Okay, major props out to my husband (aka the Dear Astronomer guy)!

We went to Home Depot last night for the supplies and Ray ended up putting the chicky bunker together by himself because it was late and I needed to go to bed before my overnight shift. I went to bed at 8pm, woke up 2 hours later and he was finishing it. WOW! No ladies, you can’t have him, he’s mine!

Pics are below along with laundry list of supplies we used. Unfortunately, the cull wood bin was pretty much bone empty so we ended up having to get new lumber. If I had waited a couple days I could have gotten the pieces, but I kinda had to light a fire under our heiny’s because the chicks are already paid for and waiting.

So, here’s what we used:

• A 4x4x10 untreated wood board, cut down into five 2-ft sections. (for the posts that connect bottom to top)
• Two 2x6x10 untreated wood boards, cut down into a 2 ft sections (for sides) and a couple 3 ft sections. (for the long front/back pieces)
• 3 rolls of 24x5ft chicken wire- The kind that are SMALL squares so the chicks can’t get their heads stuck in it since they’re so small right now.
• Recycled rubber mat (for the bottom).
• Spare thick particle boards for the sides (for strength)
• Misc wood from our lumber stack (lid, etc.)
• Wood screws ( 2 inch)

This was all picked up at Home Depot. Rubber mat was Ray’s genius idea and he found it in the garden section. I was worried about using particle board as the base and it getting saturated and smelly and he came up with the rubber mat plan. Woot, go honey!

Sorry about the orange pics, I guess he doesn’t have a flash on his phone camera!

Setting up the sides

Ray added spare particle board we had laying around for strength on the sides.

This is the recycled mat base, making Chicky Poo an easy cleanup! woot!

Bunker ready to go. In about 5 hours, it will be full of wood shavings and baby chicks.