Major Clucks Page

[FONT=times new roman,times]Howdy ya'll this is my first attempt to raise chickens. I'm building my own chicken coop out of the old goat

shed on my back acre that my goats don't use. I’m not a construction worker by trait but I have helped on a few occasions with a few jobs here and there so I’m not a complete stranger to a hammer and nails. I’m buying 26 chickens of different types in sets of 2 to 4 and to which breed I’m getting isn’t a for sure thing. I ordered my chicks off of mypetchicken and what I ordered they didn't have in stock so I'm getting what they did have in stock for the earliest shipping date. Here are pictures of the shed before I started working on it. You can see that I have new pallets that I acquired for free and I'm using them to build walls for the open area. I haven't quite finished the walls yet do to the fact that I

haven't figured out a trap door setup to use for racking out all the old pine shavings. My plan for the walls is to take the planks off of the pallets and use them for shingles to keeps the water and cold air out. I will post more pictures as I continue the build. While I'm building the coop I am also putting together a brooder for my young chicks in the garage so they have a warm and dry place to stay. I got
a bunch of grills at work (Safeway) that they were throwing out and I took them home last year. I've finally found a good use for them with with project. I turned them upright and zip-tied them together with a lot of zip-ties. I'm going to get a heat lamp and some pine shavings to put on the ground for them. I'm thinking of getting some cardboard to put down first to put the pine shavings on. I figure between the heat lamp and the refrigerator will keep them warm for the first 4 weeks. Then I will put them in the coop which I hope will be finished by then. One of the ideas I have for the coop is an automatic water feeder system that will work for the chickens and the goats simultaneously I have an

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automatic water float valve that I got off of ebay and I'm waiting for in the mail. Here are some pictures that I took of my water concept in a small example that I threw together one night in my garage. The top bucket is going to be a watering

trough for the goats which will be much bigger then it is tapped in with 1 inch pvc pipe and then tapped into the next bucket on the bottom with the lid on top to keep it pressurized and then it goes into the 1 inch pipe that I drilled[FONT=times new roman,times]

[/FONT] 3\4 inch holes for the chickens to drink out of. Now the top bucket is going to have the automatic float valve and will fill the top bucket and then fill up the rest of the system giving the chickens and goats water. Now this is just a mock up of the final product and it might not work but its something that I'm really going to try and make happen. It is then end of April 2008 and I'm expecting my chicks on the first of May so I will have pictures of my chicks and more update of my water feeder system as time progresses.

This is a great forum and I am looking forward to all the help that this community have to offer.
Brian
Major_Cluck