Consolidated Kansas

[Hawkeye95]

Hawkeye, I found some photos of my coop my husband made. He is not a carpenter but I am very happy with it. The two doors on the side open and like I said, there is a tray I keep shavings. I also have a photo of the run. It has a fiberglass panel on the top and this past summer he had to add misters for the heat. It is nothing fancy but very easy to keep clean. I am going to have to finish painting the picket fence. He added that this past summer so they could go beyond the run and scrounge in the grass. The only changes I would make would be to raise the run so when it gets cleaned, you don't have to bend over. I put one foot cement squares in after the fact so it scrapes clean with water and a hoe and then the waste goes into the compost. Before, it was too hard to clean. I live in town so clean is really a must. If you want I can take some photos of the inside.

Your coop is really beautiful!! Your DH did a great job! It looks to be a pretty good size, too. I think it's still a bit bigger than I am thinking. I'm seriously thinking small here. Your coop looks like it would be hard to move. I just got done building a big coop that I can't move. But I love the design of yours-- that is the design that a lot of the Amish use. Thank you for posting it! This is a design I like! Where did you get your chicken statue??! LOVE it!! i want one! LOL

 

[chicken danz]

Danz - It's Control Z

That's the first letter I tried, I guess my memory still exists to some point. It must have not saved it yet.

 

[tweetysvoice]

Patricia: Yes, it’s a kit that we got off of amazon. It’s a 6x8 and was only about $600 bucks. J I’m excited to get it up and going.

WichitaKidd & Ritter: The issue with doing a coop is the actual building of it, not the designs – unfortunately. My DH has MS and gets frustrated very easily if something doesn’t go right – as construction projects often end up. He’s OCD about some things and will over-think things to death – that’s why I’m trying to make this as easy as possible, but thanks for the offers and suggestions! J

Jeff: I have to say .. awww.. a wimpy rooster J that made me giggle!

 

[chicken danz]

Welcome Jeff. Sounds like your rooster is just too old. I would get a LF rooster not a bantam to watch over your girls. I don't think breed matters unless you are wanting to fertilize eggs though. I always think bigger is better. Also the hawks don't bother large fowl as much as they do the bantams.... at least in my neck of the woods.
Rittert, why don't you offer to do the clean up and stuff for your landlord. They could buy the shavings and you could put them in for them.
Tweety I hope your husband is doing well with his MS. My late husband passed from complications from advanced MS. He never did a good job of taking care of himself though. There are so many good medications and programs now. Do you get that magazine, MS Today? My sons are advocates of and contribute to the MS foundation regularly.
Patricia, what an adorable little back yard. It looks so well kept.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Welcome Jeff to the Kansas thread and ..

I agree... it sounds like you need a "large fowl" rooster. Have you seen how tiny the OE's are?? (they can fit in your hand!!) LOL!! He would probably get picked on by the hens.

Ivy-- praying for you!!

Tweety, I'm not loving the greenhouse idea because I just don't know how you are going to keep it from warming up and the sun off of it. Kind of defeats the purpose of buying it in the first place. I guess I'm just going to have to see what you're talking about it when you start. Too bad I'm not closer!! I could totally help you build a cute coop!! I'm going to get started on another one here. It really doesn't take much to build one. I finally remembered who built the super cool pallet coop-- her name is LN2008 and I'm pretty sure she did it mostly all by herself! It was nearly free, too. My neighbor bought a shipping crate and literally just built a roof on it. All done! (it's one of those big plywood boxes with no top on it) Oh, he did cut out the door, but that's easy too. It's not really "cute" but it works and no one can see it-- it's behind his house.

Supposed to be a preschool day today-- but my littles are sick and I'm not feeling 100%. Going to be a bum today. Well.. sort of, I need to go pick up grain. I need to drag all the wood out of the back of my truck and go get at least a ton of grain instead of buying only a few hundred pounds each time. I'm debating on starting the new coop today. I really want to get it done. Since it's going to be so small, I think I could whip it out pretty fast. I drew up a design yesterday that would be really conducive to putting it together super fast... but I'm going to go check out the Small Coop Designs here in a min and make sure I want to go that route. If I could find something else cuter that would be just as fast, I'll do it. But otherwise, I'm going to build the "hutch type" coop for my trio.

 

[sharol]

I gotta have a statue like that chicken/rooster statue. Where did you find it?

Sharol

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

Hawkeye - In regards to the new coop you want to build and the upcoming move. Would it be possible to build it in sections so that it could be taken apart easily and then put back together when you get to your new home.

Such as each wall being completed, the roof, floor, etc and then fasten them together with those metal corner thingies that you use screws with to hold the "sections" together. You might need to use something over the corners on the outside to make sure no rain or wind gets in.

I really don't know anything about building, but just a thought. Kind of "pre fab it". LOL

The runs could be made the same way. In sections that can be taken apart, like the dog runs are. Even make enough to use for the top if it is needed.

Everything would then load flat on your truck or trailer.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Hawkeye - In regards to the new coop you want to build and the upcoming move. Would it be possible to build it in sections so that it could be taken apart easily and then put back together when you get to your new home.

Such as each wall being completed, the roof, floor, etc and then fasten them together with those metal corner thingies that you use screws with to hold the "sections" together. You might need to use something over the corners on the outside to make sure no rain or wind gets in.

I really don't know anything about building, but just a thought. Kind of "pre fab it". LOL

The runs could be made the same way. In sections that can be taken apart, like the dog runs are. Even make enough to use for the top if it is needed.

Everything would then load flat on your truck or trailer.

That's a really great idea! I always build with screws-- so it would be easy to take apart. But I'll see how I can make it easier to tear down. I finally got my measurements drawn out and figured it out just now. Going to go with a 4 foot X 30 inch. Worst case... it should be light enough and small enough that I can just put it on a trailer or the back of my truck to take with me. I want it big enough to hold more than my 3 silkies... but not much more. I don't need a huge harem out here.

Besides... I don't want to start raising a ton of them and then have to figure out how to move all of these birds! I'm probably just going to sell most of what I hatch-- keep my numbers down.

 

[tweetysvoice]

Tweety, I'm not loving the greenhouse idea because I just don't know how you are going to keep it from warming up and the sun off of it. Kind of defeats the purpose of buying it in the first place. I guess I'm just going to have to see what you're talking about it when you start. Too bad I'm not closer!! I could totally help you build a cute coop!! I'm going to get started on another one here. It really doesn't take much to build one. I finally remembered who built the super cool pallet coop-- her name is LN2008 and I'm pretty sure she did it mostly all by herself! It was nearly free, too. My neighbor bought a shipping crate and literally just built a roof on it. All done! (it's one of those big plywood boxes with no top on it) Oh, he did cut out the door, but that's easy too. It's not really "cute" but it works and no one can see it-- it's behind his house.

This was one of the original concerns with using it as well. First, it's already going to be over half shaded by a neighbor's tree - which is one of the reasons that I'm not fighting to keep it just for a greenhouse only. And I will be covering the already shaded half with either a tarp or replacing the glass with wood because I know that I'm going to be fighting heat and needing more ventilation. I did question the coop guy that chooks referred me to and he didn't believe that heat would be an issue at all on the heat as long as I had ventilation openings. Yeah, this is going to be a test and see type housing, but I know that we can at least use the metal frame of the greenhouse to create something awesome, if it does require us to replace all the plexiglass with wood panels.

 

[tweetysvoice]

Tweety I hope your husband is doing well with his MS. My late husband passed from complications from advanced MS. He never did a good job of taking care of himself though. There are so many good medications and programs now. Do you get that magazine, MS Today? My sons are advocates of and contribute to the MS foundation regularly.

Danz, he is actually doing really well right now. Because this winter has been so mild - he's not been using a cane most of the winter. As I'm sure you know, he has bad days and good days. - days his legs don't want to work and hurt to much to do anything. Docs have him on some good meds, so we are lucky that we've been able to control it so far. He's only 42 and we hope it doesn't get worse the older he gets. We do have a few past copies of that magazine. Thanks for thoughts.