Guinea Fowl

We have been thinking about keeping guinea fowl since last year. It so happened that somebody only 5 minutes away from us has 3 spare hens and a cockerel. Well, we thought, why not have a look at them.

So we went today and guess what? Yes, we need to build another animal house. Small one this time, but it needs to be nice and warm as there is only 4 birds living in it until we get a few more.

So here we go again, taking pallets apart. Unfortunately we don't have any dry pallets which makes the job of taking them apart harder. The van is still not back on the road so we can't collect any more pallets until it has passed it's M.O.T. next week.

The boards of timber are taken from the top of the pallets and the remaining nails are taken out. The nails are straightened and used to nail the boards back onto the base.

The base strips taken from underneath a pallet. The boards on top are cut to size and nailed onto the strips.

I finally found some time to carry on with this project today.

After the storm 3 days ago ripped the back wall apart I fixed it today and reattached it to the floor.

Three posts where added to the front. The left area is for 2 nesting boxes whilst the right side will be the door.

The posts are cut at an angle for the roof structure to sit on. Haven't got roof material yet, but I will surely find something...

The strips of wood will hold the roof. I think I will clad it in wood first to insulate it, then add waterproof material.

The left side is on, next I need to cut the boards to the right lengths.

The door frame is in. I hope the weather is going to hold up so that I can carry on building tomorrow.

 

Two days later and finally the sky has changed from black to grey and I can carry on. The right hand side is now screwed onto the frame and the left side cut down.

After cutting the right wall down to size I placed timber onto the roof and screwed it together with two strips of wood. This will help insulate the roof.

To prevent drafts and help with waterproofing I cut open two empty bags of layers pellets and nailed them onto the roof. The overhang at the back will be nailed onto the back wall.

 

After adding a couple of hinges the roof is nearly ready. Next I am going to make the flap for the nesting boxes at the front in much the same way I built the roof.

 

At this point I had to rush back to the house to see to kids, dogs, chickens, quails and hatching eggs. More in a wee while...