Hechivken-
I needed the laugh
My Dh informed me this morning he will not be building anything else.
Yesterday he built a poop board/ roost for me. So I told him I guess I will have to hire someone. Not sure what to do I still need to do things to get my new coop ready to move everyone into it. I have no idea how to build anything plus trying to watch a 2 and 4 year old and trying to build something.
I'm thinking I should just sell all my chicks and just keep my older birds
Michelleml, do you have some friends you can get together with to work? It can be really fun to work with someone else and sometimes two heads are better at figuring stuff out than one, even if neither of you knows what to do to begin with. Plus, if your friend has some older kids (10, 12 and up), you might offer to pay them to babysit your littles while the adults work. You don't have to go overboard - a lot of kids that age will be happy to earn a little spending money and are still young enough to actually have fun playing with toddlers.
Building doesn't have to be complicated. As 123casper said, the hardware store has knowledgeable staff. Plus there are books, information online, and in the coops section (look for the link at the top of this page), there are tons of designs for everything coop related and many of them have also put up plans, material lists etc. Even if they haven't, and you really want to replicate a particular design, if you leave a comment under the article with your questions, the original poster will be notified of the comment and have an opportunity to reply. I have done that - asked questions on specifics about how people did something - and I've found that most BYC'ers are willing to help out by answering the questions.
You can also ask specific questions on here and we'll do our best to walk you through it. Pictures are useful, so if you get stuck, take a picture, post it, and ask for advice - we'll help all we can.
Building stuff yourself can wind up being fun and very, very satisfying when you look back at what you did and say "I did that!" Plus, it is a great example for your kids that women can build stuff too.
Don't do that! Just find an image of what you want to build on the internet. step two take an inventory of what you will need to build it or take the image with you to the hardware store and ask a experienced person there to help you find what you need and build! You can do it trust me your not trying to keep elephants so I dought you can mess it up to bad
x2
HEChicken .. I'v been seeing your name on another thread .. from a few years ago about meal worms.. I think that was you.
I'm wondering how the meal worms worked out for you.. and if you still have some.
I've just started a small group of nessled tubs. and thinking about geting more.. as i havent killed these yet.. <grin>
ll have to order on line.. no pets mart here.. If i plan to suppliment winter feed with them or just use as treats.. ( will have 20 ) chickens..
I did mealworms for years. Unfortunately I killed them last summer when we were moving, by putting them in the car and stopping on the way to the new house to run errands and it got too hot and fried them. I haven't started up another colony since. I found that as a protein supplement they were kind of expensive to raise, mainly because I was unable to find wheat bran at any of the feed stores here, so I used oatmeal instead. It took a whole canister of oatmeal ($3.50) to fill a sweater sized tub to a good depth for them and that had to be replaced every few months, so in the end I figured there were cheaper ways to get the birds some protein. That doesn't even count the food they needed - a half apple or potato here and there adds up over time. Had I been able to find wheat bran I might have drawn a different conclusion. On the other hand, I actually enjoyed raising them. Watching them morph from worms to larvae to beetles, and watching the tiny little new hatched worms was strangely rewarding. I did mine all in one tub - other people report that the beetles will eat the worms but I saw no evidence of that.
Yesterday he built a poop board/ roost for me. So I told him I guess I will have to hire someone. Not sure what to do I still need to do things to get my new coop ready to move everyone into it. I have no idea how to build anything plus trying to watch a 2 and 4 year old and trying to build something.
