Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

I got the birds fed and watered. At least the hose didn't freeze today.
Trish had asked me to post some pictures of my make shift shelter I built inside a dog kennel a while back. I've actually built two of them now. I took these pictures today while I was out so you could see what I did. I simply put a center bar across the middle of the kennel. In this case it was a double kennel so I put one cross bar going each direction. Then I laid out two pieces of tin. I attached some really simple frame work using 2X4s cut into 2X 2s to save money. I attached both panels to the center bar so it formed an A frame shape. After it was in position I used brackets and attached a couple roosts inside which also holds the structure in place. On this one I put a 5/4" decking board across the front to help hold in the straw. On the back side of the kennel I simply wired up some scrap pieces of tin to the chain link to enclose that side. Easy peasy and it makes great little shelters in a days time.

This is the top. Maybe if you click on it you can see how I ran my top bars.

This is a view from the far side of the pen so you can see the whole structure.

Side view

Took this picture so you could see the framework but the sun was shining from the opposite direction. I decided to post it cause I like the color spectrum that showed up. Yeah I'm weird that way!!!
But maybe you can see the roosts and the framework if you look carefully.

 

[Trish44]

I got the birds fed and watered. At least the hose didn't freeze today.
Trish had asked me to post some pictures of my make shift shelter I built inside a dog kennel a while back. I've actually built two of them now. I took these pictures today while I was out so you could see what I did. I simply put a center bar across the middle of the kennel. In this case it was a double kennel so I put one cross bar going each direction. Then I laid out two pieces of tin. I attached some really simple frame work using 2X4s cut into 2X 2s to save money. I attached both panels to the center bar so it formed an A frame shape. After it was in position I used brackets and attached a couple roosts inside which also holds the structure in place. On this one I put a 5/4" decking board across the front to help hold in the straw. On the back side of the kennel I simply wired up some scrap pieces of tin to the chain link to enclose that side. Easy peasy and it makes great little shelters in a days time.

This is the top. Maybe if you click on it you can see how I ran my top bars.

This is a view from the far side of the pen so you can see the whole structure.

Side view

Took this picture so you could see the framework but the sun was shining from the opposite direction. I decided to post it cause I like the color spectrum that showed up. Yeah I'm weird that way!!!
But maybe you can see the roosts and the framework if you look carefully.

Danz I like it, you're so good at building things, if I could build half as good as you I would be happy. You have just had a lot more practice than I have. I never really tried building anything till I got chickens again. I may have to go down later on where the old hog shelter is & tear off some tin if I can. There used to be an old farm here before the people who built this house bought the property. There was no house any more, but I think there must have been one before because there is an old well here that nobody bothered to fill in. The hog shelter is down on the front 5 acres aways from the house. It's pretty good sized, so they must have had quite a few hogs there. Of course any fence that may have been there isn't there any more. I know who the family was that originally owned all of this land around here & eventually it was broken up into plots & sold. Some of the family still lives in the area, I had the unfortunate experience of meeting the nastiest of them in the first few months I lived here, it wasn't a pleasant experience.

I'm hoping since it's supposed to be pretty warm this weekend that the mud will start drying up some so I will be able to get down & see my chickens in the pens down under the trees. I hope to be able to get my new dog run put up some time this weekend too so I can work on getting somewhere to put my heritage Barred Rocks. I eventually will build another hoop coop that the BRs & RIRs will share, but until I'm able to do that I want to at least get the BRs in somewhere & get them acclimated. The oldest pullet should be getting close to laying soon if she's not already.

Some of the hens are starting with the longer days & warmer weather to lay again. I found an egg in the dog house in the pen next to the main coop this afternoon, it's one of the places I can get to safely right now. I put one of those plastic storage bins in the pen with straw in it this afternoon, so hopefully the hens in there will use it. There are a lot of things that need to be caught up on as I get recovered enough to go out & do them. I've just got to be careful another few weeks so I don't fall & hurt myself again.

Most of the eggs have hatched now except for 9 remaining ones out of 25. They're either stragglers or they're not going to hatch one of the two. I'll leave them in there another day & see what happens. Most of the ones that are left are wheaten Ameraucanas & I'm hoping those are just slow. I have quite a few Speckled Sussex out of both batches, so I don't care as much about those as the Ameraucanas. Those are the ones I really need to hatch.

 

[Kimberlydm]

Hello, please pardon me for jumping in the middle of this thread. It has been so long since I have been on here I just thought it would be easier to ask instead of starting a whole new thread. Does anyone close to Olathe have any high tops for sale? I need a friend for our very spoiled Polish. She lost her friends at a young age and we have kept her in most of the time. I know how sad is it. She is a diva and I am hesitant she knows how to be a real chicken but we must try.

 

[Trish44]

Hello, please pardon me for jumping in the middle of this thread. It has been so long since I have been on here I just thought it would be easier to ask instead of starting a whole new thread. Does anyone close to Olathe have any high tops for sale? I need a friend for our very spoiled Polish. She lost her friends at a young age and we have kept her in most of the time. I know how sad is it. She is a diva and I am hesitant she knows how to be a real chicken but we must try.

That's hilarious! I don't have any Polish, but maybe someone else does. Have you put an ad on the Kansas Poultry Swap on FB? You might find some there as well.

 

[chicken danz]

Hello, please pardon me for jumping in the middle of this thread. It has been so long since I have been on here I just thought it would be easier to ask instead of starting a whole new thread. Does anyone close to Olathe have any high tops for sale? I need a friend for our very spoiled Polish. She lost her friends at a young age and we have kept her in most of the time. I know how sad is it. She is a diva and I am hesitant she knows how to be a real chicken but we must try.

Love the painted toe nails. I used to raise polish but sold them all. I am sure there are some out there.
Trish that wasn't even really a building project. The first one we built was hooked to the top with wire but it leaked when it rained so I had DH put some flashing over the bar to act as a shield. I couldn't reach it. This one we just angled one piece up higher than the other then screwed a short cut of wood between the two sides to hold it in place. It works fine...no leaks. The first one we built with the metal up against the bar and this one we built the side panels on the ground then moved them into place in the pen. It took more muscle and I couldn't move the built panels by myself....not weight...just sheer bulk. They aren't perfect shelters but they used what was here. With a bar of pipe and two fasteners for the center pole you can make a cheap shelter with left over metal. Plus the water or snow doesn't sit on top. If I had had full 8 foot pieces of metal I think I could have gone completely from one side of the kennel to the other. The kennels are 10 foot wide. So if you had a narrower kennel you could get by with some shorter cuts as well. As long as you have about 7 feet or so you'll have enough for a 6 foot tall kennel.
It's still only 27 degrees here this morning. It's got a long ways to go to get to 50 degrees today.

 

[cherwill]

My RP tom is eating!!! Yesterday he came up to me when I had a bowl of eggs (eggs that had been frozen so I had broken them into a bowl to give the chickens). He seemed very interested so I tried to make sure he got a decent serving of the eggs in spite of the competition.

That's wonderful news!

Well I just got back a bit ago from my appt. with the Ortho Dr. & I don't need knee surgery, yay! He says I just wrenched my knee really bad when I fell & it may take some time to feel better. I got to keep the disk from my MRI so we brought it home & looked at my fracture. You can see it really good on the MRI. The nurse was laughing because she said the radiologist called them telling them I had a fracture of the fibula & she said yeah we knew that. They thought they were telling them something new I guess. The Dr. says I have another 6 weeks of healing to do yet, to just keep doing my exercises to strengthen the leg. I will see him again the end of March & have an x-ray to make sure the bone has healed. I'm so relieved though I don't have to have surgery again & start over on recovering, whew! Yeah I do need to get some of those Yaktrax for sure, I'm really scared of falling now after breaking a bone for the first time in my life.

That's good that you don't need surgery. Sometimes a bad wrench or sprain can seem to hang on even longer than a break, though.

I just got up to pick up a screaming Little One and happened to look out the window. I saw a shadow through the tree line that caused me to set the Little One down, put my boots on and run outside, grabbing my camera on the way out the door. Needless to say, my birds are locked up and will be for a while.


Click on the picture to enlarge it. He looks even worse with the picture a little larger.

Oh my, he looks very hungry. I hope he doesn't come back.

Danz I like it, you're so good at building things, if I could build half as good as you I would be happy.

I agree!

 

[Trish44]

cherwill, yeah the way I fell I really twisted my whole leg & sprained my ankle & wrenched my knee as well as breaking the bone so I did a number on myself. The Ortho Dr. says it will just take some time for it all to heal.

It's up to 61 degrees here, wahoo! It has been windy most of the day though so it hasn't felt quite that warm. I'm hoping since the sun finally came out that it will help to dry up the mud some now. It's either one thing or another with the snow & then the mud.

Well I'm headed down to clean brooders, so I had better get to it. I'm sending the older RIR chicks out to the growout pen this afternoon so I can spread out the other older chicks & separate them from the newer ones.

 

[chicken danz]

We only made it to 46 here as far as I can tell. I didn't continually check it. But it never felt very warm. I'm holding out hope for the rest of the week. That wind today just made it feel miserable.
I finally got my English orps moved to a breeding pen today. I have some extra roos I didn't put in there. Not sure what I'm going to do with them. I'd like to have at least one of them for a back up. I got the sevin out and treated them and clipped their little fluffy back ends so I could hopefully get some fertile eggs from them.
The mud was so nasty I lost count of all the times I fell down. It was actually worse today than the snow has been to get through.

 

[cleansquared]

Hi every one ! Good news my surviving legbar started laying again first time since we moved to moline and her mate seems to have learned by example of teenage barred rocks in the next pen how to make fertile eggs! So here is the question could any one close to me hatch? And also how long can I gather eggs for a hatch and they still be viable? (How many days do I have before having to get them in an incubator)

 

[KuroKitsune]

Hi every one ! Good news my surviving legbar started laying again first time since we moved to moline and her mate seems to have learned by example of teenage barred rocks in the next pen how to make fertile eggs! So here is the question could any one close to me hatch? And also how long can I gather eggs for a hatch and they still be viable? (How many days do I have before having to get them in an incubator)

wish i didn't live 3 hours from wichita cause i'd love to hatch some legbars. eggs are good for a week after that they go down in chances of hatching