TWEAK MY COOP~Tweaks on the Cheap

[Cowpoke]

Amazon, Miss Blooie! The playground of the frugally minded.

Cowpoke!!! Where ya been so long????

It's good to hear from you as well, my friend!

I did that tweak last year and had forgotten about posting it to this thread and just found the thread again today. Since then I've just enjoyed the extra space and amenities of the coop. I'm still pretty pleased with it all, I must say. Tweaked the tarps a little this year for a better fit and to replace old tarping(I had put on old tarps at the time, so wasn't surprised they hadn't lasted long).

Have been busy with other things this year, though, and am so glad I didn't have to do major coop tweaks along with all the other things.

I see, Bee.
Well you got it looking Good! I too have been busy this summer. Just too much work.
I sure hope You are doing Well!

I'm doing OK. Chickens molting, which slows egg production. Out of 11 hens, got 4 eggs today. Pouring the protein to them.

 

[Beekissed]

I am living well and blessed and am so very joyful to find you are doing well also!!

Same here...God has been wonderful in giving me something productive to be doing all year round, so it never gets boring here. He just gave me a project for this fall involving a tweak to my breeding/broody/spare pen that is long overdue, in anticipation for the spring breeding season.

And it involves an experiment......

I'll keep y'all posted!

 

[Beekissed]

Time to tweak again. This time I need to restore lattice panels on the sides of the breeding/spare pen and revamp how it's used before breeding time rolls around. Ripping out old nest boxes there, old lattice panels, netting, etc. Hope to make it more functional in many ways for a different kind of breeding/brooding situation I want to try.

Forgot to take pics of the old pen, but will try to take pics of what it looks like now when torn down to bare bones, then pics of when it's done.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Don't know HOW I missed your newest coop tweaking but I love it! Good job Bee as always! I NEED to do me an addition so I can have a spare pen to use when I need one. Lost my buddy that was giving me some good prices on my wire. That was his funeral we went to yesterday. He was always sooo sweet to me and I will miss him so much! Last year when I went to get wire he had some sort of cold crud and I was helping him unroll the wire and measure it because I could tell he didn't feel good with that mess. He led a HARD life in his younger years but did some major changing and you knew where he stood on things but he was really a sweet guy. Really going to miss him when I go to the farm supply. :-(
Anyway I love it Bee!

 

[Beekissed]

Hey, Rose!!!

So, you and I will be coop tweaking together once again? Post the pics here if you get a chance...you and I love to tweak on the cheap, don't we?

This cold snap has put a hitch in my progress, but I really need to get it finished soon, even if enough to keep the rooster in there while I do the detailing....got to take him and a few of the girls to a show in March, which means I need to get him off their backs before he starts breaking too many feathers there.

For the first time in 40 yrs, it looks like I'll have to give some chickens a bath....

Goes against my nature to do such a thing, especially to rob them of their good skin cultures and oils.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Hey, Rose!!!

So, you and I will be coop tweaking together once again? Post the pics here if you get a chance...you and I love to tweak on the cheap, don't we?

This cold snap has put a hitch in my progress, but I really need to get it finished soon, even if enough to keep the rooster in there while I do the detailing....got to take him and a few of the girls to a show in March, which means I need to get him off their backs before he starts breaking too many feathers there.

For the first time in 40 yrs, it looks like I'll have to give some chickens a bath....

Goes against my nature to do such a thing, especially to rob them of their good skin cultures and oils.

lol Bee you litterly had me rolling on the floor laughing about that. IF I hadn't see YOU post it and heard it from someone else I wouldn't have believed it. Good luck on your show and get us pix you know how we all love pix. Oh Bee the coop tweaking will be a little later if at all. Got too many things going on to start another right now and I can just hear hubby if I even said anything. lol What I really want to do is close in just one of the 8' sections that is already there but there will have to be a roof put over it and that might require a little under taking.
Got Chopper fixed today and he's not kicking too high this evening. He still looks a little drunk. lol

 

[BantyChooks]

Following, there are some great ideas here!

 

[Beekissed]

It's a beautiful, beautiful day out there!!!!!!

Supposed to get up to 53* today!!!! Get this....50s on Tuesday, 60* and huge thunderstorms/rain on Wed., then down in the 20-30s on Thursday with 3 in. of snow. Oh, how I love when winter won't let go, but spring is calling.

Spring always wins the war, though it seems it doesn't win all the battles.

Hope to get several things done today, though my back is already giving me warnings...will just have to try and baby it along, because my heavy work season is just about here and I can't do it without this miserable back of mine.

Need to remove the hotwire from the front pop door....that big ol' dog can no longer fit into my coop!!!

(Had my pop door hotwired to prevent my pup from squeezing in there and stealing eggs)

Remove the remaining wall of the spare pen...that's going to take some time. Those pallets are heavy and I put that up there to last, so getting it down again will be no small feat.

Put new screening on my old screen door~get this, I'll be putting rollers on this door so I can just lift it into tracks and use it as my pen door. When I'm not using it to contain chickens, that door can be lifted down, the screen washed well and then I'll use that door to dehydrate veggies this summer. Then, I can use it in the fall and winter as the top to my cold frame after applying a layer of plastic to it. When spring rolls around, back it will go on the spare pen as the rolling door/gate. Three uses, one old screen door!

Will buy the hardware tomorrow for making that door a slider on the pen and also will buy 2 ft. tall chicken wire in rolls(150 ft. long). Those will be applied to my garden fence to keep out the rabbits and I'll use a piece of it for this door as well. I'll use the framing I scavenged out of the trash to sandwich the wire in between the door and framing so that no sharp edges of wire are sticking out to catch a chick or my Mom's skin. That screen, then the chicken wire, will make that a strong door for chickens. I'll reinforce it in key places with light but strong strips of wood so that it will be dog strong also, just in case I have to contain a dog in that pen for some reason. I'll post pics of the finished door.

If there is any time after all that is done, I'll try to take down the fencing around the orchard...those have served their purpose and now the posts and netting can be stored for another season/purpose.

We'll be going after some composted wood chips this week for my brother's small garden, but will put the rest of them on the orchard. On the way back, I'll try to scoop up some free straw at the feed store...they have a pile of it outside the container they use to store and sell bales of straw and the lady said I could have it. FREE COMPOSTING MATERIAL!!!!

I sure hope I can get all of that done while the sun shines....right now it's 34* and the sun is heating things up fast, steam rising from the holler right now and frost is quickly melting.

I hope you all have a wonderful day out there!!!!!

 

[Beekissed]

That wall came down easier than I had thought and is now ready for reconstruction....



Will be using this really great lumber we pulled out of the trash the other day in town...spent 20 min. taking out screws(most of which I can reuse) and nails and now have about $50 worth of premium grade lumber with which to build the rest of this coop tweak. Best part? FREE



Got the hardware to do this sliding door/gate and hope to get this project started and, hopefully, done on Saturday so I can get this rooster penned and waiting for breeding season.

I had scored a whole bag of antique dresser pulls some months back for next to nothing, so will be using a few of those as my gate handles. Should turn out looking pretty good. Sure wish I could score another old screen door before Saturday so I could make this whole wall a slider wall, using two screen doors that could slide either way for access to this pen.

 

[knjinnm]

WOW! You sure did score on the lumber, some of the pieces look almost brand new.
Nice find.