Here are some pics of the finished house. The roof is curved for run off. The edge of the roof also overhangs all round, to try and avoid rain getting in the joints.
It has six nextboxes, 3 either side. The middle of each three is slightly larger than the outside two. The top flap opens for easy access to eggs, and for airing when cleaned.
The large opening at the back lifts up, allowing easy access for cleaning. We have wooden struts on top of the Cube wheels to help distribute the weight. Two of them are kept long, so we can use these as handles if we want to move the house on its wheels... and the handles also act as perches for the Girls during the day.
Inside, we put roosting bars, which have slightly rounded edges.. We dithered between roosting bars and perches. We decided to start with roosting bars. Everything is, of course, dusted with Diatom.
The roosting bars sit a little hugher than the nestboxes. Compost bag trays are underneath (the house was sized so these fit perfectly), lined with Aubiose. These slide out for easy emptying. I currently haven't put in anything in front of the nestboxes, so this makes cleaning easy. The old Aubiose can be easily swept into the main part of the coop, and then swept out. No additional edges or corners for things to get trapped, or water to get caught when cleaning.
For cross ventilation, we have holes just under the eaves in both sides, covered with mesh:
The Girls are laying eggs in the nestboxes, but they aren't sleeping in the house. That's not surprising, as they still have the older houses to choose from. We will be dismantling and disposing of at least one of the older houses soon.
