Consolidated Kansas

[ashncarson]

Quote:
Do you, and others, happen to have photos of your coops you could share? We are hoping to use mostly recycled items/wood and am willing to travel a hour to get it if needed (which would be wichita or to salina area)

 

[Trish44]

ashncarson, here are some pics of my breeder coop, it has the best air flow of my coops because we built it recently. You can see that I have windows on the north & south for air flow through the whole coop as well as windows on the front that have hardware cloth open in the summer. I will put plexiglass over them in the winter. I have the windows open all the time in the summer. There is also a gap at the roof at both front & back that lets air through, so they have lots of ventilation. Of course this one has 4 rooms & 4 pens since I have breeds separated, you wouldn't need that for a general coop.


North End

Back

Front

 

[ashncarson]

ashncarson, here are some pics of my breeder coop, it has the best air flow of my coops because we built it recently. You can see that I have windows on the north & south for air flow through the whole coop as well as windows on the front that have hardware cloth open in the summer. I will put plexiglass over them in the winter. I have the windows open all the time in the summer. There is also a gap at the roof at both front & back that lets air through, so they have lots of ventilation. Of course this one has 4 rooms & 4 pens since I have breeds separated, you wouldn't need that for a general coop.

the plan we are looking at has the gaps at the tops of the roof on the front and back, under the eves so that is good. we just need to figure out something for windows on both sides! What about old glass windows that slide up to open, with a hardware cloth used for when its open? do you see something like that working or would the glass make it to hot?

 

[HEChicken]

HECHICKEN, those goats are cute . Are they meat goats ? I noticed they had names, surely there's no such thing as goat math...

There must be goat math - the breeder had too many to count

And, actually, the breeder is to thank for them having names. I confess I'm not that good at naming animals - none of the 5 lambs has a name yet. But the breeder names every one of her goats as they are born and she told me three weeks ago when we talked, what the names of these two are! Yes, they are Boer goats, which is a meat breed. I wasn't too excited about getting goats since we had them when I was a kid but Trish assures me that Boer goats don't climb on things as much as some of the other breeds.

Hechicken you are so funny. You really should have been a writer. I don't know how many times your stories have cracked me up.
Now is the time to spoil those goats. You can treat them and get them used to you and then you can handle them when they get big. Did Trish tell you about goat cookies? They were my miracle goat tamer. With cookie in hand you can make a goat do about anything. It sure beats chasing down and trying to make them go somewhere they don't want to.
Every time I see something about someone getting goats it makes me want them again. I have to say NO NO NO to myself.
You may however regret not wethering the boy though. It might not be so bad if he stays out in that large pasture but the smell of a male goat will get in your nostrils and never leave.
I always said if I had goats again I would be sure I found a friend who owned a billy and just take the female to be serviced.

Yes, I still need to pick up some animal crackers for them. So far they are calling to me every time they see me and since they don't have much graze (plan to fix that tonight) I am cutting weeds that I think they will like and feeding them so they are starting to learn I am "the treat lady" already. I did think long and hard about wethering. When we started out I really planned to get two does. Their main purpose is to graze and mow down our pasture, since they will eat things the sheep won't eat. But the breeder didn't have two does and offered me a wether. I figured a wether will eat as much as a doe so that would be fine. But when I realized they hadn't been wethered yet, I decided to go ahead an leave him intact. This way we can have kids in the spring, and slowly grow our herd. The breeder has three pens, each with its own billy, and these two were pulled from different pens and she assures me they are not related, so it shouldn't be a problem to let them breed. We can keep doelings to grow the herd, and any bucklings can grow up with the male lambs for processing.

Danz, the lady we got the goats from keeps her billies in with the separate herds she has & honestly you don't smell them. I have been there 3 times & never smelled a bad smell there & I was up close to the billies. I had another person comment after we went there that they didn't even smell the goats. If you want to know, my meat birds stunk much worse than the dairy farm down the road from me & that smells worse than any goats I've ever been around.

I agree - the smell was not bad at all. Now that you mention it, I really didn't even notice a smell. My car smelled pretty bad after hauling them home in it but after removing the tarp I had laid down, there is very little odor left. I've always heard that about billies though so maybe the smell gets worse in rutting season?

I'm SO GLAD I'm not a goat!!!

I am hoping to get some ideas on coops from you guys, since you know KS weather. I am stressing over ventilation in our hot summers and cold winters.

On what side of the coop is the ventilation good on, north and south, east and west....or on all of them? I understand some basics on it but am hoping to more information for those who have experienced the temperature changes! On average, what size of opening is good, or is a solid window better for lighting along with screened in areas?

I never thought it would be this hard just to figure out how to build it!

The winds here typically blow from the north and south - only rarely from the east. Unfortunately, in summer they are from the south and in winter from the north - life here would be far more temperate if it were the other way around!

 

[cherwill]

I spent some time this afternoon in the garden. The rain has made the tomatoes and squash go crazy -- they're huge and all over the place! I think I'm going to pickle some beets tomorrow.

One person had a rabbit with her entire gut ripped open. The owner had been treating her with veterycin and she seemed to be doing okay but there was no lining there to keep her insides from coming out. I took a syringe and veterycin and flushed her out really well, with much disagreement by the rabbit. She had some fingernail glue which is the same thing as super glue so I glued the openings shut and left a small hole for drainage in case she got an infection. It seemed to work. I am thinking I need to buy some fingernail glue instead of super glue cause that stuff really set up quick. Then we figured out how much antibiotic and probiotics to put her on for the next 5-7 days. I hope she does okay. I am not a rabbit person but this isn't the first one I have vetted. It seems like I do a good job on other people's animals but when it comes to my own I have to panic and get hold of JosieChick and ask for advice. Sometimes I think I worry about my animals like I used to obsess about my kids. (It drove my kids nuts, BTW!

I had my gander with the infected foot in a kennel for the past several days getting treated. I gave him his final shot and put him back out with his friends yesterday. He seems to be doing okay other than still limping a little. I guess I'll watch him for a few days and make sure the swelling doesn't come back.

That poor rabbit. Superglue was created by someone trying to find a better way than stitches to close up incisions after surgery, so I don't see a problem with using it. Nail glue is probably almost the same thing. Good thinking!

I am hoping to get some ideas on coops from you guys, since you know KS weather. I am stressing over ventilation in our hot summers and cold winters.

On what side of the coop is the ventilation good on, north and south, east and west....or on all of them? I understand some basics on it but am hoping to more information for those who have experienced the temperature changes! On average, what size of opening is good, or is a solid window better for lighting along with screened in areas?

I never thought it would be this hard just to figure out how to build it!

We converted an old playhouse that was insulated. My first suggestion is to make everything adult height. Ours is kid height and it can be hard on the back to be stooped over when we're cleaning it out. DH made the nesting boxes so that we could open a door on the outside to collect eggs. That's a nice thing if you can do it. The windows are plexiglass and we added a layer of chicken wire so we could leave them open in summer. There is a square-foot window on every side except east. Because there's not that much ventilation, we hang a fan in the coop in summer. We're afraid it will get too hot when a hen is crammed into a nesting box laying an egg; they can sit in there for quite a long time. Another nice thing is to have a hook or set something up where you can hang a light (in winter) or a fan (in summer) inside if you plan to use those. Put them up near the top where the birds can't climb in them. The light also adds heat during winter, and the birds will crowd together more to create heat. They're really pretty adaptable to temperature changes. Your pen will give them some good shade in summer and you can also add a dripper to cool things off when it's really hot. Sometimes, when it was 110 or so, I'd even go out and spray the pen down with water. It really does cool things off.

I don't have time to find pictures right now, but I probably already have some posted and you might be able to find them on my page.

 

[Trish44]

My main coop doesn't have adequate ventilation because we converted a storage shed to a coop at the time. I have put in two small windows on the sides & in the door & one larger one so far as well as 3 vents & it still is very hot in there in the summer. I have one more window I plan to put in on the north side for cross-ventilation when I get a chance to cut out the hole for it. We bought used mobile home windows that are the crank kind & I have two of them on my breeder coop, they work great because they slant so you can leave them open even some when it's raining. I think part of the problem with that shed is the way it's built, it's the barn style shed & the roof comes down lower & there are asphalt shinges on it. I think those shingles & just the way the roof is makes it hotter. I did put a fan in there this summer that I point towards the nest boxes in the back of the coop & that helps some.

Danz I'm glad you were able to help that poor rabbit, I hope it does OK. Rabbits are very sensitive to antibiotics, so there aren't very many they can tolerate.

 

[chicken danz]

I have a bunch of coops but not a lot of pictures. Mine are made from all kinds of things and only the brooder house was made out of new material. I used recycled house and storm windows on all my coops. They are either covered with chicken wire or hardware cloth. The brooder house just has normal screen on them. For vents I cut rectangular holes, then frame around them (both the hole and the piece I cut out, hang the cut out piece back on with hinges and usually put a latch type hook on them to hold them open or lock them down. I put the vents up high on the coops because heat rises. As time goes on I have added hardware cloth doors to most of them to allow more air flow in the summer. I use fans as well cause I don't have that many shady areas. I never have a coop shut up tight even in the dead of winter. There is always some air flow. I like using cookie tin heaters in the coops in winter even if I don't use them with water on them. They give a central spot of heat that the chickens can gather around if it is bitter cold.

 

[ashncarson]

I like using cookie tin heaters in the coops in winter even if I don't use them with water on them. They give a central spot of heat that the chickens can gather around if it is bitter cold.

I saw those cookie tin heaters on another page and really like that idea...I was thinking I wanted to use a nipple system in a bottle of water to water them, but I am not sure if that wont work for the winter. Could they adapt back and forth?

 

[chicken danz]

Sure they can. I've switched waterer types several times.

 

[cleansquared]

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This is my "lets see what we can build in two days with no money and crap from the garage....chicken coop"