Consolidated Kansas

[HEChicken]

Here's the bucket/nipple waterer on the cookie tin heater I couldn't figure out how to post way back when. Worked fine after I got rid of the Thermocube.

What was the problem with the thermocube? I just got one at Atwoods so that I would have it on hand for next winter. I've only heard good things about them before but its always good to know both sides of the story.

I hear you on the weather/kids activities thing. DS's baseball coach told us Saturday that starting this week we will practice Mon-Thurs plus Saturday. Cough. And the practices are clear on the other side of town so a 2-hour practice is a minimum 3-hour commitment of time. And its so far across town its not worth dropping him off and going back to get him. So, for the foreseeable future, I will essentially have no late afternoon/evenings

 

[tweetysvoice]

David – Amazing work! I wish I had half the talent as some of you in building. I have good pictures in my head, but that’s about it. I can’t wait to get started on our coop. Took off the first week in April to get it built and done. Good thing that’s not far away. I totally understand what others mean when they say that they are ready for the birds to get out of the house! LOL!

Sapphireblu76 - From what I understand, the nipple system works on gravity – so it won’t work if they are facing out instead of down. AND – POST PICS of your ducklings!! We’ll be able to help identify them for you. TSC is where I got my Pekins, that’s the only kind they carried. The other two came from Orschlens.

As much as I want rain for my newly planted garden, I really don’t want it to rain all week. That’s what the weather is forecasting here.. uggg. Supposed to be thunderstorms all day today. I hope everyone has a great week!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Tweety-- what an ADORABLE picture of your duck!! So cute!!! I just want to cuddle that cutie!

WichitaKid-- Hey, you did FABULOUS!!! You got a TON of work done for just this weekend! Did you have help with lifting and holding? I think I spent half my time trying to figure out a way to rig things to be clamped or set on something for an 'extra hand'. Things move a LOT faster if you have a second person. I LOVE your gambrel roof-- that was a great decision and it's going to have incredible charm to boot! You'll enjoy looking at your chicken coop. For 12 hens, I think you're right on with the 4 nest boxes. Looks like you're framing it out the way I did on my large coop. If you look at my coop page, I have a lot of pictures on how I framed out my nest boxes and I'm REALLY happy with mine.

Anyway..

on your progress!!

Avery, neat set up for your water! Really, pictures really bring things into perspective. Do you have the bucket attached to something-- just worried it might fall over? Did this set up freeze in the winter? I can imagine the nipple would freeze up-- probably not the water in the bucket? I really love that idea, I just don't know how it would work in winter with keeping all the nipples defrosted.

SapphireBlu-- you have 37 more chicks coming!? WOW! What are you getting? I'd love to start a meat coop later on

 

[Hawkeye95]

OH!! I forgot to say last night, I got side tracked! I got my FIRST egg from my girls out in the big coop!!!! It's a brown egg, so it either had to come from the Rocks or the Wyandottes. It was on the smaller side--- almost the size of my silkie eggs!
I guess it's my first "pullet egg"!!

They are finally earning their keep!

 

[tweetysvoice]

OH!! I forgot to say last night, I got side tracked! I got my FIRST egg from my girls out in the big coop!!!! It's a brown egg, so it either had to come from the Rocks or the Wyandottes. It was on the smaller side--- almost the size of my silkie eggs!
I guess it's my first "pullet egg"!!

They are finally earning their keep!

WOOOHOOO!!! Congrats!!!

 

[Deerfield Acres]

OH!! I forgot to say last night, I got side tracked! I got my FIRST egg from my girls out in the big coop!!!! It's a brown egg, so it either had to come from the Rocks or the Wyandottes. It was on the smaller side--- almost the size of my silkie eggs!
I guess it's my first "pullet egg"!!

They are finally earning their keep!

That's great!!!!

 

[Deerfield Acres]

As much as I want rain for my newly planted garden, I really don’t want it to rain all week. That’s what the weather is forecasting here.. uggg. Supposed to be thunderstorms all day today. I hope everyone has a great week!

Exactly my sentiments. The kids and I had a planting marathon Saturday but now I'm so sore that I'm glad for the day off. Hopefully, the forecast will be a dud.

 

[HEChicken]

OH!! I forgot to say last night, I got side tracked! I got my FIRST egg from my girls out in the big coop!!!! It's a brown egg, so it either had to come from the Rocks or the Wyandottes. It was on the smaller side--- almost the size of my silkie eggs!
I guess it's my first "pullet egg"!!

They are finally earning their keep!

The rest will probably start soon too then. I don't know if there is a hormone cycling kind of thing involved but it seems to me when I get my new batches of chicks each year, that even though they are generally all different breeds, they all start laying within days of one another. The chicks who hatched under my broody hen last August, started laying in February and they ALL laid their first egg within two days. So I exponentially increased my numbers of laying hens seemingly overnight.

The little pullet eggs will get bigger pretty soon. Its an almost imperceptible difference each day - you may not even notice the difference unless you weigh them.

 

[chickmama1662]

Hawkeye, just curious what you are going to have along the top edge of the coop you're building for your brother? Why are the pickets not go all the way to the top? Thanks.

 

[pikeman94]

How many birds will this coop hold? I ask because I am expanding the flock by a couple of birds and was thinking about using the kiddos old play house as a coop. I think it is about 4'x5'. The kicker is that I let the birds range on my almost 1/2 acre of a yard. Since they are not confined to the coop and would only use it to lay would I need to adhere to the 2 sq ft per bird rule?

Pikeman

Okay, did some more painting where I added new wood. Started on the roof-- put a piece of fascia under the over hang, so the OSB won't be unprotected in the elements. I thought about just painting it and I just couldn't do it. I used our angle grinder... BTW, my DH told me we didn't have one! So I said I wanted one for Mothers Day. (what a gift, hu?) Anyway, then he suddenly remembered we DID have an angle grinder but told me not to use it. I found it today and figured out how to put the blade on (all without telling him). Now I understand why he didn't want me using it. I burned myself on it, AND I accidentally nearly cut off the tip of my finger! I was holding it all wrong. I haven't told my DH yet that I used it. My finger is fine-- other than the 3rd degree burn I got, but it's small, just got a couple of white bubbles on it. Ouch. I also discovered that it shoots out sparks!! I'm a little afraid to use it again, but at least I got the ends of some screws knocked off. I ran out of the tin to put around the roof, so I'll have to get more tomorrow. Ah well. This is where I stopped. I'm done for today and my finger hurts (okay, it's throbbing like a son of B!!). Besides, I have to take my oldest to piano lessons.

Oh yeah-- the hole in the nest box-- I WILL be filling that in. I started to work on it (got the right board for it) ...and then decided I'll do it tomorrow. I was anxious to get the stuff grinded off and the roof started and I got a lot more painting done- plus the fascia board you see under the over hang. That will need to be caulked and re-painted. Seems like I should be done by now, but I'm sort of guilty of not even starting on it until like a bit after noon.

A bit of a procrastinator, I am.