Colorado

We went to some friend's house at Horse Shoe. I could not believe the amount of smoke from the fire.

This from the I-25 and Johnstown Exit.




These are from Horse Shoe Lake.




I'm in Northern Loveland and woke up with ashes from the fire all over the INSIDE of my house. It blew in thru the screens overnight.


as of 930a today, the fire is over 12,000 acres and they now have 1/3 of all the heavy duty firefighting equipment in the COUNTRY there and they are thinking of calling in more. They have firefighters from a few states out heading in as well.

they are evacuating people from mile marker 111 to 115 along hwy 14 as of 530a today as well.
 
It all depends on how much you were planning on spending for the run. My first run was made of chicken wire and t-posts. It was strong enough to get me through the couple of months until I could get something better. I have about 8 t-posts that I removed from the ground that you could have and some chicken wire. It isn't pretty but I'm in Falcon if you want to pick it up. The t-posts were dug up so do have cement on the bottom so the holes dug for them will need to be extra wide.




My new setup, which was much cheaper than my first or second attempt, uses those big square posts and utility wire. I plan on expanding even this but for now, I just leave the garage door open for them to go out to the larger area or the gate for the back dog run (my dogs aren't chicken eaters... chicken sh!t eaters, yes but not chicken eaters.. :) ). Very nice coop. Will you have more ventilation areas for the roof? How many is this for?
 
Thanks for the post offer, but my run is going to be built atop existing 10x10"s already in the ground. Very nice though. I'll take the chicken wire if you think the the quantity is worth the gas money from CS to Falcon.

4x4x4 coop ...4 chickens...perhaps 4+ a bantam. Still looking into that. Don't want Bantam to get hassled by 4 larger chickens.


Nest boxes are modular (3 pieces so they pull out super easy for cleaning)

I figure I may not have birds until next chick season... good thing come to those who wait.

Has 2 16x4" vents plus roof is hinged so I can crack on hot days. have a system to lock it "open" 1.5 inches. Thought about putting a roof vent on it, but with my roofing skills it would most likely leak. I can always pop in another 16x4 too.

mo


End of day 2
still lots of trim work and painting to do...
 
I used a series of cardboard boxes for my brooders, moving to a larger box every couple of weeks.  It was super easy for me because I just moved in March and saved the ones I thought would make good brooders, but you could probably get boxes from friends or stores if you don't have any.  All I actually purchased was a waterer, feeder, pine bedding, bag of feed, heat bulb and lamp cage.  I used paper towels on top of pine for quite a while, which saved on the amount of pine I had to go out and buy.  I miss those days.  Now there is pine dust all over everything in their room!


I didn't even change to bigger boxes, I just added rooms by making a door in each and taping them together. The chickies really enjoyed the doorways.
 
I think you'll find that 4X4 will be just big enough for the 4 standard chickens. I found out the hard way last summer the importance of space per chicken when I wasn't out there at the crack of dawn and a couple of my hens ended up bloody. Coops always look so much bigger empty but picture the water and food in there during the snow storms next winter. The good thing is you have the skill to add an addition to your current coop if need be. Another thing to consider now as you are building is perhaps putting in a space for supplemental heat. I do not believe 4 hens will generate enough heat even if all you feed them the last hour or so is corn, to make up for the temps when they drop below 0. The only time I combined my two coops last winter was when temps dipped below 0. Then all 9 of my original flock were put into the insulated coop. My roo suffered significant frost bite that no amount of vaseline seemed to make better.

Your coop is shaping up to be a nice looking coop. I can't wait to see if finished.

Another idea is to add plexiglass at eye level for them. I usually do a count when I lock them in at night and it looks like you are going to have to open the door to do that. If you add the plexiglass, not only will they be able to look out but you'll be able to do the head count at night without disturbing them too much. It will also bring in much needed light in the winter time.

If you want chicks this season, there are tons of chicken people out here in Falcon. I can also brood some too.
 
I always brood mine in with the older chickens. I start them out in one of those big black rubber water bowls with shavings and the red heat lamp. As they feather, I move them to an extra large dog kennel so that they can all get use to each other. By the time they are 8 weeks old, they tolerate each other. I picked up my last two polish chicks last week and they are already integrated in with the chicks that are 4 weeks, 10 weeks and 4 months old. The parent flock tolerates the little ones. My parent flock is a combination of many different ages. I started with a couple then just kept adding one or two.

I have three more little batches of new chicks to hatch and them I'm done for a while. I have a dozen silkie eggs inbound, 15ish south american fowl (colloncas, quechuas, olmecs) in the incubator now and some cream legbars due in August.
 

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