Cheryl's Hen House...

[TerryH]

I know, I'm the DebbbieDowner...sorry, engineering training has me looking for failure points, I can't not see them.....and I figure you can handle the truth.

#1 makes sense, and may work flawlessly, but be ready to separate if the littlers get bashed.
Flexibility and backup plans....are a must in chickeneering!

Budget, yeah, pfft! Ever read 'The $64 Tomato'
This will be the $1200 egg...just the first one, the rest are 'free' hahahaha!

( Jack Nicholson voice on) Yes, I can handle the truth.

I too enjoy seeing the flaws and Macgyvering them. lol..birds of a feather and all of that...

We will give #1 a try and go from there. I'll whip up a wire divider just in case. Trying to be flexible but in my world these silly birds should simply submit to my will. It would so much the better for all involved.

Pretty sure we are gonna have the $2k egg at our house. That will fit in fine with our $1k tomato.

 

[Molpet]

My wife says that my hobby is hobbies.

I do woodworking, furniture building mostly. I have a fully outfitted wood working shop. I've built pretty much every piece of furniture that made sense for me to build in our house. I made all the interior doors, many cabinets and I milled all the trim. I do metal working as well and have a start on metal working equipment, welder, dry cut saw, etc...

Few shop pics.

I built the benches and storage, pretty much everything. I also built the cyclone dust collector and did all the ductwork for the collection system. As we discussed, it's taken years to get it just right. I've moved and rearranged and modified several times to get it to where it is now.

I built my bench in 2002. It's solid white oak and weighs 800 lbs. empty.

This is my metal working area. It also houses the tool boxes etc...

You probably noticed that we also drag race in an unusual way. lol... We have an electric powered dragster. Basically a dragster chassis with some golf cart bodywork, golf cart motor and golf cart rear end and motor, highly modified of course. We actually hold both ends of the NEDRA (National Electric Drag Racing Association) "B" voltage class (211 to 264 volts) 1/8th mile world records. The dragster run's 6.50's @ 100 mph. We also have a tricked out regular cart.

My wife is my pit crew. She's my partner in everything I do. I love that woman!!

Old school tow rig.

We also garden. And now chickens. lol...

oh wow... better than the shop I worked out of at Joliet Junior college! very nice.

Very nice chicken coop too.. still love that shop

 

[TerryH]

oh wow... better than the shop I worked out of at Joliet Junior college! very nice.

Very nice chicken coop too.. still love that shop

Thank you. The shop is a labor of love for me.

 

[TerryH]

Update on the chicks is pretty cool. The local hatchery that we were going to get the older chicks from have some hatching tomorrow. We are still getting 6 from them and 6 from the local farm supply but we will pick them all up on Tuesday...Cheryl's birthday... and they will be within a day of the same age and can be integrated to the brooder at the same time. I'm planning on forgoing the quarantine since both batches are from reputable near by hatcheries. I'm stupid happy that we are actually getting chicks on her birthday.

I spend last night getting ready for the chicks. Got the brooder box set up. 3x3 to start with a slide out extension that will end up being 3x6. Got the waters and feeders ready and made the MHP. I also made the 5 gallon waterers for the coop and the run.

I posted in the MHP thread but I'll share the pics here also so everything is in one place. I used a tomato cage for the base. I cut and formed it and covered it with 1/4" HWC. I put some split wire loom on the front so they little ones done bonk their noggins.

Cheryl is covering the heating pad with a towel and then press and sealing it.

The brooder box setup made from a collapsible refrigerator box.

5 gallon waterers with horizontal nipples and auto fill floats.

I think we are just about ready for the chicks!!!

Terry

 

[TerryH]

Today was another 10,000+ step day with a gazillion trips up and down the ladder. Got the electrical rough in completed and most of the interior of the coop sheeted with OSB. Getting those 2 full sheets on the ceiling was an interesting experience with just Cheryl and I.

Pics from today...

Back wall with the vents covered with HWC and the foundation vents on the outside for rain protection. I also had these windows tinted with 5% film which helped the light issue immensely!! Started to do some trim but I decided that we should wait on the trim until we prime and caulk the interior.

Here's the outside of the rear wall with the vents temporarily installed.

Pop door wall with the electrical for the automatic door.

Got the top of the common wall closed up. Electrical box in the ceiling for the light.

I got the front wall wired for the light switch and 2 more outlets but ran out of OSB. Sheesh. I apparently can't count.

I moved on to the outside and got the siding skirt and the bottom cedar trim boards installed. The outside is finally all trimmed!!

Thanks for looking!! We're super excited to get the chicks this week!!! Hopefully I'll be able to get the coop finished before they need to be in it.

Terry

 

[TerryH]

Spend a couple of hours this evening getting the remainder of the sheeting up. Also got all the seams and corners caulked inside the coop. I'll finish the interior trim tomorrow evening and then onto priming the interior. Getting closer!! Picking up our 12 chicks Tuesday after work!!

 

[TerryH]

I think we are just about ready for the babies to arrive. Brooder set up in a spare bedroom. Thermo says the MHP is 88 degrees. I cut some wood blocks for the waterer and feeder and got a piece of firewood and a chunk of 4x4 for entertainment. We're going to put down some puppy pads for the first week and add some marbles to the waterer and some brightly colored marbles to the brooder floor for them to play with.

 

[Finnie]

Hi Terry! I finally found my way over to your coop build! I'm still only on page two, but I am excited to read through and watch all your progress as it happened. And WOW- what an amazing shop!

 

[TerryH]

Hi Terry! I finally found my way over to your coop build! I'm still only on page two, but I am excited to read through and watch all your progress as it happened. And WOW- what an amazing shop!

Thank you Finnie!!

 

[mobius]

I think we are just about ready for the babies to arrive. Brooder set up in a spare bedroom. Thermo says the MHP is 88 degrees. I cut some wood blocks for the waterer and feeder and got a piece of firewood and a chunk of 4x4 for entertainment. We're going to put down some puppy pads for the first week and add some marbles to the waterer and some brightly colored marbles to the brooder floor for them to play with.

You are definitely going to need a larger brooder in about four days, IMHO and in my experience. Especially with the number of chicks. I only had six and I had to enlarge my brooder three times until they were four weeks old, started with a rubbermaid tub and that was history after one week. You could add another box with some tape or cut holes for chicks to go back and forth...a LARGE hole...and I saw that you will be using puppy pads, great! Don't forget a clump of sod/grass from outside.