Any Hawaii Folks on BYC?

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Awesome! It looks fantastic. Mine seems to be taking forever to get finished.

JoAnn and I just took a drive up to the North shore area, Hawi in Kohala on Monday, on the Holiday. What a view this island has- every where you look something new to see and do. Saw our first wild Turkey poults running about and two wild pigs on that trip one was full grown, the other was almost wiener aged but neither were alive though, both pigs were road kill
hmm.png
. I have only a few more days till I am done with mine and I will post photos too! Oh, the Mongoose situation for JoAnn and I is good- we see them on the highway, but haven't seen them yet on our property. We do have feral cats that get the coquis (haven't seen a single coqui since the cats showed up) here so I am not too sure what to do other than make the fence 5' high. We are using 2"x 4" woven wire fencing.

Do you think we need to cover the roof of the run as well?

Ours will not be free range, but the fenced run is 20' x 30', they'll have the run space under the coop, and the coop doors are going to be open all day. Doors will be closed for night time security though.
 
We are finally ready for Chickens!
The entry gate is in, the lave rock is down to deter the dogs; I also threaded a 9 gauge chain link fence tension wire along the top and bottom to help keep the bottom fence wire from bending up if they get through the lava. Final touch up paint goes on as soon as the rain lets up for a day or so. Today the roosts are going in, sand is following them in the coop, the dust bath basin is ready (it will go in under the coop to stay dry) I am working on the feeding stations-one inside the coop and one outside but until then we'll use standard feeding and watering setups. We had a friend mention that rats can/will chew through anything plastic to get to the feed so we are using a steel water pressure tank for feed storage. I'll post photos when this is finished.
We have a line on 6 hens of laying age plus one rooster from a friend of a friend so I do not know yet what breeds, but hey, can't turn down a hospitable offer, right?

Next big Chicken project, the Tractor!

 
We are scheduled to pick up our first birds on Saturday. Because they are from a friend of a friend, we don't know much about them except they are laying now and we'll be getting 6 hens, but no rooster yet. We won't worry since roosters are on Craig's list a dime a dozen, I'm sure we'll get one soon. In the mean time, I'm finishing up the nit picky details of any typical construction job. I have a punch list that is getting smaller, but it still has a few items on it.

Once the hens are used to the coop and are laying regularly, we'll either look for the meat birds as juveniles or bite the brooder bullet and order chicks. Still, we are looking forward to our first round of meat birds too.
 
Wow! You have been busy. Looks great! We are still getting settled in our new home in Hawaiian ocean view. Still have not decided where to build the coop on the property, have do some clearing.
 
antyler said:
Wow! You have been busy. Looks great! We are still getting settled in our new home in Hawaiian ocean view. Still have not decided where to build the coop on the property, have do some clearing.
Click to expand...
Planning for me is the best part- until the building starts, it's nothing but awesome possibilities!
Placement, orientation, style, type, size, expandability, colors, materials, all great opportunities to do it right for the birds. its just icing when it also looks good too. Being on the south end of the island, you must get the best sea breezes which also means you can use wind power to light up your coop! We get such erratic breezes that it really isn't worth the investment of a windmill. We do plan on solar electrical panels (2 small panels) to run the coop amenities.

This shot above shows the window trim we added today.
And below, the yellow guava roost poles for the 6 hens we are getting in the morning. Though they do produce edible fruit, these trees are considered weeds here and are highly invasive. I plan on cutting all of them down on my property for canes, walking sticks or? These are just under 2" in diameter and 36" to fit over the poop tray.


 
I'm not sure if our method counts as deep litter, but our coop is three feet off the ground and the floor of the coop itself other then the nesting box is 1x2 wire mesh. The poop falls through it onto the heap underneath and then hubby opens the side flap when he needs manure for the garden and scoops from the bottom where it's well-aged. I don't think he's every cleaned it out entirely... maybe that one time my coworker wanted a bunch for his farm. Anyway, the rest of the enclosure is just dirt under a roof so that it stays dry except when we get really driving rain. We found we had too many problems with lice and such when we tried straw or any other kind of material in the run and/or the nesting box/coop area. The girls range throughout most of the yard during the day anyway, so it's not like they spend a lot of time in the coop.

Also, heads up for those folks on the big island, Darby's schedule to hit us dead-on tomorrow, especially the Puna area. Make sure your coops and such are secured and away from any albizia trees that might be nearby:

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/cphc/tcpages/?storm=Darby

 

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