Consolidated Kansas

[HEChicken]

The panels I have are easily flexible enough to bend over into a hoop. I just wasn't sure if Trish used 2x6 or 4x4 lumber to create her frame.

 

[chicken danz]

Well that is good. My hog panels are super heavy. I have two grades of cattle panels here and there is a lot of difference in therm. I really need to make some hoop houses myself. But I guess more than that I need to finish the chicken trailer and get runs built. I desperately need to consolidate areas where I have to feed and water.
I forgot to mention every one was fine in the brooder today and it felt really hot in there to me today. I guess turning up the heater a little made a difference. I hope. I've lost enough birds lately.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Maidenwolf I doubt she'll be frizzle. She is just going to have a heavy feather coat.

Oh that is wonderful.

Here is the roo

and the other brahma she is frizzlish too. I was thinking maybe cochin/brahma???

 

[JosieChick]

Maidenwolf- You might consider ordering this incubator. It is better than a styrofoam incubator to hold temp (styro is easily influenced by temp swings in the house) and it has that really nice window. I have heard really good things about the 1588. I would pour your money into a good bator and skip the turner if you can't afford both. A turner is a nice luxury but if you are home all day turning the eggs 3-5 times a day isn't a big deal. We hand turned eggs as kids when my nana hatched eggs and they always hatched just fine. We just kept a log of when we turned them. Here is a link: https://www.gqfmfg.com/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=77

I have a styro hovabator from the feed store and it isn't bad but for like $40 more I could have just ordered a really nice 1588 from them instead. Wish I had done that.

Lol thank you for the offer. I'm sorry you are having aterrible experience. That really stinks. Do you know anything about the hovabators they sell at orschlens? They have 2 different units Idont know the difference inthem. I have neem looking at them.

He has been very involved. He has even read a book on how to be a supportive husband to his crazy pregnant wife!
Yes, the MIL is a stubborn pain in the you know what. But she may have met her match in her daughter in law!! Maybe everyone else backs down but not me! You are right, she even hates chickens so she probably doesn't have a clue why anyone would want to spend any money building housing for them!
I think the technology is pretty clear these days in detecting sex in kids. It has improved in the last 10 years even by leaps and bounds. Josie, I think it is so wonderful that your DH is into the baby. I never had a supportive husband who even wanted to attend an ultra sound. It is a matter of convenience to know the sex of a child. It really does help in planning....even if you keep a lot of things gender neutral.
My short meeting with your MIL was enough to convince me she isn't going to change her mind about thinking she is right. I guess she will see when the building is all done that you made the wiser choice Back in her day a chicken was a chicken. She probably doesn't understand why anyone would fuss over them. And you obviously need good shelter for your horses.
Oh this is too bad. I hate Ebay sometimes. When you have a nice transaction it is great but sometimes people are just crazy!
I had such a crazy day yesterday. I am so glad my normal days aren't like that. to make a long story short I had a scammer from an ebay purchase claiming I sent her the wrong item. I literally spent 3 hours going over all my records and trying to figure out what happened. She was nasty and hateful and nothing I could do would make her happy. She wouldn't give the information I requested to verify what might have happened. I finally figured out from one statement she made that it is all a big scam to try to get her product for free. But it still caused me hours of work. As soon as the entire thing is resolved I will block her from being able to purchase from me in the future. Since you can no longer leave negative feedback for buyers I can't even warn other sellers of her tricks. It seems every year when I am selling my Christmas stuff I have one of these major scammers surface and I keep thinking I am going to stop dealing. But I always do it again. It is so hard to get business references with a major company. I just hate to let that go.

I'm a bit late.. but CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!

Thanks!! It is never too late!

I have one molting right now, but as for the outdoor chicks, my mama silkie has been bringing her chickies out in the cold and they are doing just fine. She has access to a small area outside and the whole duck house and during the day, when the sun is high in the sky, she's out there with the chicks teaching them how to scratch for food. I think it's too cold for them, but apparently she knows best, so I don't worry about it too much. Funny how I kept mine so hot during the summer inside and worried about putting them outside in 70 degree weather. LOL Baby chicks are pretty darn tough aren't they?

Those sound like cattle panels which are perfect for hoop houses. I know I am not Trish but if it helps we built a hoop house for our geese and we used 4x4s. We had a really bad wind storm a few months ago that blew just about everything across the yard including our portable shed but the hoop house stayed put. It was rocking back and forth in the breeze but it stayed put, phew!

The panels I have are easily flexible enough to bend over into a hoop. I just wasn't sure if Trish used 2x6 or 4x4 lumber to create her frame.

Well, I am going to sell my pea chicks Friday. Less than I wanted for them but the guy seems nice and I just need to move some birds. I felt badly for them because I caught them and brought them up front for him to see and then he said he wanted to come back to pick them up so he can finish setting up the pen for them! SO I had to haul them back out and of course they didn't want to be handled the first time but the second time one of them lost quite a few feathers before I got it wrangled back into its cage. He did give me money to hold them so I assume he will be back. We can't afford to house nine million birds and I want to have plenty of space and energy for my most favorite birds. I like to have time to mess around with them and bring them treats etc. With so many pens it just gets hectic and I feel like I barely get them fed and watered before I have to start over!

 

[JosieChick]

Oh that is wonderful.

Here is the roo

and the other brahma she is frizzlish too. I was thinking maybe cochin/brahma???

I have a bird from Danz that feathered in like this. I think they are just slower to feather and look kind of frumpy for a bit. A true frizzle will start to curl up and back in the opposite direction from the body by about 2 weeks of age. My seramas get their neck and wing feathers first and they begin to curl very soon if they are a frizzled bird.

 

[HEChicken]

Okay, I just did a check on Google Images to make sure I was referencing the correct item but they are definitely hog panels.

Glad you found a good home for the peafowl - that is one less thing for you to worry about.

 

[Trish44]

HEChicken, I used 2x6s for the frame & it's really heavy duty, that is for the bottom frame (the rest for the braces are 2x4s). You will want to get them long enough for the whole length of the coop if you can, otherwise you have to put them together with metal plates & you have a weak spot there. I had to do that because of the fact I was going to just build it 12 ft long, but after getting that far decided I wanted to go 16 ft. & I'm really glad I did since I ended up with 20 guineas in there with the peafowl right now for the winter. They all have plenty of room to run around & roost. I'll just post some pics of the hoop coop again so you can see how it's made. I first attached the livestock panels to the first 2x6 with large fencing staples that fit over the panel wire, then to the other 2x6 side board with the fencing laying flat. I laid out the end boards in place where they would go. Then using the 2nd board I pushed the fencing up into a hoop shape & hooked onto the side board. It certainly would be much easier to do it with two people, I only had myself. It's doable with one, but a lot of work. I put hardware cloth all the way around on the inside up 3 feet, it's hooked to the panels with cable ties & I used a lot of them. I also closed in the ends with hardware cloth. I didn't put it all the way over the top because I have a heavy duty tarp over the whole top, it's a huge one & it comes down to the level of the top of the hardware cloth. Right now I have plastic on the sides & back where the tarp doesn't cover to keep the wind off the birds, however since the coop is in a sheltered spot I don't have it over the front so they can still see out & I can see them. We built a door out of 2x2 boards & hardware cloth, that is the only thing I had my DH help me with since I was hurrying to get it done & he wasn't busy. I have two latches on the door, top & bottom. It really works very well & I'm thinking of building another one next spring maybe for my rabbits to use in the winter. I'm thinking it would work. I know I would have an issue with frozen water, but I have that in the garage too when it's really, really cold. Good score by the way on the hog panels! I just saw some on another site I need to see if I can get some of them. I only have two left over from my other hoop coop & I would need two more at least for another one.








Maidenwolf, I have the Hovabator 1588 Josie is talking about with the clear window. I really like it for hatching, but I don't like it for incubating, it's really, really hard to keep the humidity right in there for incubating. I tried it when my GQF incubator was having problems & I had too many eggs for the Brinsea. Some people say they really like the foam incubators, but I haven't found them to be much good for anything except hatching, which is why I have mine. I always have too many different ages of eggs in my cabinet to hatch in there & I don't want the mess in it either. Some day I will find a deal on a used GQF maybe just for hatching, but until then I'll use my Hovabator.

Well I have to go to Wichita again tomorrow anyway & my DH asked me to stop at Lowe's so I guess I'll just see how much guttering is there. If it's not overly expensive I might just buy some. I have to get some hardware there anyway for when we put up the doors on the new coop. We already have wood for them, he just needs to get busy building them. I've got to get him back on working on that again or it will just sit there while he messes around with everything but that. GRRRR, it's so aggravating!

Josie, I'm glad you found a home for the peas if you really want to get rid of them. I do understand what you're saying about having so many pens. I'm starting to get really spread out now & it will be more so when I finally move birds to the new coop. But at least the turkeys & the peafowl are down in the same area so I can just make the rounds of the different areas. That's kind of how I do it now with feeding, I feed by groups of pens.

 

[JosieChick]

Maidenwolf, I have the Hovabator 1588 Josie is talking about with the clear window. I really like it for hatching, but I don't like it for incubating, it's really, really hard to keep the humidity right in there for incubating. I tried it when my GQF incubator was having problems & I had too many eggs for the Brinsea. Some people say they really like the foam incubators, but I haven't found them to be much good for anything except hatching, which is why I have mine. I always have too many different ages of eggs in my cabinet to hatch in there & I don't want the mess in it either. Some day I will find a deal on a used GQF maybe just for hatching, but until then I'll use my Hovabator.
Is the genesis styrofoam? I thought it was hard plastic? What do you run your humidity at? Sorry for nine hundred questions! I dry hatch so I run my humidity at 25% or so for days 1-18 and then bump it up to 55-60% for hatch after one chick has pipped the air cell. I never had trouble with humidity in my styro hovabator but I had some temp fluctuations that annoyed me. I still had good luck hatching barnyard mix and large fowl birds. It gets trickier with the bantams but I even had some good cochin hatches in there. I couldn't hatch silkies in it to save my life. I have no idea why. Hawkeye- My hat is off to you because those little buggers are tough to cook correctly!!

Well I have to go to Wichita again tomorrow anyway & my DH asked me to stop at Lowe's so I guess I'll just see how much guttering is there. If it's not overly expensive I might just buy some. I have to get some hardware there anyway for when we put up the doors on the new coop. We already have wood for them, he just needs to get busy building them. I've got to get him back on working on that again or it will just sit there while he messes around with everything but that. GRRRR, it's so aggravating!

Cute ultrasound pic of our little peanut learning to suck her thumb! Sorry for those who are on FB as this will be a duplicate for you!

 

[chicken danz]

Awwww! What a precious little girl you have Josie! I can't wait to see her for real!!!
Trish the guttering is really cheap. I'ts the end caps and other pieces that go with it that add up quickly. I meant to take a picture of my gutter feeder as well but forgot all about it.

 

[HEChicken]

Marvelous - thanks Trish! You really did do a nice job on that. Okay, your description of how you did it is how I was picturing in my mind I would try to do it but I thought I remember that you had the frame all together first and then added in the panels. It sounds really doable to do it like that.

Josie - that is a cute pic - definitely easier to see what is happening than the ones I had for my kids.