From Civilian to Chicken Rancher timeline.

December 10, 2011.  Stop at Tractor Supply for a pond heater.  See a chicken coop on display, walk over and look the coop over.  Impressive.


 

December 14, 2011.  Download to my Kindle Chickens for Dummies.


December 16, 2011.  Join the Forum at BackYardChickens.com


December 17, 2011.  Back to tractor supply to look at Chicken coop again and see what type of chicken supplies TS carries.  Call the builder of the coop.


December 19, 2011.  Meet the coop builder in person.  Discuss options, add a ridge vent and agree on a price.  Shake hands on the deal and handover a deposit.  Coop will be delivered in February.  Im going to be a Chicken Rancher! 


December 20, 2011.  Order 9 Buff Orpington (1 Roster) from Meyer Hatchery with delivery scheduled for May.    Order an auto chicken door closer from Automatic Chicken Coop Door .  Order software and control units from X10 .


December 24, 2011.  The Lazy L Ranch.  Clear out a space in the back yard woods for the coop.  Coop will be delivered in front of the overhead door.  Im planning on using a come-a-long chained to trees and to the coop to move the coop over the wood board walk and to the cleared area.



Bridge and boardwalk back to the Lazy L.

Area cleared out brush for the coop (at the back, between the two trees in the center of picture).

Wifes cat cemetery maintain.  Maybe expanded to handle chickens too?

December 22, 2011.  Automatic chicken door arrives!


December 28, 2011.  From Amazon.com (free shipping) I ordered a Hanging Feeder Cover , Miller 9112 12lb. Galvanized Hanging Poultry Feeder  and a Little Giant2 Gallon Double Wall Fount 9832 .  For when they are little a QT Jar Galv Feeder Base  and a Miller Mfg. 9826 Steel Fountain Base .


December 29, 2011.  Decision is made to paint the coop Evergreen and Surrey Beige to match the existing building.  During lunch pickup wood primer and paint for the Automatic Chicken door.

January 10, 2012.  Automatic Chicken door painted (Yep.  I've got a chicken door and no coop).  Loaded the automation software in computer and produced (I'll be keeping my day job) a video on how the Lazy L is planning on automated the coop.

January 24th

Wireless Web Cam for the chicken coop arrived! 

Coop will be beside the shop which is about 100' from the house.  The wireless network I have in the house doesn't reach that far

I do have a RG6 coaxial cable (CATV) that runs from the house to the shop that isn't in use.  A quick web search show that there is a Ethernet to coaxial cable converter! .  Figure out the programing for the web cam.  Pan, Tilt, email notification on alarm, sweet

Order the Ethernet to coaxial cable converter and wait

January 25th

I work for a small Independent Telephone Company.  I asked out Internet Division for a static IP for my web cam (so I can monitor the coop from anywhere in the world.  I get same day service, 66.249.232.196. 

But they start talking about port redirection and mapping 

January 26th

Ethernet to coaxial cable converter arrives.  It is really "plug & play" !  No programing to mess with and I ignored the CD that came with it and it works! 

Figure out the "port redirection and mapping" in my DSL router and test.........fail. Guess I don't have it figured out 

When I get the "port redirection and mapping" figured out I'll post the link so y'all can fall a sleep watching my auto chicken door (sitting on the my work bench) door go up at dawn....zzzzzzzzzzzzz....door go down at dusk.

January 27th

The ground needs to be frozen in order for me to be able to get the coop back where I want it (using Planks/plywood, PVC pipe as rollers, chains to trees and a come-a-long).  So I order my coop to be delivered end of the month or February.  With Al Bore's "global warming" ground barley freezes before it thaws out again.  Think I'll call the Builder and tell him to go ahead and bring it ASAP.  Then I can install the auto chicken h door, electrical wiring and web cam. 

Then come spring I can tie pontoons on the coop and float it out where I want it 

January 28th

I called the Builder today.  Coop is almost done!