My son has feverishly and not-so-politely reminded us of how his chicken coop upgrade is not getting our attention. Not to mention he has been keeping up quite busy with his extracurriculars (track, travel baseball, town baseball, 4-H). Nevertheless, he is impatient and wants to see progress - I can relate to that. He also doesn't realize how much this project is costing (we will setup a payment plan to teach him how loans work) or how long each step takes. Similar to conveyor upgrades, these things need to be budgeted and properly planned for.
Planning & Executing Conveyor Upgrades
Preparing for an outage or an upgrade can be a lot. But having everything correctly specified, ordered, and on-hand will save valuable time, prevent undue stress, and get operations back up and running as soon as possible. It's less than ideal to be shutdown, paying people, and have issues come up that could have been prevented only to extend the outage. Just like driving 20 minutes round trip to the hardware store to get more chicken coop supplies - multiple trips managed to eat up almost 2-3 hours of build time.
Benefits of Upgrading/Enhancing Operations
- Less time spent on cleanup: Conveyor upgrades can reduce material spillage and the need for manual cleanup by implementing proper belt support, sealing, alignment, and cleaning.
- Improved production and safety: With material staying on the belt, where it's intended to be, production and profitability increase. Decreasing material spillage prevents the need for crews to manually shovel lost material from the ground, reducing staff interaction with conveyors and dangerous pinch points/hazards.
The new coop is farther from the house so the chickens and ducks won't hangout on the porch (teasing the dogs - we've had some past incidents), reducing the need for porch cleanup and preventing tracking mess into the house. - Better housekeeping/boosted morale: When operations are cleaner, safer, and more productive, morale is boosted and employees want to contribute. This starts at the top, if safety and housekeeping are continually ignored, employees become used to seeing those conditions and they become the norm. I'm hoping the new coop design will make my son less complacent. It will have built-in storage for chicken feed and straw so we no longer have to store supplies in our garage. We somehow end up with more feed on the ground than in the buckets.
- Decreased component/conveyor belt damage: By regularly assessing and maintaining the conveyor belt, it is apparent when replacement parts/upgrades are needed. Staying on top of these tasks will prevent premature failure or unnecessary wear and tear.
Making Progress
Multiple trips to the hardware store and a long Memorial Day weekend later, here is our progress. We still have to add the metal roof, siding, and paint but we are getting closer and hopefully it will be chicken-ready by late summer.
I feel like this looks a lot like a she shed rather than a coop. 👸
Charging $3 for a dozen eggs, his chicken business isn't very profitable and this upgrade definitely puts him in the hole. But he likes to ask the question "What costs more in the long run: sick/injured chickens from close quarters, more time spent cleaning out the coop due to design limitations, or putting money back into his farm?" I have a feeling he doesn't want to hear my answer. Granted he can buy more chickens to increase production with a larger coop. And, the new coop will be designed to be maintenance friendly, equipped with a taller doorframe to prevent accidentally smacking his head, higher ceiling to prevent having to bend over while shoveling out the mess, and built-in loft storage for feed and supplies - all speeding up the process of cleanout, feeding/watering, and egg collecting. Time is money.
Click the button below to see the original coop and how this upgrade is warranted due to his chicken operation growing (and his height/body along with it). Bonus - I hope this counts as one of his 4-H projects. 🐔
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