Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

So where the heck is my rain?????????????????????????????????????????????????

 

[cherwill]

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Apparently it got lost along with my rain!

We put boards down around the perimeter of our pen because our chickens love to dig along the fence. They can dig pretty deep, too. The wire fence is stapled to the boards, and then we also lined the outside with rocks just to make it look purty.

 

[Hawkeye95]

thanks guys! It looks like I may be putting the boards along the ground, too then. I guess it would make sense to have it there to screw down the bottom of the wire. Rocks around the outside sounds really pretty. We have zero rocks here. I don't want to press my luck and buy any! ha! My DH is on the fence about chickens anyway. He is only tolerating my turkey, and he's sick of hearing my turkey calling out for us and being lonely. I keep telling him the turkey will be happy with friends, but he won't let me get him a friend.

Chicken Danz- hope you get your rain! We've been getting it off and on this evening. It's 77 degrees right now! WOW!

ARGH, you guys would not know all the nightmares I'm having over this chicken coop! I keep dreaming about it and two nights ago I was so worried about the construction of the nest boxes that I had a hard time getting back to sleep. I'll be glad when this is over and my babies are in hand.

BTW, I'm going to put my nest boxes about 6 inches off the floor- that's not too close to the floor, is it? I can go higher, but if I do, it'll be harder to reach the door I plan on putting in to get eggs.

 

[sharol]

Mine are maybe 16" from the floor, but by the end of the winter (adding shavings periodically) the distance was down to about 8 inches. The girls seem OK with them. I have mine on cement blocks. If you use cement blocks, be sure to put them with the holes up and down. When I cleaned out the coop in order to insulate the walls, I found mouse nests in two of the holes (ick - the internal person in me was jumping up and down screaming - the adult just put the mess in the trash sack and continued). When I put them back I aligned the holes up and down and set the bottom of the nest box across them so that nothing can move in and call them home.

Last year's arrangement

The new, improved mouse free plan (lower left corner)

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[Hawkeye95]

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[Nana2KJS]

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Did you ask your local post office how long their AC has been on the fritz!?! The back of most post offices has very little air going for them because of the large open spaces, equipment and dock access.

McMurray is feeding you a line and the hook and sinker! They just want to sell you some excess chicks! It is way too you know what HOT! to ship those poor babies!! They will be in mostly closed boxes in completely closed airless trucks outdoor docks and back offices all the way to wherever you want them.

Don't buy it - those babies will FRY!!!!! It is so disheartening as a postal employee to continually see the idiocy of others being blamed on the post office.

Poor babies.

 

[redsoxs]

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Did you ask your local post office how long their AC has been on the fritz!?! The back of most post offices has very little air going for them because of the large open spaces, equipment and dock access.

McMurray is feeding you a line and the hook and sinker! They just want to sell you some excess chicks! It is way too you know what HOT! to ship those poor babies!! They will be in mostly closed boxes in completely closed airless trucks outdoor docks and back offices all the way to wherever you want them.

Don't buy it - those babies will FRY!!!!! It is so disheartening as a postal employee to continually see the idiocy of others being blamed on the post office.

Poor babies.

Thanks, Nana. I'm not sure what to think. I don't disbelieve you - I mean I was obviously concerned about the heat which is why I asked McMurray about it in the first place. I guess I have the assurance that they will stand behind it if they don't make it. I'm sure chicks sometimes do die in transit but I can't think a company would be able to stay in business by selling chicks that show up DOA. I'll just have to hope for the best I guess, as the order can't be cancelled. I haven't spoken to my post office yet. As a postal employee would you advise I tell them to keep them in a cool, warm, or in between place? Thanks, Nana.

 

[ByN8ureHomstead]

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I know some wire is 6 feet by 100 feet. tall

 

[sharol]

First, it looks clean because I just did the insulating plywood and cleaned (read scrubbed) the roosts when I had to take them down. The roost across the coop was nasty before I used the scrubber sponge on it, but the paint held pretty well. I used Kilz semi-gloss indoor/outdoor from Wal-mart, but they don't carry it any more (probably too good to keep in stock). I have noticed that as they got bigger, the poop on the roosts themselves decreased dramatically. They rarely do it any more, and when there is poop in the morning, I just scrub it off with a handful of shavings. The roost over the nest boxes may turn out to be problematic in terms of poop. If it is, I'll put a bit of the vinyl that I put over the floor before putting in wood shavings over the top of them for a poop board - I'm delaying that because it is a bit slick, and I don't want anyone slipping. I just am not sure how that will work, but I needed roost space and putting it further south (toward the door) would have made it too hard to clean.

What I do about poop is that in the morning after I let them out (about 7 in the summer), I take in my poop glove and a plastic bag and collect the biggests poops then I stir up the area under the roost. They don't scratch around much in the early morning, so that doesn't become a problem. I have done it that way since last fall (same shavings, just added some as I went along). I put the collected poop and shavings in the compost pile where hopefully it will decompose and become good fertilizer. This is easier now that the poops are bigger and fewer.

I'm trying to get them to use the new roost, but boy howdy, do chickens hate change. Last night I physically moved two of them to the new roost, and when I checked on them later, they were back in the original position. They will have to adjust in September when the new little girls join them in the coop (at 16 weeks or so), but until then they will just be getting used to the roost where it is.

Thanks for the compliment. The round circle openings are really half circles with the top being open. The lid just sits on the top of the box to make it easier to get to them to clean, but honestly, they never sleep in them (the roosts are much higher) and they have stayed clean for nearly a year (except for one broken, soft shelled egg last winter). If I were doing it again, I would use plywood instead of the OSB to minimize the places for lice and mites to hide, but so far so good on that, too. Two of them have wood shavings and the middle one has straw with a layer of DE under the bedding. Each of the girls has a preference, and some will wait for the preferred box to become available. The best decision I made was to prime and paint BEFORE constructing the nest boxes. It was much easier than trying to get into all the nooks and crannies.

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[Hawkeye95]

Nana- I went down and talked to my Post Office and they told me that they obviously can't stop me from ordering chicks, but that from past experience, it was a really bad idea right now. I don't live in town and our PO is a tiny little place in the middle of no where- and they don't have airconditioning. I think it's nearly hotter in their building than it is outside! They have fans in their windows and the postmaster always looks like he is dying in there. My mail carrier lady JUST bought a new car- a Jeep and she now has A/C in her car. But before that, she didn't have A/C in her car for using on her mail route. She got tired of her Bronco having problems and I know she has miles and miles of country road to travel to do her route. We only have ONE mail carrier! She works hard and long days. I ordered my chicks to arrive in October, like my PO suggested. I'm glad I went down to talk to them- they said the trucks they come down on are even hotter. They will go thru the airport sorting center- and it isn't air conditioned, either. I ordered Tadpoles for my oldest son, and that company won't ship me my tadpoles yet, either! I guess the PO conditions are a lot worse than I ever imagined.

ByNatureFarms- 6 feet wide! WOW! Well I'll be looking at it all to see how I will have to construct my poles, etc before actually digging them. I've already gotten myself into a lot of trouble by trying to do stuff ahead of time! ha!

Sharol, I definitely plan on painting the inside of my coop with exterior paint. I'm planning on putting in poop boards under all the roots, though. Funny how the chickens dont' like change. I'll remember that and try to get it done exactly how I want it in the first place. I'm thinking my coop will be done before my babies arrive... I hope! But even if not, it should be close. The babies won't be able to use anything in the coop right away, anyway. Thanks for the tip- I'll be sure to paint before I install.

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