Consolidated Kansas

[Hawkeye95]

Renee- I was reading the thread on 'show me your pop doors' and I saw your response, that you have a plexiglass door. Why is that? Did you want more light in when it was shut? I thought that was really a cool idea. Also- someone else was using a clear plastic cutting board for their pop door and said they had taken your advice.

Also, tell me what you were talking about with the size- you said that in the winter it needs to be smaller? I'm planning on having my pop door face the south and there will be 12 feet of roof overhang. It should help a bit. I was going to make my pop door a bit on the larger side so that my turkey (if I get more????) will fit through it. So I framed it out (but I can certainly re-frame!! ) and made it 15.5 wide and 15" high. Thinking a turkey can get in it. Is that too big??? I also framed in a vent on the side of it about the same dimensions for summer venting. I bought floor vents for up high near the roof line. They can be closed off or opened up. BUt I bet even if they are closed off, some air will leak thru. I'd rather fix it now before I get any further if I need to! Then I noticed that someone just bought a dog door with the plastic and cut it into strips-- and they said their chickens walk thru it!?? Would a chicken really do that? I bet mine would be too dumb to do that, yes?

 

[chicken danz]

Your floor vents up high will be wonderful. Again, regardless of how cold it is you don't want your chicken house air tight. You will end up with frost bite and sick chickens if they are closed up too tight. Even when it was super cold I just hung a heat lamp in the light socket instead of a normal bulb, and between that and the body heat of the birds it felt bearable in the chicken houses. One thing you might want to do before supply and demand get too high is consider buying a heated waterer for your birds. You can be inventive and make your own. We bought several heated dog water bowls which were great, but probably won't work for you because your chicks will be so young this winter. I had gotten several old food warmer trays at auctions. They were popular during the 70's. You can often find them at a thrift shop or some place people donate stuff. I am coating the ones I have with Redline. It's a water proof coating. And plan to set waterers for the younger birds on them this winter.
I lost another one of my good hens to the heat yesterday. It's those darn chickens that insist on sitting that succumb to the heat. Makes me sick. How can you sit there and let your internal body temperature get too high because you think you have to sit on eggs. (worse yet, eggs I already gathered!!) This is the second hen I've lost to the heat in the hen house.
I have done nothing but think this morning. They are saying our actual temp will be at least 111 today. We are kind of in the hot spot of the state. I have fans in all the houses but if you are blowing 111 degree air it doesn't cool off much. I sure don't want to loose any more chickens. I'm glad I've retained some of my offspring this year for layers or I'd be out of business at this rate.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Quote:
Oh no, I'm so sorry about your hen! You just have not had good luck at all this year! Very, very sorry.

We hit 111 yesterday, too. I heard it is supposed to be even hotter today. I just have had enough. I didn't work this morning either, the driveway was already burning up to the touch this morning. Just going to work in the evening. I plan on using a heat lamp, so even with the pop door open during the day, they should be okay? I like the heated dog bowls, but yeah, they would probably drown in it since they will still be little.

I'll be looking into other options, but my Atwoods always gets some really neat things in for chickens and rabbits. I'll be scoping it out early, like you suggested so I won't lose out. I'll need to buy my heat lamp in another month or so too before the chicks arrive in October... but the farm store has a lot of those sitting on the shelf right now. They had about 30 bulbs of both colors, too. I bet they get in more this Fall.

What do you think about the 15X15 opening? Is that still too big- even for a turkey?

 

[ByN8ureHomstead]

Quote:
We've been looking at land in northeast Washington. Sometime in the description it will say "you can see Canada". If things go right this will be are last summer here.

Wow! Any reason in particular you are moving? Besides the heat, that is.

How is the cost of living up there? Our friends live in Portland, Or and they told us that cost of living is much higher and they ended up with smaller property and house than what they had here. They moved because of his job, otherwise they would not have gone. But you have to go where the money is. I love where I live... that is, until we have summers like this.

I really need to get off of here, I keep looking at coop designs. I'm totally obsessed! ha!

We are a very outdoorsy family and have always enjoyed being in the mountain. We do not like the heat and I would very much rather be in an earthquake then a tornado and we loved snow. I want to live someplace where I will spend as much time outside in the summer as I do now in the winter, where mountains and the ocean are close and where lakes and river water are clear.

Here is some land that is for sell in the area we have been looking. You cannot get land this nice and for this price here in Kansas, The taxes on the land are also very low.

http://www.johnlscott.com/propertydetail.aspx?GroupID=253593418&ListingID=301071962
http://www.johnlscott.com/propertydetail.aspx?GroupID=253593368&ListingID=301011092
http://www.johnlscott.com/propertydetail.aspx?GroupID=253594383&ListingID=301007485

 

[sharol]

Be sure to get in writing that you will be allowed to build on the site (and build a road to the house). WA has some really tough laws concerning public lands (as they should).

Quote:
Wow! Any reason in particular you are moving? Besides the heat, that is.

How is the cost of living up there? Our friends live in Portland, Or and they told us that cost of living is much higher and they ended up with smaller property and house than what they had here. They moved because of his job, otherwise they would not have gone. But you have to go where the money is. I love where I live... that is, until we have summers like this.

I really need to get off of here, I keep looking at coop designs. I'm totally obsessed! ha!

We are a very outdoorsy family and have always enjoyed being in the mountain. We do not like the heat and I would very much rather be in an earthquake then a tornado and we loved snow. I want to live someplace where I will spend as much time outside in the summer as I do now in the winter, where mountains and the ocean are close and where lakes and river water are clear.

Here is some land that is for sell in the area we have been looking. You cannot get land this nice and for this price here in Kansas, The taxes on the land are also very low.

http://www.johnlscott.com/propertydetail.aspx?GroupID=253593418&ListingID=301071962
http://www.johnlscott.com/propertydetail.aspx?GroupID=253593368&ListingID=301011092
http://www.johnlscott.com/propertydetail.aspx?GroupID=253594383&ListingID=301007485

 

[Hawkeye95]

Quote:
Wow! Any reason in particular you are moving? Besides the heat, that is.

How is the cost of living up there? Our friends live in Portland, Or and they told us that cost of living is much higher and they ended up with smaller property and house than what they had here. They moved because of his job, otherwise they would not have gone. But you have to go where the money is. I love where I live... that is, until we have summers like this.

I really need to get off of here, I keep looking at coop designs. I'm totally obsessed! ha!

We are a very outdoorsy family and have always enjoyed being in the mountain. We do not like the heat and I would very much rather be in an earthquake then a tornado and we loved snow. I want to live someplace where I will spend as much time outside in the summer as I do now in the winter, where mountains and the ocean are close and where lakes and river water are clear.

Here is some land that is for sell in the area we have been looking. You cannot get land this nice and for this price here in Kansas, The taxes on the land are also very low.

http://www.johnlscott.com/propertydetail.aspx?GroupID=253593418&ListingID=301071962
http://www.johnlscott.com/propertydetail.aspx?GroupID=253593368&ListingID=301011092
http://www.johnlscott.com/propertydetail.aspx?GroupID=253594383&ListingID=301007485

Gorgeous!!! Ooooh, I like the last one the best! Even though it is only 10 acres- you have that amazing mountain view and it says it's close to lakes and the park! I would want to buy a boat and set up camp on the lake!!! I LOVE boating! We sold our boat a few years back because really, there aren't any good places to boat here. I bet the last place would have more of a "resort" feeling to it than the other properties! Lucky you! If you like the snow and the cold weather, then hey- why not!? Are you going to be buying it soon? That is awfully cheap for that much land! We paid $30 for our 10 acres. (no house-- we built our house later) But totally worth it.

 

[ByN8ureHomstead]

Quote:
We are a very outdoorsy family and have always enjoyed being in the mountain. We do not like the heat and I would very much rather be in an earthquake then a tornado and we loved snow. I want to live someplace where I will spend as much time outside in the summer as I do now in the winter, where mountains and the ocean are close and where lakes and river water are clear.

Here is some land that is for sell in the area we have been looking. You cannot get land this nice and for this price here in Kansas, The taxes on the land are also very low.

http://www.johnlscott.com/propertydetail.aspx?GroupID=253593418&ListingID=301071962
http://www.johnlscott.com/propertydetail.aspx?GroupID=253593368&ListingID=301011092
http://www.johnlscott.com/propertydetail.aspx?GroupID=253594383&ListingID=301007485


Good advice. I will write that one down. Thanks

 

[ByN8ureHomstead]

Quote:
We are a very outdoorsy family and have always enjoyed being in the mountain. We do not like the heat and I would very much rather be in an earthquake then a tornado and we loved snow. I want to live someplace where I will spend as much time outside in the summer as I do now in the winter, where mountains and the ocean are close and where lakes and river water are clear.

Here is some land that is for sell in the area we have been looking. You cannot get land this nice and for this price here in Kansas, The taxes on the land are also very low.

http://www.johnlscott.com/propertydetail.aspx?GroupID=253593418&ListingID=301071962
http://www.johnlscott.com/propertydetail.aspx?GroupID=253593368&ListingID=301011092
http://www.johnlscott.com/propertydetail.aspx?GroupID=253594383&ListingID=301007485

Gorgeous!!! Ooooh, I like the last one the best! Even though it is only 10 acres- you have that amazing mountain view and it says it's close to lakes and the park! I would want to buy a boat and set up camp on the lake!!! I LOVE boating! We sold our boat a few years back because really, there aren't any good places to boat here. I bet the last place would have more of a "resort" feeling to it than the other properties! Lucky you! If you like the snow and the cold weather, then hey- why not!? Are you going to be buying it soon? That is awfully cheap for that much land! We paid $30 for our 10 acres. (no house-- we built our house later) But totally worth it.

We are planning on buying something in about 6 months.

 

[LN2008]

I was planning on working on my coop today but this heat is INSANE!!!!!!!

The girls are staying inside a little longer I guess.

oh well.

 

[Ivywoods]

Everyone outside has been taken care of and I am drenched. It is so freaking humid and hot! I'm going to sit down here by the fan till I dry off some then hubby and I are going to grill some chicken, and then take a nap this afternoon.

I'm going to try to remember this heat when it's minus 18 degrees this winter with a wind chill of 50 below! This has been such an unusually hot summer, but I still love Kansas, my home state.

I've been to Washington and Oregon and vacationed there numerous times. I love it there, too. If I wasn't so rooted here I would consider moving there in a heartbeat! Good luck in your move to Washington! I sure hope that works well for you.

If I ever move again it will probably be to a retirement home.