Here I share a chook run with my neighbours on the common property,
but I allow them access into my place
through a little gateway in the fence.
I've been allowing them fairly free rein out here
but I'm starting to get a little bit more precious with my plantings,
which means the girls have to be brought under some control.
(BOTH LAUGH)
So today I want to build a chook tunnel, essentially,
to give them access into the garden, so they can come and go.
Nice. I can give them a little treat.
But I want to use it also to make a bench seat,
so we can sit down in that part of the garden -
lovely little shady spot -
and also it'll create this great little foreground
to make a beautiful luscious garden bed behind.
Got some really basic materials.
Just some steel mesh and some macrocarpa sleepers.
Now I've got you, let's get started.
Oh, definitely! I'm ready. Let's start with this one.
I want the steel to have a rusty look
but be protected so it can last.
I've already galvanised the section down the bottom
that's gonna be buried.
Then, in a few weeks, once the top has a good rusty colour,
I'll give it a treatment to protect it from the weather.
So that's gonna give us sort of 200 mil underground.
Yep. And then about a 400 sitting height.
How's that? I think that's gonna work well.
You know, we'll need to cut it a little bit shorter on that back end
but I think it's gonna be perfect.
If we could just get this nice even width.
With the bracing? Yep. (CLICKS TONGUE) Perfect.
So I'm just cutting some pieces...
..that are gonna act like braces in the bottom of the tunnel.
They're under the soil,
so it doesn't matter that they've got some overhangs,
but that'll give us that even 400 right the way along.
They're working well. Oh, great.
These temporary braces hold the form of the run
while we then get the curve that we're after,
and then we can lock it all together.
You right there?
Yeah, I think so. (LAUGHS)
You might start sinking.
It's becoming mud pies.
And now we're just gonna use the crowbar and some steel stakes
to try and curve the bench,
and then once we put that into some sort of form,
we can brace the whole top and start to put the lid on.
Now look, that curve's nice. Yeah.
Not that chickens are fussy about a curve.
Or maybe these girls. They're fancy chickens.
They're like, "I'm not going in there, it's not square."
(LAUGHS) "It's not a beautiful arc."
"I'll take my sunflower seeds in the run, thank you very much."
(BOTH CHUCKLE)
(TOOL WHIRRS)
After I removed the temporary braces,
I've been putting in these pieces that Millie cut,
which are effectively the lid,
but they also have an overhang
and they'll provide the perfect support
for us to brace the timber seating onto.
But then let's...let's have a look at it. Oops.
Yeah, that's not far off. Look.
Yeah, OK. That's not far off.
And once it's all joined together...
After you've squared that up over there
and once we've got the rocks in, that's gonna be our...
Ballast.
That's gonna keep the ballast at the base in.
In addition to those pieces of mesh
that are stabilising the base of this structure,
we're gonna add soil and rocks,
and really the whole bottom of the cage will be under ground level,
so it's really stable and really safe
for the chickens when they're in there.
(CHICKENS CLUCK) (CLUCKS) Good girl, Sunny.
That's pretty good. She's giving it a go already.
I reckon they're gonna love this when it's full of treats.
I just wanna check this for length. Oh, yeah.
I like the colour of the wet wood. Oh, it's beautiful, isn't it?
Look how rich. It's orange.
I might give 'em a little plane on the edge.
Sand 'em. I'm ready to sit on that.
(LAUGHS) Little way to go yet, mate.
We got the trench dug and the steel frame secure.
Now it's time to make it look like a seat.
Timber brings a feel, doesn't it?
I love sitting on it. It's kind of warm in winter, cool in summer.
It's, like, the perfect garden surface.
The next step here is to work this radius.
Yeah, I think keeping them chunky,
but we might have to taper a few to get around that bend.
Here they can be their full width. Yep.
A little bit of, you know... Tweaking.
Adjusting, tweaking. Yeah. Yeah!
Some say stuffing around. (LAUGHS) Yeah. That's what it's about.
(SAW WHIRRS)
What Millie and I did was cut out these wedges
and that way we could play with it.
And then from there Millie could use that as the template
and go away and cut the piece of timber.
I reckon 10 mil off each side should almost get us round.
This is quite flat here, isn't it?
Yeah, exactly, and then it tightens up a bit here,
and then we straighten out again.
Yeah, so what do we need in here?
Similar sort of 10... 10-ish off each edge?
Off each side, yeah.
Alright, I'll take that. I'll be back.
It's a lot easier to experiment and get it right with cardboard
than it is with your timber.
Millie's attaching the timber seat to the mesh frame,
and to do that, she's got to come up from underneath,
so it's a real chicken's-eye view.
But it's pretty simple - she's just using
a 25mm buttonhead screw and a washer,
and the first thing she's doing
is pre-drilling a hole in the corner...
..and then...
After a bit more experimenting with our jigsaw pieces...
..and a light sand, it's time for the magic touch.
Boiled linseed oil mixed 50-50 with turps
is my go-to blend.
Figure I've got to improve the view, I think, Costa.
Little bit of planting. Yeah, well, it's chicken...
It's chicken vision down here.
Yeah. That's who we're looking after.
Lots of little bees coming and going on this bulbine.
(LAUGHS) It looks good already. (LAUGHS)
Mulch is in.
And then that little scaevola,
I planted it, it has not stopped flowering for six months,
so much so that I took cuttings and they're flowering, with roots.
I reckon it'll be perfect for here.
It'll just wind in and out and literally up the mesh too.
Oh, you're a good dog. You're a really good dog.
As always, my planting here is pretty eclectic.
I've got some things I haven't grown before, some experiments.
This one from New Zealand, others from other parts of the world.
I've got lots of native species.
And these, well, I've raised them myself from seed.
They're indigenous to the area
and I hope they're gonna add a beautiful hit of colour.
Job well done. Totally stoked.
It looks great.
It's so good I reckon it's gonna be the perfect spot for me to sit
but also I reckon it's gonna function really, really well
for the chickens as well.
They've already been checking it out as we've been building it.
They have, and when they come in,
again, you stop and enjoy their arrival and what they're up to.
And as soon as they hear you come home, they're out here,
"What have you got for me?"
"Where have you been?" "What have you got?"
And then, fixed pieces, and then this one,
I can open it up, clean it out, give the girls some scraps.
I think it's absolutely perfect.
What do you think, Squiddy? Get up!
Oh.
Oh, those muddy paws! He loves it.
(BOTH LAUGH)
Oh, it's gonna get used... Part of the family.
Totally, and, I mean, that is the thing, isn't it?
You think up something great to do,
you just find some materials and work out how to put it together,
even a couple of amateurs like us can work this out.
I love doing projects with you.
It's so much fun. Thank you so much. Pleasure.
(CHICKENS CLUCK)