The build took a couple of months.

Corner beams are made from two pieces of wood glued and screwed together.

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Each side of the coop is made from two sheets of ply joined together with a center baton. Two sides have corner beams fitted, third side is plain and the forth side has the double doors.

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Horizontal batons are glued in with drip strips on the underside and a sloped upper side for water run off.

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Double doors on the left, front panel with chicken hatch on the right.

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Roof build starts. As the roof simply sits on top and the whole coop needs to be waterproof we changed the design a little to have an overhang. The roof overhangs the coop sides by 1" and has a drip strip at the bottom. If we had kept to the traditional design the weatherproofing would have been a challenge and a flat pack design would have been much harder. The top Police Box signs should hide most of the overhang.

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Upper section glued and screwed.

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Final section made from four pieces of waterproof ply glued and screwed to reinforcing batons at the corners.

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Primer on the roof.

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Inside the roof.

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Coop will sit on a simple square base made from four large pieces of pine.

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Base glued, screwed and chamfered on the edges.

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Undercoat on the sides.

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Chickens come in to check on progress.

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TARDIS kit coming together.

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A bit of blue paint makes all the difference. Windows are glass left over from an old shed.

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First coat of paint dried far too light in colour. We had to add a fair amount of black to bring the colour to an acceptable shade.

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For window framing we used the lid off rectangular section electrical conduit and glued it straight onto the glass.

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Components outside and ready for the build. Dog keeps an eye on things.

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It only took 10 minutes to build the sides, hang the doors and fit the roof. The coop sits on a single layer of bricks to keep it off the ground.
Low profile Police Box signs are the same size as the lower part of the roof and should hide the overhang when fitted.

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The chickens have the run of the back garden while the coop is assembled. Dog keeps an eye on them.

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Ramp construction. Made from any available offcuts.

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Two interior floors, a couple of ramps and the sliding hatch.

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We need adjustable ventilation and the obvious thing was to have at least one window that opened. After a little head scratching a plywood frame encased in more conduit seemed to work OK.

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Interior ramp sections visible from the outside are colour coded.

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Interior fittings rest on blocks and batons. The whole interior can be removed if necessary without tools.

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Access hatch will slide up and down between runner on the left and the blue board on the right. We wanted one full panel on the outside to slide up and down for access but an opening one panel wide would mean an excessively wide ramp and loss of usable space in the coop. The rectangular blue board in the photo reduces the width of the access ramp by half but allows the door outside to be one full panel wide.

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First floor.

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Second floor.

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Madame de Pompadour and River Song try out their new accommodation while the dog looks on.

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Rose inspects the second floor.

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Vinyl self adhesive signs ordered online, exactly what I was after. They were stuck to a plastic/aluminium backing board and edged with UPVC trim from Wickes.

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Paint still drying but they will go up this weekend.

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Light on the top is built from a Pimms bottle, white paper in a plastic envelope and the remains of a garden lamp bought at a car boot sale.

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Chickens have no respect for minimum focusing distances.

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The chickens are now living in the coop and seem to like it. Sally Sparrow sleeps upstairs most nights while the others sleep on the lower level. Cleaning and egg collection is easy as the living area of the coop is at a convenient height.

The signs and exterior furniture should be fitted this coming weekend. Interior lighting will take another few days as I need to get 12V into the coop from the shed. The coop should be finished in a week or too depending on other commitments. Once the signs are on I'll take some proper exterior photos.No message is associated with this attachment.

solarb

Thanks for the welcome. I did come across Daveninja's build when I discovered TARDISBuilders. Interesting that we both settled on opening windows for ventilation and storage low down.

DoctorWho8

Excellent job!
Bill "the Doctor" Rudloff

willfleming

That's the coolest Chicken coop I ever saw....Nice Job
Will
HUGE Doctor Who,GHI,GH and Torchwood fan

rasalon

Nov 14, 2012, 05:44 pm #8 Last Edit: Nov 14, 2012, 05:46 pm by rasalon
Quote from: solarb on Oct 03, 2012, 11:45 amVinyl self adhesive signs ordered online, exactly what I was after. They were stuck to a plastic/aluminium backing board and edged with UPVC trim from Wickes.


Could you tell me what online company you used for your signs?

solarb

Mar 20, 2013, 09:02 am #9 Last Edit: Mar 20, 2013, 09:15 am by solarb
Oops, I'd forgotten that I hadn't posted any pictures of the final build.

The coop has been in use for 6 months now and seems to be holding up to the weather. It's working well as a chicken coop I don't think I would make any major changes to the design if I built a second one. The chickens like it, although we're down to two from the original four. Sally Sparrow sleeps upstairs when the weather is warm but she settles down with Madame de Pompadour on the lower level when it's cold.

Rasalon, if you still need to know about signs I ordered them from Sticky Fingers Decals and Graphics (http://martincull.create.net/).

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Coop now finished.

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TARDIS is part of the enclosure fence.

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Access to the coop without going into the run. Lower level is storage for bedding and cleaning out tools. Having the roosting levels higher up means no bending down for cleaning and egg collection.

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Hatch open.

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Hatch closed (with chicken mooning).

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The finished coop.

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Vinyl sign looks OK, lock cover and handle were spares from house DIY.

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The girls seem to like their new home.

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The obligatory snow picture.

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Bed time.