Beginnings of a Chicken coop...

[MrSalvage]

Originally Posted by brownrexx

No real reason to do that. I collect the eggs every day so getting them all from the same nest box is really easy.

Here are some pics of my coop. We bought it at a local Amish place. You can see how I collect the droppings from under the roost for the compost pile.

Unless it is snowing and freezing, the chickens spend most of their daytime hours either in the space under the coop or in the outside run. They only use the coop to avoid really bad weather, to lay eggs or sleep.

I use to collect chicken, duck & goose eggs every morning myself. So I do understand what your saying. I loved all the different colors i would get as I had 3 or 4 different breads of chickens.

I also had guinea fowl when I was on that farm with a pretty big bird aviary. I never found one guinea egg ever. I lived on another farm where the birds weren't mine. The lady had emu and peacocks as well. I always wanted to cook a peacock. So i could be like TJ as I have read they are not a bad bird to dine on...

[MrSalvage]

Originally Posted by brownrexx

No real reason to do that. I collect the eggs every day so getting them all from the same nest box is really easy.

Here are some pics of my coop. We bought it at a local Amish place. You can see how I collect the droppings from under the roost for the compost pile.

Unless it is snowing and freezing, the chickens spend most of their daytime hours either in the space under the coop or in the outside run. They only use the coop to avoid really bad weather, to lay eggs or sleep.

That's a nice coop for sure. I could make those feeders out of the sheet metal around washers and dryers. Thanks for the idea as i might cut one out and make it a folded seam design with no screws. Should take me a hour or so to pound one out on my anvil/vise.

[MrSalvage]

Does anyone know where I can get 1" chicken wire or 1" rat wire at? Here is my issue as all I can find is 20 gauge wire. I don't think it will last very long at all.

Any ideas beside home depot, lowes, tractor supply, southern states???

[brownrexx]

Chickens are slobs and they throw food all over the floor when they eat. They dig with their beaks and throw food sideways. I have yet to find the perfect feeder. The metal one that you see has a slide to limit the amount of food that goes into the trough at one time but it is still messy.

Look on backyard chickens for other ideas or Google chicken feeders. You seem pretty handy. There is an interesting one that you can make from PVC pipe too.

[garyjr]

Originally Posted by MrSalvage

Yep I have been over on that site a few times looking around recently. It's a good site with a lot of info. I see we are local to each other so when do you plant out your tomatoes & peppers?

I want to build my first chicken tractor after i get my #1 garden all planted. In the hope that the chicken will do all the work for me on garden #2. Of course it will be next year before I can plant #2. But should be in great shape from the chickens so I am a little stoked about that. I almost bought more chickens today & would have if my eBay store wasn't so slow.

We are probably going to move north of Dallas at the end of the summer. As i don't think I can take another winter here with my RA.

It depends.. Last frost is April 15 and we had deep frost near that date last year so I was in no hurry to plant out. I ended up planting out tomatoes last week of April and peppers first week of May. This year has been milder and I started my seeds several weeks earlier in anticipation of an earlier plant date. This season I had everything in the ground by April 10. My first blt last year was July 1. I have big beef already producing tomatoes so my first blt should be much sooner this season. Just ordered a drip irrigation system so hope to avoid the dreaded BER!

[MrSalvage]

I remember last April as all rain. Then on top of that 2 more weeks of rain in May. It just never stopped here. So I didn't get everything in till the last of May. All of my plants would have drowned. This year I am running behind as well and it's not because of rain. I didn't get anything planted from seed till April one. So i have lots of 18oz solo cups floating around full of peppers, tomatoes, spices and flowers. It looks like the middle of May for me this year till it's all in.

So another late summer for me till everything is in for harvest. Then Cathy starts canning and freezing. I will still be picking toms and peppers at the end of October. Along with everything else.

Thanks for the timeline this year... That really helps a lot!

I searched all the stores I looked at online today personally and I just wasn't feeling the quality. However i didn't make it to home depot. Anyway I found a little feed store in a county we went thru today going to the docs. They had rolls of welded 1" x 1/2" rat wire. That were galvanized so that worked out well as its 18 gauge. Good strong stuff, I just wished they would of had 1/2" x 1/2" 16 gauge rat wire.

I ordered 100 3/8" & 100 1/2" Galv HOG RINGS off eBay tonight as i could not find them in any of the stores. Then when i got home, Cathy found a bag of them rings from almost 20 years ago. When I built my first coupe. Lol it figures...

It's on tomorrow tho & hopefully i will be happy with it as i go.

_Bill

[EarlyBird]

Those are some gorgeous birds, BrownRexx. And the lot size you have is magnificent. Living in a small LA apartment for the past 30 years is really making me want some LAND! And chickens, and dogs, and a massive garden...

[brownrexx]

Originally Posted by EarlyBird

Those are some gorgeous birds, BrownRexx. And the lot size you have is magnificent. Living in a small LA apartment for the past 30 years is really making me want some LAND! And chickens, and dogs, and a massive garden...

Thanks, we have 3.5 acres. sometimes we think of downsizing but we really like having the big garden, chickens, bees, fruit trees,........

[Labradors2]

Mr Salvage, look for Hardware Cloth. I just bought a 50' roll of 1/4" x 1/4" for my coop as I need to keep out minks and weasels! It's actually wire, not cloth..... Tractor Supply Co carries it.

Linda

[MrSalvage]

Originally Posted by Labradors2

Mr Salvage, look for Hardware Cloth. I just bought a 50' roll of 1/4" x 1/4" for my coop as I need to keep out minks and weasels! It's actually wire, not cloth..... Tractor Supply Co carries it.

Linda

Hey Linda, I went to tractor supply and had their product in my hands. The quality of the product wasn't worth a thing girl. It might have lasted two years at best.

I found the real deal I was looking for at an old time farm supply store. Heavy duty rat wire that will last 20 years i'm sure...

So I am all set as i finished all the woodwork mostly. My chickens have been living in the coop for a few days now. I will go back and add the two outer wire cages as soon as I have some time.

I will post up a picture of my crazy coop at this stage after the rain stops. It's been pretty crazy here as we had frost on the ground the other day. I am so glad I stuck to the rule of thumb around here. Never plant nothing till May 15th...

[MrSalvage]

Here is a picture from a few days ago. This was my finial idea on how to build this stupid contraption. So I ran with it... lol

[MrSalvage]

Still need to install the cage on both ends, the nest box separator walls, roost bars, rubber roofing, awning, front door & some paint. So yea a ways to go still.

[Worth1]

It is a monitor barn for chickens.
Worth

[garyjr]

Looking good Mr. S.. I think Joel Sallatin would be impressed with its mobility.

[MrSalvage]

Originally Posted by Worth1

It is a monitor barn for chickens.
Worth

It will certainly have it's share of doors Worth.