Consolidated Kansas

[michelleml]

Hello. all.. i finally caught up.. I've gotten lots of inspiration here from HeChicken Danz and Trish and just wanted to post a video.from you tube.. for any one.. like me who are looking for a visually orientation on how 2... 4 Hoop Coops.. - thanks.. for all your help and input... will post photo's.. when done.. Here's my video guide.. great video at you tube.. from Kentucky state university poultry department.
video on you tube.. 7 parts long.. ( 8 video's ) on the hoop coop construction.

however i've taken notes.. and will mark times of useful tips
- pig ring's.. we will need some to stabilize joint of cattle pannels


[COLOR=1155CC]Video 1 begins with parts & tool list.
1) furring strips.. screwed into 2x4 to make resting place for cattle pannel. on inside.
2) 2( 101" 2x4) he used 8' for end pieces because he's tall..
3) use scrap pieces for bracing..
4) welded wire.. for end piece [COLOR=1155CC]video 2[/COLOR]
5) place cattle pannel rib side up onto furring strip... says its easier on the tarp..
6) Fence staple every other iron bar. to 2x4 laying on furring strip.
time 3:50
7) show staple verticle placement of staple on last iron rod at juction of cattle pannel's
8) 4:12 he inserts #2 cattle pannel slick..
9) pig rings.. where the 2 pannels abut..
[COLOR=1155CC]video 3[/COLOR]
10) 2- 2x4's measure where door will be.. mark & screw 1 ( allow's to adkust top of frame)
marking top of 2x4 to where it meets hoop. sawzaw off
@5:21 moving hinge.. on top of door.. 2 re set.. hinge if too tall for opening.
6:50 how to make gate latch.. w add on 2x4 to make latch..
*8:22 safety tip.. string from inside.. for his latch .. incase it lockes you inside ( grin )
[COLOR=1155CC]Video 4[/COLOR]
Rear bracing.. t-bracing 3" up to match wire.. for protection.. >> due to

4:30 cornor braces.. knee bracing..
** if building on slope.. start at bottom.. and work way up
[COLOR=1155CC]Video 5 part 5 a - adding welding wire step 1[/COLOR]
Pig ring & welding wire.
wire will match up w/ 2x4 cross brace from rear X-brace string from back to front
2:30 min @ front end of welding wire.. cut.. and bend piece around Cattle panel to prevent tearing tarp.
4:30 attch bottom welding wire to hoop pen - he uses screw's and fender washers.. to
5:50 front end wire attchment Vertical welding wire..
[COLOR=1155CC]video 6 (part 5 b) Constructing a hoop pen - Part 5B: Adding the welded wire[/COLOR]
patching cornor with cut off pieces and hog rings
- to complete front protection - tight cornor and - to make smooth for tarp..
4:20 -rear protrection 8:20 bending corner
[COLOR=1155CC]Video 7[/COLOR] Part 6 adding the Tarp-
Tarp. the tighter the better
tightening up with rope at the ends..
additions for layers.. waterer Ideas

[COLOR=1155CC]Video 8 (part 7)[/COLOR]
Adding the toe rope[/COLOR]

Thanks for sharing this video and supply list. I feel I could do this now I need to figure out how to save it for later. My Dh is doing okay we've Been waiting on insurance to clear treatment planned.I got a letter saying it was cleared but not the resection our other surgeon suggested that the right front lobe be removed but current doctor said he isn't a candidate. So plans are chemo & radiation for 7 wks. He been having more headaches, fatigue, anxiety attacks I pray that things go smoothly. The current doctor told us to prepare for the worst and get our things in order

 

[HEChicken]

My Dh is doing okay we've Been waiting on insurance to clear treatment planned.I got a letter saying it was cleared but not the resection our other surgeon suggested that the right front lobe be removed but current doctor said he isn't a candidate. So plans are chemo & radiation for 7 wks. He been having more headaches, fatigue, anxiety attacks I pray that things go smoothly. The current doctor told us to prepare for the worst and get our things in order

 

[TheDownyChick]

I will check out tjeideo. Ours will ne a bit different because we are sticking the ends of the cattle panels into the slits on the pvc pipes we are using as sliders on the long 2x4 runner boards.

 

[jennyjane73]

I am so anxious to get these chickens outside. I know I'm going to be nervous the first few nights but I am ready to have my spare room back! This is my first time with chickens & so far it is a lot of fun. This is THE MOST helpful site I've come across. I discovered sweet pdz early in the process thanks to this site. That stuff is amazing!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Lizzy-- that is an awesome announcement that you made up! Congratulations on the little one and enjoy the pregnancy-- it goes fast!

Heather, funny about all the broodies. I can't believe all of them are broody.

Kuan-- VERY interesting that you didn't like that realtor group either! I've been warning everyone I know against them! LOL In other news...when our family/friends found out that we were not using friends or family for our realtor-- they were kind of upset! My DH and I decided that we would NOT choose one of our friends or family to sell our house because we didn't want to cause any problems. Better to choose an unrelated person to sell our home. It's funny how everyone is taking that personally. That is exactly what we wanted to avoid. They'll get over it, and that is exactly why we didn't choose them!

Thanks for sharing this video and supply list. I feel I could do this now I need to figure out how to save it for later.

My Dh is doing okay we've Been waiting on insurance to clear treatment planned.I got a letter saying it was cleared but not the resection our other surgeon suggested that the right front lobe be removed but current doctor said he isn't a candidate. So plans are chemo & radiation for 7 wks. He been having more headaches, fatigue, anxiety attacks I pray that things go smoothly. The current doctor told us to prepare for the worst and get our things in order

I'm just so, so sorry you are both dealing with this. I can't even imagine, I just can't. Many prayers for you and your DH.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I had the crappiest of crap days yesterday. Day from he!!. I'm still sad and upset and angry.. just every emotion and to add that to my already stressed out and frazzled nerves. I came home from church to find that SOMEthing.. I don't know what (maybe racoon or possum??) had come in and killed and eaten 3 of my silkies! My Res Grand Champion Featherleg from the Kansas Classic was dead-- she also took 1st place at Nationals *cry*. Then my blue bird I had JUST bought from another breeder-- and was still too young to lay yet--- only her wings were left. And a 3rd bird... I don't know who it was, and I've gone over in my mind which one it was.... There were no legs left, so I couldn't find their bands to determine who it was. Only Zebbie-- my Featherleg champ wasn't eaten-- she had been plucked and started in on eating... but most of her body was there, and I think whatever killed her heard me come into the barn and took off. I fed horses first, took care of the other birds and then walked into the silkie pen to see a horror show-- feathers, body parts and blood. I about threw up, I was so sick and so upset. I moved everyone out of the barn and back into the pen under the deck and they will be back in the garage which my DH will KILL me over because we're trying to sell the house and get the birds OUT of the garage. I still have my best rooster. I have my 2nd best pullet... but I didn't have a lot of hope that she would produce as well as my Zebbie. I cant even go back and re-create another Zebbie, because Zelda (her mom) died this winter! I was just thankful that I had her!! And now I don't. I have 3 other birds that have injuries-- one is missing her tail and has bite marks in her back. The other one I gave her a full bath and blow-out last night to get her cleaned up. I think they will both make it.. I hope. The 3rd one needs a bath and blow-out this morning. She's not doing that great. She's standing in one spot refusing to move. I don't even see any injuries on her! Which is why I took care of the other two first since they had blood and bite marks. I'll have to bathe her and see if I can see any injuries on her. Sigh.

What would eat everything except the wings? I only found wings. NO legs.... no beak, no head. I found masses of feathers and just wings. My neighbor has a trap, and I'm going to borrow that and shoot this #%&@#! A cat wouldn't do that, would it? We've had a barn cat in the barn all winter long. I never thought much of it until now. But if it's the cat, he's going down.




Josie-- your bird Josie is fine! She's a bit riled up, but she wasn't even injured. Thank goodness!!

 

[HEChicken]

I had the crappiest of crap days yesterday. Day from he!!. I'm still sad and upset and angry.. just every emotion and to add that to my already stressed out and frazzled nerves. I came home from church to find that SOMEthing.. I don't know what (maybe racoon or possum??) had come in and killed and eaten 3 of my silkies! My Res Grand Champion Featherleg from the Kansas Classic was dead-- she also took 1st place at Nationals *cry*. Then my blue bird I had JUST bought from another breeder-- and was still too young to lay yet--- only her wings were left. And a 3rd bird... I don't know who it was, and I've gone over in my mind which one it was.... There were no legs left, so I couldn't find their bands to determine who it was. Only Zebbie-- my Featherleg champ wasn't eaten-- she had been plucked and started in on eating... but most of her body was there, and I think whatever killed her heard me come into the barn and took off. I fed horses first, took care of the other birds and then walked into the silkie pen to see a horror show-- feathers, body parts and blood. I about threw up, I was so sick and so upset. I moved everyone out of the barn and back into the pen under the deck and they will be back in the garage which my DH will KILL me over because we're trying to sell the house and get the birds OUT of the garage. I still have my best rooster. I have my 2nd best pullet... but I didn't have a lot of hope that she would produce as well as my Zebbie. I cant even go back and re-create another Zebbie, because Zelda (her mom) died this winter! I was just thankful that I had her!! And now I don't. I have 3 other birds that have injuries-- one is missing her tail and has bite marks in her back. The other one I gave her a full bath and blow-out last night to get her cleaned up. I think they will both make it.. I hope. The 3rd one needs a bath and blow-out this morning. She's not doing that great. She's standing in one spot refusing to move. I don't even see any injuries on her! Which is why I took care of the other two first since they had blood and bite marks. I'll have to bathe her and see if I can see any injuries on her. Sigh.

What would eat everything except the wings? I only found wings. NO legs.... no beak, no head. I found masses of feathers and just wings. My neighbor has a trap, and I'm going to borrow that and shoot this #%&@#! A cat wouldn't do that, would it? We've had a barn cat in the barn all winter long. I never thought much of it until now. But if it's the cat, he's going down.

Josie-- your bird Josie is fine! She's a bit riled up, but she wasn't even injured. Thank goodness!!

Oh Hawkeye, I don't know how to tell you how sorry I am for your losses. I can't imagine what did that other than coyotes? None of that sounds like the work of raccoon or possum, who tend to eat parts - not the whole thing. And no way is it the cat. My cat finds little chicks endlessly fascinating but by the time they start to feather out, they start to get scary and by the time they're grown, they're downright terrifying. Even if that is just him personally, a cat doesn't have a large enough appetite to eat that much in one sitting. And since cats don't hunt in packs, its not like a group of them all got together at the same time to do this. The reason I say coyote is because they DO hunt in packs, and at this time of year, mothers have cubs/pups [whatever baby coyotes are called] at foot so my guess is a mother with her young ones came in and that is why so much was just gone. I can't even imagine how you are feeling right now.

 

[chicken danz]

My Dh is doing okay we've Been waiting on insurance to clear treatment planned.I got a letter saying it was cleared but not the resection our other surgeon suggested that the right front lobe be removed but current doctor said he isn't a candidate. So plans are chemo & radiation for 7 wks. He been having more headaches, fatigue, anxiety attacks I pray that things go smoothly. The current doctor told us to prepare for the worst and get our things in order

That is so hard to face. I so feel for you. You are in my prayers. People often forget how hard something like that is on the rest of the family. I do hope you have some sort of support there in the way of friends or family. I think I remember you moved here from out of state? I remember you had lived in Texas but don't remember if you ever said where any other family was.

Bbsnooks, I'll try watching that when I have more time. There are so many different methods it would be interesting to see another one.

I have got a story for you all that would have been upsetting had I been in a huge rush, but as it was I was getting a good laugh out of people.
We went to Topeka later yesterday afternoon. On the way up we stopped at TSC and bought the gate to put across my driveway, several bags of feed, chick starter, game bird starter, dog food, cat food for the peafowl etc. We had our long car hauler trailer on the back of the truck to haul the gate.
DH asked the clerk if he could unhook the trailer and leave it in the parking lot because we had to go way up north and do more shopping and eat and stuff. She said yes and told him where to park it on the far side of the parking lot. He got the gate all tied down to the trailer, locked up the hitch, and even went back into TSC to buy a padlock to lock the chain so no one could steal the gate panel.
We finished our other shopping, stopped and gorged ourselves at Mr. Stirfry and got back to the TSC parking lot about 9:15 or so. DH had the truck running and the headlights on, and was getting in and out moving the truck to position to hook up the trailer. When we got hooked up and started to pull out he pointed at a guy sitting in a pickup on the road that runs along side the business. He said, "Look, we are being watched." I assumed the guy was some paid night watchman cause he backed up and sat to watch us pull out. But then he was following us. We were joking about him calling the sheriff and screaming that he had people stealing a trailer (even though TSC carries nothing even remotely close to the size of this one.). Well the guy kept following us. DH said he should make a few U turns and make the guy run in circles. He sped up and slowed down and Mr. Hero in the truck stayed right with us. We knew he had called the sheriff because he was dead intent on not letting us get out of his sight. Well a few miles down the road we saw 2 sheriff's vehicles sitting at the side of the road. The guy that had been following us suddenly jumped into more super hero mode and pulled up along side us trying to push us over so we couldn't get away. Had we been actual criminals he really put himself in danger. He most likely would have gotten shot. What a dumb A.. So DH just pulled off on to the shoulder. The guy slammed on his brakes and stopped just behind us on the opposite side of the road. Another dumb move. No more than we had gotten stopped here came both Sheriff's vehicles lights flashing in hot pursuit.
Talk about unprofessional. The one officer that came up to the window with his hand on his gun said , "Can you tell me what's going on?" DH not being one of his smarter moments said, "Why don't you tell me what is going on." I could tell he thought better as soon as it came out of his mouth. Both of us being ex police officers know you never approach anyone with a statement like the sheriff's officer did. The officer should have first asked for his driver's license then said, "The reason I stopped you is...." That is one of the first things you ever learn in the police academy regardless of where you are.
Anyway the officer said that it was reported we were stealing items from the TSC parking lot. I had to pipe up and say that someone needed to get a life. He said the was just a concerned citizen. DH said he didn't have a problem with that but did have a problem with the guy trying to bulldog us off the road. (If he had whipped his trailer it would have flipped the guy's vehicle in an instant.) Worse yet the dumb guy was still sitting in his truck across the road from us. DH explained how we had made arrangements to leave the trailer and had bought the gate etc. We had to show them the receipt to show we bought the gate.
DH asked the sheriff's officer to have the guy leave and said he didn't appreciate his stupid unsafe behavior. The sheriff's officer did go over then and tell him to leave. (For his safety he should have been told to leave before they ever approached our truck. Another really stupid move on the officers parts.)
Well then he finally asks for his driver's license and went back and ran the tags and DH's DL etc etc and stood in back of the trailer talking for what seemed like forever. I imagine they were having the dispatcher make some calls as well because we had the trailer custom ordered and bought it from a trailer dealer that is almost across the road from TSC and it has his logo tag on it. It is registered and tagged though so it could easily be checked. Not to mention muddy and dirty from being used on the farm.
Well then I guess they saw all the feed bags and stuff in the back of the truck as well. So the sheriff's officer came back up to the truck wanting to see the receipt again. You could see his eyes going back and forth from the receipt to the pile of bags in the back. I was still laughing and joking with DH about how if we had actually kept making U turns we could have been in quite a circus of the guy in the truck following us and the sheriff's officers with their lights on going round and round in circles.
DH was starting to get irritated cause they wasted at least 25 minutes of our time while they checked this old gray haired couple of thieves that look like farmers out. He had to get up at 5:30 this AM for work and he was wanting to get home and get to bed.
At any rate I was having a good laugh out of it. I really should write the Sheriff's office and point out many really stupid moves on the part of his officers. I can understand a concerned citizen calling something in, but to play super hero like he was trying was out and out dangerous.... had we really been thieves. The dispatcher should have told him to keep his distance from us and let the sheriff's officers handle it... not attempt to run us off the road.
I told DH that at least he had something to talk about at work today other than my chicken projects.

 

[chicken danz]

Hawkeye you posted while I was posting. I am so sorry!!! That is so upsetting. No a cat would not do that. For one thing they can't eat the bones and harder tissue and have trouble tearing meat with their little teeth. My cats watch chicks but don't bother them and they are scared to death of older birds. A possum will eat the torso and leave the spine and the wings so that might have been it, but it sounds like they got more than that. I think perhaps a fox or something similar might have done it but they normally tend to carry their prey off. I would think the bars in your barn would be too close together for a coyote to get in. A raccoon will eat everything but the wings but they often just kill to be killing. Could you tell if they had had their heads popped off? I would be guessing a maybe a family of coons. I'll bet whatever it is comes back....so get that trap set.
Was Mr. Meat okay or was he still out there?
What a tremendous loss. I'd be sure to give the ones that got bitten a shot of penicillin for a few days and be sure that any bite marks are really flushed out good.

 

[Ralph Moyer]

If I get things planted, the chickens' free-range days will be over. Here's a picture of them in my raised beds. They spent a long time taking dirt baths before they decided to do some hunting and pecking in the yard. Can you find all ten?

2 white, 4 buff, and 4 black

 

[Hawkeye95]

Oh Hawkeye, I don't know how to tell you how sorry I am for your losses. I can't imagine what did that other than coyotes? None of that sounds like the work of raccoon or possum, who tend to eat parts - not the whole thing. And no way is it the cat. My cat finds little chicks endlessly fascinating but by the time they start to feather out, they start to get scary and by the time they're grown, they're downright terrifying. Even if that is just him personally, a cat doesn't have a large enough appetite to eat that much in one sitting. And since cats don't hunt in packs, its not like a group of them all got together at the same time to do this. The reason I say coyote is because they DO hunt in packs, and at this time of year, mothers have cubs/pups [whatever baby coyotes are called] at foot so my guess is a mother with her young ones came in and that is why so much was just gone. I can't even imagine how you are feeling right now.

No way was is coyotes. The silkies are locked up in a horse stall. The stall has a wood front with metal grill above it. It is probably 8 feet tall. It's a box stall-- so all sides are secure. Whatever it was, either crawled up over the horse stall or flew in?? The birds were never let out and exposed. At least I can rule out the barn cat... and he is safe for now. Could the predator have carried the birds and dragged them back over the top of the stall and took them off someplace? There were only feathers and wings left-- no legs, no body. The only bird left was Zebbie, and she was dead with her back plucked and bite/gash marks (talon marks maybe???) on her back and her head flattened. (chewed??) Looked like I interrupted the predator-- and I had no idea! I wish I had gone out there sooner!!

At any rate I was having a good laugh out of it. I really should write the Sheriff's office and point out many really stupid moves on the part of his officers. I can understand a concerned citizen calling something in, but to play super hero like he was trying was out and out dangerous.... had we really been thieves. The dispatcher should have told him to keep his distance from us and let the sheriff's officers handle it... not attempt to run us off the road.
I told DH that at least he had something to talk about at work today other than my chicken projects.

The guy that followed you was an idiot for sure. I wonder if they had seen him attempt to run you off, if he should have gotten a ticket for reckless driving over that one? I would write to them for sure and let them know they did a poor job handling the civilian.