Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Check Craigslist for used windows, or put an add in for them. I guess it depends on whether you want an operative window or just one to let light in. I bought a couple of small storm windows (about $35 each) for my brooder that operate like a normal window. All of my other windows have been recycled storm windows turned inside out so they operate from the outside. (I did it that way so I could put chicken wire on the inside and remove the screens. I also have vents which are basic rectangles cut from the building. I use the piece I cut out and reinforce it with a couple of 1 Xs. I frame around the hole and then hang it with hinges and put a little hook type latch on them them to secure them open or closed.
I wouldn't recommend plexi 'cause it is expensive and it scratches so easily unless you are simply putting in a nonoperative window for light.
Many years ago I was left with young children and a huge gutted house. I had to learn how to do everything. The amazing part was that I loved it and it became a passion as well as a necessity to do everything myself. I learned an awful lot along the way. I learned more from my mistakes than from reading. You are so lucky to have the internet for reference. I didn't back then. I bought books and read magazines.
I still take great pride in the things I do or build. I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I'm never quite satisfied, but just the same pretty darned pleased with what I know how to do. I do wiring, plumbing, carpentry, you name it.
I'm not familiar with the roofing you mentioned. Anything that is light and easy to put up sounds great. I have used metal on several of my roofs just to save money. It's hard to cut so you might have found a great answer to the problem. I so HATE roofing anything.

 

[Hawkeye95]

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Yeah, I think someone else said that plexi was more expensive than glass! How can that be? You can tell I don't spend a lot of time in the tool store. I was told that if I made my own windows, to have a glass shop cut my sizes and it would be a lot cheaper. I'm holding out for old windows! I saw on craigslist that there were LOTS of storm windows, but my DH told me that wasn't what I wanted. He said I needed sashes or old windows. I didn't know you could use the storm windows. A guy had them on Craigslist for $12 a piece. He had like 28 of them, and then there was another person who had green house windows- where there are 3 framed windows stacked in a larger frame and then they all pull out like a vent? I figured I could tear it apart and use each window piece inside the frame for a window on each side of the coop... but I didn't know if that was more work than it was worth. Going to see what ReStore has and then see how much better those other options are looking! ha! I'm wanting to hinge my windows at the top and prop them open like I've seen everyone doing. Figure that seems a pretty good idea.
ChickenDanz- really amazing you know so much, and that you just decided to do it all on your own years ago. I thought the Ondura roofing looked pretty neat. It said it is 18 lbs a sheet- and it's 48"X79" a piece for $19.92. Sounds good, right? It says it is an asphault product that is supposed to outlast metal roofing. (or so the brochure says!) Comes in many colors, can be repainted if needed, and easy to screw thru, lift, and cut. I thought it felt like really heavy tar paper. But it shows people walking on it. It also shows pictures of Dairy Queens and Pizza Huts using it on their roofs... even better? Anyway, I'll see if I can hunt down reviews on it online before I'm sold.

It looks just like corrugated metal- I was fooled.

 

[ByN8ureHomstead]

I don't know how often you people search craigslist but I got try researching for the same stuff but in a different city.
I now use http://www.searchtempest.com/ to search craigslist.

 

[Ivywoods]

Used windows would definitely be a lot easier than trying to build your own. Is there an architectural salvage place in Wichita? Besides Craigslist (which is a good source for a lot of things) you might try looking at local auction notices or if there is a construction company that does salvage work on old houses. There should be a good source down there. Sometimes you can find them marked down at lumber yards if it was a special order then they weren't the right size or something, but those would probably run more money. A while back we bought 6 really nice new crank out windows at an acution. Got them pretty cheap and were going to use them in the shop and the new barn. They are still waiting to be used, so I'm going to put them in my new poultry barn........If I EVER get started on that!

 

[Naughty]

I love my tools... am slowly building up a tool collection - just got my first reciprocating saw (at menards for 20 at a grand opening) i love it - i feel like a female version of tim taylor

and for the record- my lil girl seems to have survived the Kansas Dog Day with very few side effects - she's a little skittish still....but appears okay

can someone please turn the heat off?

we got brave - and let some of the girls back out again to do the grasshopper thing in my garden - they loved it too much to stop em - thank goodness for the bell trick - they go back in every time - but - there is always that one hen you have to herd... it's very frustrating to be outsmarted by a creature with a brain the size of a peanut

 

[Tommie D]

I got Glass! If you need it come get it.
Large Windows, were brand new 15-20 years ago but sat out in the weather and the frames are rotten now but the glass is in good shape.
FREE FREE FREE FREE you load and haul........ over by Seneca & 55th st. South.

 

[ChooksChick]

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Wow! Free! Heckuva deal!

I hope everyone is doing okay- we did get a brief respite from the heat and a small shower, so we're not quite so strung out. Tomorrow is more of the same old heat, it seems. I've lost a lovely Blue Silkie overnight, as it appears she hunkered down with her brood under a big peony instead of going into the Banty Shanty like she does every night. Hubby put up the 7 coops here at home last night while I was out at the farm, and unlike my normal rounds, I didn't go out to double-check everything because it was raining...and usually everything is put up correctly, anyway!

I found the horrible discovery this morning, and I'm mad. Whatever it was had to have been fairly small, because it looks as though it tried to pull her through my plethora of fencing in several different spots and gave up without eating anything but her face...but there are gobs of feathers in front of the chainlink here, the cattle panel there, the welded wire there...and then her poor headless neck sticking through a combo panel over there...and her completely perfect body. I was a very emotional poultier this morning. 2 of her 3 babies were missing, but one went rushing into the Banty Shanty the minute I opened it to go find its co-momma. It was a duo of broody hens caring for 3 chicks. It's sad to see the pair that remains, but at least they have each other.

Tonight, as I took the trash out, I had a headless baby bunny awaiting me on the doormat, as Weasel, the 30# cat had left me a present for giving him dinner twice tonight. What a brat. It makes me cry every time. He only gives me bunnies and squirrels, and my neighbors love him for it, but it makes me sad. I'm glad he's afraid of birds, because he could take down a Cocker Spaniel...a chicken would be no issue at all!

Too many losses of late. I'm having a tough time with it all. I have at least a dozen extra cockerels that I'm certain I won't be able to give away alive, despite wonderful pedigrees, and I'm trying to talk myself into hanging onto them and having them processed, but they're all sweet and lovely. I need a good kick in the empathy bum, because I'm a freaking wreck right now! Sheesh.

That being said, anyone need a French Black Copper Marans cockerel or a Black Orp cockerel? How about a Black Banty Cochin? Maybe a half dozen of each?

I need a vacation. Probably not nearly as bad as some, though!

On that note, good thoughts to everyone, big showers to Katy, and everyone remember that whatever limited energy and motivation you feel today would feel wonderful to someone out there, so consider it a blessing and make the most of it!

 

[sharol]

Ah, chooks, sorry about your Silkie and chicks. It is so sad when you lose birds to predation. My cat brought in a mouse (ick) last night. It was dead, but it had a nursing baby attached to it that was still alive. I HATE mice and rats, but it was so sad to see that baby trying to survive. My DH had to put it out of its misery for me. I'm such a wuss about that stuff.

Yesterday was wonderful (I know, 94 isn't cool, but after 105 on Sunday it seemed cool). My little girls and big girls (12 weeks and 1 year) are free ranging in the yard together with no real conflicts. My head chook sent in her second in command the first day for a bit of enforcement. Vic (a GLW) did a running stomp of the head chick in the little girls group. She squawked and ran off, and there hasn't been any conflict since.

What I want to get is an older, experienced, human friendly roo later this fall when I have a place to isolate him for a while. The little girls will move into the main coop in September and the tractor will be free for quarantine. I have to wait to be sure that one of the chicks is really a pullet before I do that, though. I don't really care about breed (EE would be nice -- they are so pretty or Marans), since I don't plan to do any hatching. I just want him for protection. I just don't need the teen aged angst of a young roo.

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[Hawkeye95]

Chicken Danz, oh my, SO SORRY about your silkie and your two little chicks! That is so terribly sad and I would probably be crying over that too. SO terrible! Any ideas what animal it was? What do we have that is small? Could it be a 'possum? Do they eat chickens? I have no idea if they do! We sure have a lot of 'possums around here, I guess I better find out. Poor bunny, too! To say it politely, I'm not a cat lover... but that's really because my neighbor cat comes over and kills my bunnies and I HATE that. I would rather have lots of bunnies around. I've noticed since he started hunting on my property too- I rarely see a bunny anymore, and it's so sad. We used to have rabbits everywhere! You could walk outside and one would go running off. I've managed to save teeny tiny bunnies, too. Once (my fault) my dog dug up a bunny nest and ate all but two. They were the size of a small mouse and barely had fur and their eyes were closed. I brought in the two and got the supplement goat milk and fed them with a syringe and was able to release them 3 weeks later. When I released them, they were teenaged bunnies that could really hop. I handled them only when necessary, and at the end, I just put a bowl in for water and gave them lots of clover I pulled from outside.

Naughty, I can hear you do the Tim Allen "oh, oh, oh, oh, oooh!" funny!

ByNatureFarms, I used that link you gave us last night to try to hunt down windows. No luck, but the search is really nice!

IvyWoods, are you getting more chickens, or want to move them all to a bigger spot? Another polutry barn, hu? The windows you picked up sound pretty darned nice!

Tommy D- wow!! free glass! That is AWESOME! Okay, I'm going to go to my ReStore today and see what they have. I might go that route if I can't find something that will work (and is cheap enough!). Thank you for the offer! That is an amazing deal! BTW- that location is down south by me! Is that Haysville? It sure sounds like it? If necessary, I know how to cut glass- I make stained glass windows as a hobby. But I rarely have time anymore.

My husband and I set the posts last night- he spent another 30 mins lining it all back up while I held ends and leveled. We finally got cement put in it. But he said I couldn't fill it up with dirt yet. I want to dump the dirt back in this morning, but he said to wait.

I'm sooooo impatient!!! ....drumming fingers I want to get started already! Who knew 4 stinkin' posts would take this long?

 

[HEChicken]

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Try Habitat for Humanity Re-Store, which is on south Hillside (just a block from Hillside Feed & Seed so when I make the drive over there I always visit both). You will have your choice of old windows and their prices are reasonable.