Still around. Been a long and busy several weeks. Meanwhile, the chicks are still in the brooder pen and they're getting big fast. I'm working on the coop but it's trying to fight me. Broke my finger pounding nails a week ago, dropped a board on my foot, threw my back out of whack again... at this rate, I may have the coop finished sometime next year. So far I have two walls for the coop framed. Normally I can frame walls pretty quickly, but the aforementioned mishaps are slowing me down. I'm building a 8x8 run, and a 3x8 henhouse will run along the back wall of it. The henhouse will be raised high enough that they can run underneath. We're at 6 birds right now, and we've set a cap of eight, so this set up should accommodate them comfortably.
Meanwhile, to help alleviate brooder crowding, I've built a small 3x4 chicken tractor. It's an A-frame setup and it'll be ready for birds tomorrow. We're going to put the Ameracuna and the Buff Wyandotte in there. Those two are the biggest and they'll be quite happy to get out in the fresh air. Hopefully this will buy me enough time to finish the coop. I was able to build it for about $40, the hardware cloth being the most expensive part. (Yay finding 4 foot long 2x6's in the cull lumber bin!) Once the coop is built it can be used as an isolation pen, or we can cover it with shade fabric and turn it into a small greenhouse.
We've got a black silkie, a white silkie, a black sex-link, the Ameracuna, the Buff Wyandotte, and a Buff Orpington. Quite the mix. Looking forward to having them out in the coop and pecking the ground.
While we were building the coop walls last weekend, we heard mewing. Father-in-law has some things stored in our yard, and inside a big metal box were four kittens. The box was too hot to touch (it was 95 out) and the little ones were just roasting. There's stray cats that have been running around the area, so one of them must have put them in there during the cooler hours. We got them out of there. As my wife says, 30 more minutes and we'd have had kitty asada. We were able to get two of them back to their mom, but the other two are now being bottle raised. They're about 2-1/2 weeks old.
Meanwhile, to help alleviate brooder crowding, I've built a small 3x4 chicken tractor. It's an A-frame setup and it'll be ready for birds tomorrow. We're going to put the Ameracuna and the Buff Wyandotte in there. Those two are the biggest and they'll be quite happy to get out in the fresh air. Hopefully this will buy me enough time to finish the coop. I was able to build it for about $40, the hardware cloth being the most expensive part. (Yay finding 4 foot long 2x6's in the cull lumber bin!) Once the coop is built it can be used as an isolation pen, or we can cover it with shade fabric and turn it into a small greenhouse.
We've got a black silkie, a white silkie, a black sex-link, the Ameracuna, the Buff Wyandotte, and a Buff Orpington. Quite the mix. Looking forward to having them out in the coop and pecking the ground.
While we were building the coop walls last weekend, we heard mewing. Father-in-law has some things stored in our yard, and inside a big metal box were four kittens. The box was too hot to touch (it was 95 out) and the little ones were just roasting. There's stray cats that have been running around the area, so one of them must have put them in there during the cooler hours. We got them out of there. As my wife says, 30 more minutes and we'd have had kitty asada. We were able to get two of them back to their mom, but the other two are now being bottle raised. They're about 2-1/2 weeks old.
