Neat idea, but appears unsafe for chickens. Looking in the picture, it appears the griddle is sticking out enough for chickens to stand on and possibly burn their feet.
"appears unsafe for chickens"
Ah, appearances aren't everything - that's perception.
Of course you cannot tell from the images posted that the griddle is not energized in the photo. Nor can you discern the temperature setting of the griddle control.
We are not cooking the water. The griddle is set to its lowest 'warming' setting such that, when the temperature drops below 40 degrees or so, the griddle begins cycling on and off attempting to maintain a 'warm' surface - in spite of the 'below 40' ambient temperature. (Last nite, ostensibly down to 20 degrees F if the forecast was spot on).
Over time, the intermittent heat source warms the SS pan, the wooden supports, the plastic bucket and the 3-5 gallons of water therein creating a bit of a thermal mass inside the sealed bucket.
I suspect, indeed venture to guess, that the temperature of the griddle' center seldom reaches eighty degrees and the exposed peripheral edges seldom reach two thirds of that.
I suspect a hen, were it disinclined to fly up on one of the perches, might safely rest her head on the griddle's edge all night long without injury or discomfort.
As we have learned, chickens share much of their structure with dinosaurs and the like from some fifty million years before the griddle came to be. Does the expression 'tough old birds' ring a bell?
Beautiful coop! Nice write-up of the process along with great pictures. Article would have benefitted with more details like measurements for those seeking to copy this design.
Nice pictures of the progress. Article lacks details like measurements and how the coop was built, along with materials used. The video links don't work.
A picture would be helpful for identification and including growth zones would be helpful for those considering planting in different climates. Interesting article!
Great article on the basics of caring for ducks in the winter. The article was well constructed, being simple and easy to read, as well as being informative for beginners. Adding an image or two would help this article better pop out.
All the links are broken and only take me back to this article and not to where their titles say they're supposed to go.
Very beautiful coop and great use of recycled materials! I'd love to know how it was built! There's no details on the construction or any pictures of the process, both of which I would've loved to had seen.
Nice pictures of the process. Adding more details on the build like measurements would be helpful to those interested in building this coop themselves. I'm interested in how the pallets held up over time. They're not typically made for use as flooring and I would think being used as chicken coop flooring would rot them out quickly.
Very amazing coop! There's just so much I like about this coop that it's hard to just chose one thing. Great pictures of the process as well. Adding more details on the build like measurements would be helpful for those copying your design. I would like to see what you did to the run to keep any more hawks out.
Nicely revamped coop. I like how you added the hardwire cloth under the vinyl flooring. Beautiful run too, and using the staples at the bottom was quite interesting.
This article was very interesting to read. I've never heard of overweight chickens before (besides breeds bred for it), so this was very eye-opening for me. This is definitely a great article to raise awareness on chickens becoming overweight as well. The tip on how to tell if your chicken is overweight was an awesome bonus that'll help a lot.
Ah, appearances aren't everything - that's perception.
Of course you cannot tell from the images posted that the griddle is not energized in the photo. Nor can you discern the temperature setting of the griddle control.
We are not cooking the water. The griddle is set to its lowest 'warming' setting such that, when the temperature drops below 40 degrees or so, the griddle begins cycling on and off attempting to maintain a 'warm' surface - in spite of the 'below 40' ambient temperature. (Last nite, ostensibly down to 20 degrees F if the forecast was spot on).
Over time, the intermittent heat source warms the SS pan, the wooden supports, the plastic bucket and the 3-5 gallons of water therein creating a bit of a thermal mass inside the sealed bucket.
I suspect, indeed venture to guess, that the temperature of the griddle' center seldom reaches eighty degrees and the exposed peripheral edges seldom reach two thirds of that.
I suspect a hen, were it disinclined to fly up on one of the perches, might safely rest her head on the griddle's edge all night long without injury or discomfort.
As we have learned, chickens share much of their structure with dinosaurs and the like from some fifty million years before the griddle came to be. Does the expression 'tough old birds' ring a bell?