Colorado

[tsgreer]

Hi all, I'm in Colorado Springs, Colorado and I just ordered some Rhode Island Reds for my backyard. I want to say that this forum has helped me so much in learning what I should do. So thanks to all posters.

We are allowed to have up to 10 hens (no roosters) and I am going to start with 3 and I can't wait until they get here in a couple of weeks. Of course, my co-workers think I am insane.

Oh and by the way, my local newspaper ran a story yesterday on raising chickens and mentioned this site! I was reading on this site way before the article, but it was great to see the mention. I hope the publicity about raising chickens doesn't hurt the cause. Plenty of people expressed surprise that it was allowed within city limits.

Thanks again everyone for all the great information...

 

[samsr]

Solar coop. I am going to try and write up what I did, with Pictures. It really is quite a simple set up. Here we go. First, collect the parts for the system.
24 volt DC, 230 watt solar panel from craigslist the individual from Salida posting on Colorado springs and Denver. $190.00
Charge controller, bought it from the windynation web site $40.00
30 feet of 10 gauge solar panel wiring purchased from Ebay $14.00
power inverter, 24 volt DC to 110 volt ac found on craigslist $50.00
My original inverter was a 12 volt one from ebay for $11.00
2 12 volt lead acid batteries (for a car) I already had. mine were from a semi truck.
10 gauge stranded copper wire. I already had
wire ends, ring terminal. I already had

I do not have any pictures of just the solar panel itself.
To get started, I mounted the solar panel to the roof of the shed by making some L brackets into Z brackets, These are commonly used to connect the panel to the roof and can be purchased if you chose to. I just cut a piece of angle steel and made them.
There are two wire connected to the back of all solar panels. One is marked with a + this is the positive wire and one with a - this is the negative wire. These wires have a special end on them that is waterproof. This is why I purchased the extra solar panel wiring. I cut this 30 foot piece of wiring in half to use as two 15 foot extensions as this wiring came with the ends already on it to connect to the wire ends on the panel. I ran these wires into the shed and to where I have he charge controller mounted.

Do not hook the panel to the charge controller at this time!!!!!!!!!!!! Battery connections MUST be done first or you risk burning up the charge controller.
Mount the charge controller at about eye level, so that you can read it easily. Find a spot for the batteries that is close. I would recommend at a minimum of two batteries for both a 12 volt system and a 24 volt system.
I chose the 24 volt system because that was the panel that I had found. The guy in Salida also sells 12 volt panels. but these are only 100 watt panels and I wanted the extra watts without purchasing another panel. either system is just as easy to hook up.
I placed a plastic boot holder under my two batteries to protect the shed floor from battery acid which will come out of the batteries over time.
To make my 12 volt batteries into a 2 volt battery, I simply connected the positive terminal on one battery to the negative on the other. Like this picture. Do not hook the other side of the battery like this!!!!!!!!!
I now consider this one big battery with the positive and negative terminals on one side.


The other side of the batteries will get hooked to the charge controller. Measure the distance to the charge controller from the other side of the batteries that have not been hooked to anything. Either purchase 10 gauge copper wires the correct length or make them as I did. You will need ring terminals for the ends of the wires that Are large enough to attach to the batteries. You will be hooking the positive side of the battery + to the positive side of the charge controller and the negative side of the battery - to the negative side of the charge controller. Like in this picture You can see the picture of the battery and the + and - symbols. This is where you make the connection. You will need to strip the insulation from the end of the wire in order to make the connections. A Phillips screwdriver will be needed to make these connections tight.
At this point the charge controller will come to life and the LCD display will go through a self check and display the voltage that is in your battery or batteries. Mine read 24.5 volts on initial start up. Alll charge controllers do not have a screen. ome just have lights. It really depends on how much you are willing to spend. Thy can get very expensive with all kinds of gadgets on them.
Now it is time to hook up the two wires from the panel. Find the positive wire and hook up to the + sigh right next to the picture that looks like a solar panel and then hook up the negative- to the negative terminal and tighten the connection. The system should now be producing power and storing it in the batteries (as long as he sun is out).
Different charge controllers can do different things. My controller will also control a 24 volt load, whether that be a light, a heat lamp or whatever else I would like to connect to it that is 24 volts. Those connections are the ones that are empty in the above picture. you can also control this load with the built in timer function. This could come in handy if you would like to keep the light on an extra two or three hours during the winter to get the girls to lay.

The only thing left to do is hook up the power inverter and start using some of the power that you are producing. My inverter came with clips to hook up to the positive and negative terminals on the batteries. I hooked mine up for 24 volts as it is a 24 volt power inverter. see the picture. They are placed on the same terminals of the batteries that are connected to the charge controller.

These wires take the power to the inverter where it is converted from direct current or DC power to alternating current or AC power. Mount you inverter or place it on a shelf that is within reach. You will plug you A/C devices into this for your lights, heater, water heater, or brooder light. You need to make sure that all these items will not over load your inverter. Add up all the watts that you will be using and purchase an inverter that can handle at least that many watts.
On my system I have 4 10 watt LED motion lights. Two 23 watt incandescent bulbs for interior lights, a 75 watt panel heater and a 45 watt water hater for a total of 183 watts. I doubt I will ever run all this at the same time but it is nice to know that I can. My inverter, now, is 900 watts. It just happen to be a good deal on craigslist.
Now turn the switch on the inverter to the on position and plug your items in. I wired my shed when I built it, So I just hooked my sheds wiring to the inverter. You may have to plug items in the inverter or plug in a power strip to the inverter and use it that way. Either way, you can now enjoy the power from the sun to operate your chicken coop.
I am sure I left some things out and would help anyone here with questions or help on site if you are close enough. I really enjoyed getting my coop hooked up with a solar panel and power system. Just remember all these items do not have to be purchase all together. They can be sourced from different places, at different times and then assembled as a hole.
Even with the two batteries on my system, I do not have enough stored power to go through a winters night with everything I have on. the batteries would only last two hours. All batteries have a cca rating and a reserve capacity. My reserve capacity for both batteries together is 370 amp hours. I would be draining about 183 per hour for a total of two hours. The panel heater and the water heater are the power hogs. This is why I would like the grid tie inverter.
All this information and WAY more can be found all over the internet. I found youtube to be most helpful when I was getting started.
I hpe all this make at least some sense. it is getting a little late. LOL. if you have questions, just ask.

 

[COChix]

Came across this feel good story, while it might be a little cooky that they are keeping a chicken in an apartment, their heart is in the right place. It's a story of rescue, Marek's and survival.

Embedded media from this media site is no longer available

 

[Robilyn81]

Finished my new run!

I bought the coop already made so this run extension was the biggest project I've done (I had help lol). I'm really pleased! I had no idea what I was doing!

 

[21hens-incharge]

ITs been awful! I like to be outside as much as I can with the kids, but we haven’t been out much. Just praying the fires get contained soon. How are you holding up?

So far we are ok. Lots and lots of staying inside here too. Winter will feel EXTRA long.

I took this picture a little over a week ago I think.


Pretty dang smoky at ground level before the wind picked up that day.

 

[Steveisfromcolorado]

New member here! Anyone live on western slope?

 

[samsr]

I had a bit of a dilemma when I got home this evening. This has to do with the new male goose(gander) that I went and picked up yesterday afternoon.
It seems my daughter ran up the driveway after getting the mail. This apparently scared the new comer to no end. He took off ,( flying) towards the the creek which runs through my backyard. He came to rest right at my trail and bailed off into the thick brush and willows. This is Fountain creek. It is about 20 feet down from my trail. Straight down. my wife and two daughters kept the big guy from getting to the creek initially. Yup, you guessed it was just after dark. You really cant realize how hard it is to see a Toulouse goose in the dark. They stated that the male goose was somewhere along the bank in the weeds along the creek. after about 15 minutes of me trudging through the small trees and very thick weeds above him he came out. He came out on the sand bar in front of my wife and one of my daughters right next to the creek. They called for me and I then climbed back up the bank to my trail. I reached the sand bar where they were and almost caught him. I just missed that big neck of his and he took off, Flying, towards the creek straight through my wife.. It was pretty funny listening to my wife scream and getting out of the way of this 5 foot wing spanned gander. it was priceless. He had made it to the creek and thought he was home free. Yea, not so much. Being the spry 45 year old, and maybe not so bright guy that I am, I went bailing off into the creek after him. After all, I was fully prepared with my work clothes, cell phone and wallet. After chasing him around a bit down stream and then back up stream, I manage to catch him in the dark. I only fell down once. He is now back in the coop with my two females (geese) in time out. lol.
I do need to go check on his foot as I think he injured it while I was chasing him around.
The lessons learned here are as follows. Observations also listed.
1. Don't run up the driveway with a new goose around.
2. My wallet repels water pretty well, Thanks ducks unlimited.
3. The otter box on my iphone works pretty well. phone still works.
4. I do not repel water very well. LOL
5. A 45 year old man should not chase a gander into a creek after dark.
6. The water in fountain creek off my property is deep enough, in spots, to go over your waist and is VERY cold.
7. Don't be fooled. A Toulouse goose can and will fly if frightened. Who knew.

I just thought I would share.
On a good note. I got three chicken eggs today!!

 

[Robilyn81]

Coop is in the yard!

Painting!

And chickens are in it!

So exciting I have a couple tweaks to make (the roosts didn't come the way I thought they would but should be easily modified) but otherwise it's lovely and holding chickens quite well.

 

[Mtn Margie]

Houston, we have two more on the ground! Done for the year, 3 boys and 2 girls, all mutants of course......
Glass of wine anyone?

 

[maarijke]

Update update squared- the co- owner of Red Hen Farm from Boulder - Logan - has agreed to meet me at my hoa meeting this coming next Thursday. Thank you- Logan and Ailsa.

As of today I have 50 signatures of chicken approvers/ chicken wanters/ bee box wanters/ and one bat box wanter! Holy smokes. Super excited. One wants a clothesline, but the hoa denied a very nice kind elderly man his only wish to make his now deceased wife happy with a clothesline. Bees, bats, chickens, and clotheslines.

Here we come!

I still have a few streets to go down that neighbors have told me contain many chicken wanting people!

It was 100F and I walked w my baby in the Ergo for about 4ish hours. Yes, I had water and my clipboard. I find that a clipboard comes across very scary as some nice mary jane partakers thought I was the Census bureau or something and later apologized for being rude at first when they waved me off. Lol

What an adventure. The only person who said, "No" to me grew up on a farm and hated collecting eggs because he said he got pecked and told me he didn't move "here" to live on a farm. I laugh. We are in an R-1 -the lowest population density district in the county. There are two goat farms within a small radius as well as an alpaca farm!

He told me chickens are disgusting filthy animals that are mean, smell awful, peck you, are horrible to clean up after. I feel like we could all pitch in for some good old ptsd therapy for his deep rooted damaging childhood chicken experience. Poor guy.

I will pray for him. Jesus- go calm him down and give that man some peace. Let his bad memories of chickens go. Amen.

A very good evening to you all.