Consolidated Kansas

[Hawkeye95]

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Do you mean build it by yourself with no help- or build it by yourself as opposed to buying a pre-built coop? If it's building yourself- I'm doing it! Just make sure you have lots of clamps and figure out crazy methods for holding things up. I've been using my feet while I'm drilling to keep things lined up. I also have been using a step stool to hold things up while I try to level. I even used a piece of firewood! LOL So far, the only thing my husband has helped me with is lowering the auger on the tractor while I positioned it on the ground and helped scoop it out. It was a two person job. You can do it! I'm not very far along, but take a look at My Page or whatever it's called under my profile picture.

Okay, so I've nearly got my nest box Wall all done. I just need to add in the window frame and frame out the extension for the boxes and then I can move on. I made it 6 ft tall and the boxes are 18 inches high. I think this will be the most difficult wall, since I really don't know how to do those boxes! I'm going to go look at LOTS of pictures now so that in the morning I can hopefully finish that.

 

[GeoKan]

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First of all

LN2008!

Sharol has pointed you in the right direction. I would suggest to keep it simple to begin with as some of the coops posted on this site are very elaborate. Post question here and I'll try to answer them and give you some direction as best I can. And remember to wear your safety glasses. You can do it. Just make a plan and take it slow. Stay hydrated too.

My coop is still a work in progress. I'm going to have to get on it hard in the next few weeks.

Hawkeye has been doing an awesome job building her coop all by herself.

The hardest part is getting started. I'm such a procrastinator. LOL

 

[GeoKan]

I went out this evening and found a bunch of these in my front yard — B L A C K B E R R I E S

The DW and I picked nearly 3 1/2 gallons so far. There must be another 2 more gallons left to pick. This is the third season since I planted them. They are taking over the yard — ACK. That rain really made them pop!

These are going to be used for a special purpose.

 

[ByN8ureHomstead]

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I have BBS Ameraucana.

 

[Ivywoods]

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Oh my gosh! I am SO jealous!

Each year my two sisters and I get together to make jelly and jam in the fall..... grape, sandplum, cherry, peach and whatever other fruit we can get our hands on. This year has been terrible. I have NO sandplums, NO grapes, NO peaches, and since I JUST planted my raspberries and blackberries, none of them either.

I hope my two sisters do a better job of rounding up fruit than I have!

A special purpose, huh? hmmm....

Also, I would think you could give some pretty good advice to some of these new coop builders. That was an AWESOME looking incubator you made!

 

[Ivywoods]

Speaking of coop building, I thought I was going to get a new poultry barn built this year. As things go, it looks like it will be next year before I get it done. So many things have come up on the farm that building my barn is not our biggest priority right now.

I am, however, excited about getting it done. I like to use recycled materials and will be doing as much of it as I physically can. It will definitely be more than a one person job.

I have the site of an old barn that has a nice cement floor. That barn was 20'x40'. That is how big by new barn will be. However, I am going to make the roof quite a bit bigger so there is overhang on all 4 sides. I want to find some used trusses so how much the overhang will be will depend on what size trusses I find. I am kicking myself in the behind right now because I passed up a whole set of trusses at an auction that went for $15 apiece! At that time I hadn't thought of doing the "overhang" part so I thought they would be too big. The way I am planning things now, they would have been perfect. I'm hoping I can have the roof overhang about 4' on 3 sides and a couple feet on the walk in side of the barn. There will be support posts on the outer edges for support for the roof and overhang, and the walls of the building will be on the site where the old barn walls were, so the whole barn part will have cement floors. I'm going to put skylight panels on the south slope of the roof and good sized vents on the east and west side. There will be runs off 3 sides of the barn with pop up doors into each, and outside walk in access into the outside runs. The pens inside the barn will all open to an isle down the center of the barn. There will be room for storage of supplies as well as feed. I'm going to have an automatic watering system throughout and feeders that can be filled from outside the pen. The nest boxes will all be roll out boxes that roll out to the isle for easy access.

.........and that is as much as I have planned so far! Since I won't be able to get it done till spring, I will be collecting material and building supplies over the fall and winter.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Ivywoods, your proposed barn sounds awesome! I'm sorry about the missed opportunity on the trusses. Things like that happen to me all the time where I'll see something and then have to over think it, or worry it won't work... and then the chance slips by! Anyway, I wish you good luck on finding those trusses! The barn plans sound really handy to store and work with.

GeoKan, I looked at your BYC Page and am really impressed with your incubator! You are pretty darned handy! I can't wait to see what you do with that outbuilding you plan on converting. I bet it will be great! I like blackberries, too. My grandma had over an acre planted in them down by the persimmon orchard. My brother and I used to pick them and eat them all day long when we'd visit. I keep wanting to plant some blackberries, too! I keep looking at them each year and then spending my money on trees instead. But if you have seen any pics of my yard- you'd understand that trees are a real priority on my place! ha! So, from your profile name.... do you like GeoCashing? A friend of mine spends his weekends running around with his GPS doing that and having a great time at it. My friend has a location in her yard with a little metal screw on cylinder that hangs in her tree with goodies. She doesnt' have a chance to run around too much, but she loves "participating" and having people find her cylinder.

Okay- so I checked in here first, but I'm off to hunt down some really good descriptive pictures on nest building.. I'm trying to figure out how to extend it out of my wall! I want to stud it out, but it looks like a lot of people have just used plywood. I would think that might not hold up as well. I don't know. I'll keep looking and if the majority is doing that, I guess I'll start cutting up the left over subfloor I have, since that will be pretty heavy duty.

 

[ChooksChick]

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Come on over and I'll show you several styles, some of which I made myself! It'll be okay!

 

[ChooksChick]

There are pics of my double decker nest boxes, with the poop board over the top on this column. Hope it helps some!
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[ChooksChick]

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Oh my gosh! I am SO jealous!

Each year my two sisters and I get together to make jelly and jam in the fall..... grape, sandplum, cherry, peach and whatever other fruit we can get our hands on. This year has been terrible. I have NO sandplums, NO grapes, NO peaches, and since I JUST planted my raspberries and blackberries, none of them either.

I hope my two sisters do a better job of rounding up fruit than I have!

A special purpose, huh? hmmm....

Also, I would think you could give some pretty good advice to some of these new coop builders. That was an AWESOME looking incubator you made!

I have grapes like mad, but I've never had them before- it's my first year for these vines, and there's likely a laundry basket or two of grapes on the vines...when do they ripen? I'm going to have to learn how to make jam!