General

Despite the importance of chickens in a permaculture system, I’ve been putting off getting feathered friends as the responsibility of livestock ownership wasn’t something that appealed to me. However I love building things and have been researching coop design for years, so after I helped a friend build a ‘rustic beach shack’ for her music video and once she was done filming, she offered it to me as thanks for my assistance. So now I basically had four walls and a roof to work with and I probably could have just used it as it was but the friends who had assembled the walls kind of slapped things together for the rustic look and my OCD wasn’t going to put up with that. So I meticulously pulled it completely apart and readied the timber for it’s second life.

The coop design was going to be all about me. As in how could I make it ergonomic for me whether it be for maintenance, accessibility or for cleaning. As usual I lurked in forums and read half the internet, grabbing ideas and recommendations from numerous sources then hybridising it into something that I would be happy with. Another constraint was that I had to keep costs to a minimum given my experiment this year to see if I could live on $100/week (After main utility/mortgage bills.) so it would have to be built using recycled and free materials.

Fortunately I’m a hoarder so there was plenty of timber ready to go. I had a heap of 200mm x50mm x 3m pine bearers that in a former life was the “cage of death” pergola which I hung numerous punching bags from, for my Kung Fu students to hit.

I used an existing retaining wall (left) as it was 800mm high and being level would act as a solid plinth. The reason for the large overhang is that when it came time to clean out the coop floor I would have space to position a wheelbarrow under the lip and push the soiled bedding into the barrow. This way it would be closer to where I’d be using the manure. Having the coop high at that end also meant the nesting boxes would be at chest/head height so easy access to retrieve eggs.

The gap underneath the overhang was to allow any pooled water to dry out. The bearers are treated pine not hardwood so I wanted to maximise their lifespan. I screwed joist brackets, normally used to build decks, along the top of the sleeper and then screwed the bearers in place.

On the opposite side I did the same except the bearers were attached to another 200×50 beam such that they were all flush on top.

To keep the frame above the soil and level I had to build a footing for the upright. I used a simple carboard formwork technique I’ve utilised before to minimise the amount of concrete needed and still give me strength and shape. You cut thick cardboard into a box shape suitable to your formwork requirements. Duct tape it together when you’re happy with the shape. Throw a shovelful of mixed concrete in the base as this seals the base of your post from touching the soil. Then place your post in the middle of the cardboard formwork.

I used some scrap galvanised steel mesh to reinforce the concrete. I’ve used chicken wire on other projects with success so you can use it too. Then it was a matter of carefully filling the cavity with concrete I’d mixed in a wheelbarrow.

Several days later you can remove the cardboard and your post and concrete footing are ready to be bolted to your floor.

On the other side I didn’t need the height of a post so I simply concreted together some old bricks and pavers to create a solid footing at the height I needed. There’s a slight tilt on the top paver to allow for water runoff whilst maintaining a level floor framework.

The coop floor is the old floor from my kitchen which I ripped out when I renovated it. It’s 20mm marine ply and perfect for this application. Added block you see halfway along the exposed bearer is there for additional support for the next piece of flooring. The sheet in place has a full bearer in the middle so won’t bow.  I am not a dainty man so I didn’t trust the join to sit on 25mm of bearer with my full weight in the middle. The chock gave it s little extra support from bowing.

The second sheet in place and passed the me jumping on it test with flying colours. The first sheet had a bit missing so I made sure the small infill piece had heaps of support by being directly over a bearer and bearer intersection.

Rain added a few delays to the power tool section of the build but the marine ply held up well in the wet.

Fruit Trees

Daleys Fruit Trees  is probably the most well known retail fruit tree supplier in S.E. Qld. They’re located just below the border in NSW at Kyogle. Daleys have an extensive range and deliver to most parts of Australia. They’ve got one of the most comprehensive websites and videos/ youtube channel as well, regarding information and care for your tree.
Personally I haven’t purchased off them because usually  when I look to buy it’s not worth the delivery for a single tree. If you were doing a lot of trees for your food forest it’d be worth it. Maybe even driving down there for a day trip. Also a lot of times they just don’t have the plant I want in stock and you have to click ‘notify me’ but that’s probably because I’m always after something a bit on the rare and unusual side.

 

Fairchilds Nursery

Bob McGuffin doesn’t have a nursery you can visit per se. He does his own propagation and also has contacts for plants he doesn’t have in stock. He sells from the Chandler Markets now known as The College Markets out at Capalaba as well as the annual BOGI festival where I first met him and bought trees off him. I have to say the quality of his stock is probably the best of anyone I’ve purchased from.  If you’re looking for something in particular he can sort it out for you and you can pick it up from him at the markets.
Just email him mcguffin.bob@gmail.com  or call (07)3297 6974  (He may not answer straight away but will get back to you)

 

Templex Nursery   1895 Beaudesert Rd, Algester QLD 4115        (07) 3273 3035 (Closed Tuesdays)

I highly recommend you take a trip out to Templex. It’s a super compact, highly decorative, hidden gem filled with dragons, cranes and other works of art by the owner. They get some of their stock from Daleys so with their nursery discount it’s basically like getting a single tree from Daleys freight free. The lovely helpful owners are Asian so their taste in fruit tree stocks are exactly the type of uncommon varieties that I go for when looking to purchase diversity for my food forest plus they’re inexpensive. The pheasants they have (golden and silver) are like the supermodels of the poultry world! Here’s a taste of what to expect.

 

 

Annual BOGI Fair

This is my annual compulsive buying spree. Currently running on the last Sunday of August, it’s where I bought my very first lot of fruit trees back in 2012. Every year I end up taking home at least 6-12 fruit trees then wonder where the hell I’m going to put them. Not the wisest way of tree shopping and makes for a lot of digging of holes. It’s a relatively small area but there’s not much you can’t get from there. Parking can get a bit hard and I’d advise taking cash as not all vendors have mobile eftpos.

 

Forbidden Fruits

I’ve bought the majority of my plants from Forbidden Fruits at the BOGI Fair. For the most part they’re pretty good but some years I’ve had their staff members at the BOGI Fair give me incorrect information regarding trees, which I put down to perhaps them roping in help for the day. Things like being told something is a graft when it obviously isn’t and final size of tree type misinformation. Fortunately I interwebs a lot of stuff beforehand and also on the day with my phone, so I have an inkling about some of the available plants. Their more experienced staff are on the ball and more than 60% of my trees are from them and doing very well.

 

Farmcraft

I use Farmcraft to buy my chicken feed and starpickets. They were also the only place I could get bulk bags of diatomaceous earth at a decent price. It’s a bit of a pain that there’s no prices online but the cost savings for the most part are worth the trip out to Acacia Ridge. They stock Barastoc Golden Yolk for $15/20kg bag where everywhere else near me it’s between $22-$25. YOu can get it cheap online but then postage kills whatever savings. If they put up their pricelist they’d get so much more business, I have not idea why they and so many other companies don’t. Their staff will gladly help you over the phone though.

Heritage Hatching And Hens

I got my chickens from an egg farm that were about to do a cull but a lot of friends bought their hens from Heritage. When I haven’t the time to get out to Farmcraft I will buy a bag of chicken feed from Heritage to tide me over and stop the chooks from squawking at their empty feed bucket. Heritage have an impressive range of chickens so if you want something along the lines of a showpony this is the place to go. It’s probably where I’d go if I didn’t have the opportunity to save more battery hens.

 

Bunnings

A lot of gardeners will rag on Bunnings and yes for the most part a lot of their smaller edible plant stock aren’t as good as buying from a dedicated nursery. Also pay attention to the fruit trees, they’ll often be seedlings not grafts and if they’re cuttings/ air layers they’re definitely not specified so it’s a gamble. Having said that I noticed that a lot of their larger fruit trees come from Birdwood Nursery who are a massive wholesale supplier up the Sunshine Coast who provide to a lot of the nurseries around Brisbane and the stock quality of these plants is usually excellent. They’ve also picked up their act over the years with labeling but there are still times the label has no varietal or propagation method information on the plant info card. I recently bought a feijoa on a whim as it was a stock clearance and there’s zero information about what variety of feijoa it is or how it was propagated, just a generic Sellowiana label saying ‘pineapple guava’. They stick with fairly common varieties but in the last year I’ve noticed a new additions to the lineup that pique my interest. Their pricing though is still a bit more than some of the options above. I noticed too that to match Masters they’re now also offering a 1yr guarantee on their plants! That’s pretty bold given how fickle plants are and bad gardeners can be too.

 

Ebay

Yes Ebay! You can get some amazing deals and really hard to get plants from Ebay. I’ve bought a lot of organic heirloom seeds from various suppliers. Most will give free postage once you spend over $10 too. I’ve also had bought cuttings and small potted plants too that I couldn’t find anywhere else.

 

Geofabrics Australia

I bought my wicking bed geofabric from these guys. They sell predominantly industrial grade stuff which is why I chose them plus their pricing is great, the only catch is you do have to buy in bulk 25-50m rolls so it does push the overall price up but if you’re going to be using it it’s well worth it.

I also bought my root barrier from them. They sold it under their Tree Max brand but it looks like it’s been bought by another company Sure Gro as of 12th Feb 2016. If the product is the same
quality then there’s no reason not to get it from them.

 

 

OTHER PLACES TO ALSO CHECK OUT

 

Nova Gardens Nursery

Good customer service and nice selection of stock standard fruit trees. Much like Bunnings pricing (~$5-15/tree extra than other places) although I’d say plants are in slightly better condition. I haven’t bought any trees from them but only because they haven’t had anything unusual in their lines.