Hey all, thanks to some wonderful friends that came down to the farm to help me put a roof on the coop. It went much faster than I thought it would but I tell you that hand nailing a roof is a hot, sweaty and time consuming job. Check out the pictures below (coming soon)
Many of you have been asking, but we've been too busy.. Well no more, here are some pictures of the 26 sister chicks. Enjoy!
It's been quite a weekend so far, I had two great friends come over and help me with the building of the new "mobile" chicken coop. There is no way I would have been able to do one bit of this without them for this reason I say:
THANK YOU
Now onto the pics.
This is a picture of the Hay wagon which I purchased for $180.00. This is what will allow us to move the coop around from paddock to paddock.
Here are the new supports for the Coop. These are 4x6x16. They were $25.00 / each but well worth it for the support that they provide.
Here, the basic 2x6 fame has been put together.. Please note it has not yet been attached to the base (wheels) so yes it was off center at the time.
Here you can see the fame as it is attached to the base (wheels) note that the base is a bit torqued but we were able to work this out as well.
I forgot to take an intermediate photo, but the base was completed with 2x4x8 sitting at 16 on center and then those are bolted to the 4x6x16 by angle brackets and lag screws.
As for this photo, here you can see the beginning of the taller of the two walls. This one stands at 8 feet. As for the cutouts, these are for Hardware cloth covered ventilation windows.
Here's a view from the back again, you can see the the first wall (8ft) is up and secured. Now let's start that second wall shall we.
As you can tell from the photo, it's dark out. It was about 11:30 PM when we finished the second wall (6Ft). Why did it take us so long? Note the two 24x24 windows plus the 36x36 Chicken door that we created.
Now we have both sides completely done (exterior) and tomorrow it's onto the end walls.
This picture was taken just before we went in for the night, this is the 8 foot wall with the two hardware cloth covered ventilation windows. The flaps are not yet installed as I need to purchase some outdoor hinges. (sort of looks like some kind of Brown County Militia hideout....)
This picture was taken just before we went in for the night, this is the 6 foot wall with the two 24 x 24 windows and a chicken door. The flap for the chicken door is not yet installed as I need to purchase some outdoor hinges.
Today is a new day!! We got up at 8:00 AM and headed out to build more walls. Here is the one end wall. It only took us 3 hours to build it but check out the angles.. It turned out perfect.
Here's a better view of the work we've done so far. This is the front, right hand corner of the coop, so here you can see the front and the end wall that we just completed. It's coming together nicely.
Here's a picture of the side wall that we still need to work on. This is where we will have the people door. Let's get to work!
Okay, now that's what I'm talking about.. If only the work was as quick as uploading these photos....
Anyway, the last wall is in and complete. I just need to trim off the excess OSB board from the sides.
And there she is, it's about 2:00 and we're pooped, so that's it for this weekend. Next Friday, I will build the people door, Add the flaps for the Hardware Cloth windows as well as the Chicken Door and then focus on the Roof.. A little paint and some interior goodies (Roosts, Nesting Boxes and we'll be all set for move in.
Something tells me that the kids think this is a playhouse for them??
As Jennifer's previous post stated, I did have one chicken fly out of their coop today. I was down with them and one decided to perch up on the top of the coop and when i came near her, she took flight and landed on one of my work benches. Well, needless to say, we decided to clip one of their wings tonight. It was a good thing to because just before we started another one did the exact same thing...
Clipping went well, essentially you have one person grab the chickens and hold on (me) and the other person pull out their wing and clip (Jenn) the first 10-12 feathers, which are called their primary flight feathers. See the photos below:
Now as you can imagine, with 26 of the same breed, it can be difficult to know who you have clipped and who you haven't... so in comes the dot headed part. Jennifer grabbed a sharpie marker and we marked the heads of those that we had completed. Jennifer thought that it would be funny to film me attempting to catch our last one.. check it out!
No pictures here, but just an announcement: one of the chickens successfully flew the coop! Keith will be working on the outside coop this week and has some backup coming on Friday so hopefully we'll have it done soon and have a permanent home for the chickens. Meanwhile, Keith and I will be clipping wings today...should be interesting! I'll try to get a picture!
Farm Mama
Well well, it's been a few weeks since I last posted anything about our farm. We've been extremely busy making mistakes (a dog, which is a long story that I am not going to go into) making plans (for the chicken coop which still needs to be built), reading and writing a paper for seminary, planting a garden, oh yeah and attempting to raise 4 kids and working 40+ hrs a week... Nonetheless, it's no excuse, I should have been posting more pics..
Anyway onto the Chickens!!
The chicks are no longer chicks, they're chickens and based upon their size and the sheer amount of dust that they are creating (we have about a 1/4" of dust on covering everything in the garage YUCK!), they need go outside and as quickly as possible.
The plans are in place for the coop, the wagon which we purchase was delivered about a week ago (photo coming soon) so now it's on to the design and materials list. This aspect should be completed tonight and I hope to order all of the supplies from Menards tomorrow. My hope is that they will be able to deliver it all sometime early next week and that I can start working on the structure and complete the build by the end of the holiday weekend. (optimistic)
I will do my best to take many photos of the build and maybe even a video as well so keep checking back. As for now however I will leave you with a couple of photos of the fully feathered chickens.. Enjoy!!
Well Well, the chicks are now almost 13 days old and in chicken lifetime, that means that their starting their teen years or as some call it their ugly time. The yellow puff balls that we used to have are now losing most of their puff and just starting to get their feathers, so like our teenage years their in-between and don't look so great. Check out the picks and let me know what you think.
As noted in my last post, the chickens are testing out their new wings and let's just say that the old brooder house wasn't going to make it much longer, at least not with the chickens inside of it.
So with that being said, my sons and I decided to build a Binford 2000 model brooder house. As you can see from the photos and video below, it's quite the condominium. The new sprawling digs measure in at 4' x 8' x 4.25' (W x L x H) and include a stick-down vinyl floor (for easy clean-up) and two roosts (area where the chicken hop up to and sleep at night).
This was a great test for the new coop which I need to build in the next few weeks, as it's going to be 4 times the size at 8' x 16' x 8' (W x L x H)
As you can see, the chicks, although they didn't like the idea of us catching them in order to move them into the new brooder, really enjoy their new hang-out.
Until Next Time... Enjoy the Pictures and Video!
Well well, the chicks are now 7 days old (5 days at our house) and their growing like crazy. Many of our friends want to come down to see them while their still chicks, but they better hurry as the chicks are growing fast. All of them now have their adult wing feathers coming in, and some of them even have their tail feathers coming in. They are now going through about 48 oz of food per day and about 3/4 of a gallon of water. As for bedding, were needing to change clean out some of the poop daily and then clean out all of the bedding about every two to three days.
One thing we didn't think about with our brooder (the house you use until they can go out to their coop outdoors) was a cover. As the wing feathers come in they are starting to flap around and learn what their wings can actually do. Although they cannot get out of the pool yet, were not too long from the time when they will. So, due to this new phenomenon, I will be building some sort of mesh cover later on this weekend. (I'll post pics as soon as I have some)
For now though enjoy the updated pictures and video of the chicks.
You have read correctly, I am surrounded by chicks, that of the fowl specices that is. We received a call on Sunday afternoon (of course we wern't home at the time) that our chicks had arrived at the post office and that we could pick them up anytime after 5:30 AM on Monday.
In order to ensure their safety, I arrived promptly at 5:30 and picked up some chicks. After driving back home to a chorus of cherping, the chicks were unpacked and introducted to their new home (temporary until they can move outside).
Can you tell which one of the above chicks is the rare breed?
Ah.. A comfortable 95 degrees
And the kids thought that the new 6' pool was for them.