Welcome Jeff21, we're always glad to see new faces here. Have you been to our Kansas Poultry Swap yet? We have people from all over on there, probably some down your way.
You're all such busy bees on here, everybody planning, building. Hawkeye, when you get your little coop done I sure could use some help on mine. That looks like a great idea you have so you can move it with you. I've got an idea about what I want, just how everything is going to work is kind of my problem now. I need to get it all drawn out so when I get ready to build it I will know exactly what I need & how to do it.
On the Lily/Jasmine saga, this morning I barely got everybody taken care of when I was coming out of the garage & they were already heading into the run. I just caught Jasmine going in & Lily was already in there. I hadn't even had a chance yet to see what I could come up with for a barrier to keep them out. So I ran them out of there & went to the garage to see what I could use to block off the bottom two rows of holes because I saw that they have been going through the 2nd hole up from the bottom. I found some of the OSB that I just got as scraps was about the right height so I took it out & then cut out just one square on the bottom corner so the chickens can hopefully get through, but I hope not the dogs. I propped the wood up on the inside with two of the cinder blocks I got for my new coop for the foundation, those things have already come in handy for stuff. Thankfully I think I will have extras to keep a few around for such things. Anyway, wish me luck that this works to keep those darned pups out of there. Well I didn't even get this all written before DH called me & told me that Lily is in the run, so I went out there & both of them were in there, so now one is chained in the yard again & the other is in the dog run. I'm just at my wit's end with these two. I can't shut my chickens out of the run all day or they can't get in to eat, drink, or lay eggs. I have a crippled rooster who is just a pet & he has to be able to get in there too, he only has the use of one leg. I'm thinking of getting a shock collar next to see if that would faze them. I'm just totally disgusted about the whole thing.
tweety, I would be concerned about heat & ventilation contrary to what that guy said. He obviously doesn't know much about chickens or their needs. We converted a shed last year to a coop & I've been having to add more ventilation all the time, it still doesn't seem to have enough even with three windows & two vents. I'm thinking I need another vent on the north side now for cross-ventilation. I just can't seem to get enough air moving through there. It was hot in there this summer even with all the windows open & the vents. I had to leave the people door open too so it wasn't too hot. As warm as it has been I have the window on the door open & the side windows open some just to air it out some. I've been using the deep litter method & hopefully I can make it one more month before I have to clean the whole thing out.