coop floor

[lauralou]

City Girl,

Every girl needs a nail gun! And a pneumatic stapler. I don't have one of those, but I was noticing yesterday that the hardware cloth on my composter is coming loose. A pneumatic stapler would come in handy. At least you have a chopsaw though. Cool. Very useful.

I'm in the same boat that you are, just building my coop and dreaming of chickens. Are you building a run, or will your chickens free range? I am converting my fenced vegetable garden into the chicken run. It's about 25X40. I never once closed the garden gate last year, so I figure that the garden really doesn't need to be fenced.

Have you decided what kind of chickens you want and where they will come from? Are you thinking day old chicks? I know I'm not ready to try incubating eggs yet. I'm thinking Welsummer, Barnevelder, or Ameraucana. I won't have many, maybe 4 or 5 to start with.

When will you get your chickens? I can't wait. My birthday is in March. So, maybe birthday chickens?
I could raise them in the garage until it gets really warm outside. My husband would just LOVE that!Oh, wait, I know. I could put a baby pool right on top of his pool table. No, just kidding.

One last question: Should I have started a whole new thread? I'm very new to the forum.

Lauralou

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Sigh... I could really use the pneumatic stapler too. I am horrible with the hammer. I do okay with the screw gun though. Maybe this Christmas Santa will bring me a pneumatic stapler and air tank.

We are in the same boat!

<<< and look, here's a Pirate Smiley for just such an occasion!
I have no chickens yet. I'm hoping in the spring maybe to finally gear up. School's out at the end of April, so I figure to order some the first week of May! As I live alone, I'm thinking the baby brooder dog kennel can go right up on the dining room table!

I want Ameraucanas. The whole green eggs thing AND I hear that they have great personalities. I'm thinking maybe 4 or so. My coop isn't that big. I think I need to build some sort of run, as we have fox and coyotes and tons of red-tailed hawks about. Not to mention the loose running dogs and feral cats! Hard life for a chicken around here! I'll probably let them free range with supervision. What are Welsummer and Barnevelder chickens like?

I think the whole incubater thing is cool, but I don't have one. I figured to get day old chicks from MyPetChicken.com. I don't know of anyone else that sells just a few at a time. I DON'T need 25 chickens! I did meet a local farmer that has a variety of chickens, including an Ameraucana or two. If I'm really lucky, he'll have chicks when I need them. Where are you going to get yours from?

So is your husband into the whole chicken thing or is he just rolling his eyes? Do you have a whole herd of other pets as well? (I have two dogs, a cat and a couple of ferrets!)

I don't know if we should have started another post or not, but this is fun!
CG

 

[lauralou]

The Ameraucana eggs are cool. I used to have a neighbor who gave me fresh eggs all the time, and there would always be a couple of green eggs in the carton. Green eggs and ham! hee hee.

As for Barnevelders and Welsummers: Have you checked out Henderson's Chicken Breed Chart? If not search that and check it out. That's where I got most of my ideas on breeds. If you go there and click on FS under the bird picture, it will take you to Feathersite and you can look at pictures and follow links...much fun. Both lay dark brown eggs. And they are gorgeous birds, both brown tones. I like the brown chickens best for some reason.

I don't need 25 chickens either! As for where I will get mine, I have several different ideas. I may go the same route as you, order just a few from My Pet Chicken. I also found a person online who raises Ameraucanas and will ship as few as 10 day old chicks. She (I think it's a she) is on the TN/AL border if I remember correctly. Maybe near you? My last option, and probably my best, is a person who lives about an hour from me and raises Barnevelders. They say on their website that the eggs aren't dark like the eggs of the European Barnevelders. Described them as a rich copper brown. I wouldn't be disappointed if the eggs weren't as dark as I imagine them. I'm just going to eat them anyway. They don't ship live birds, but I could drive over and get some. They also sell started chicks, 5 to 10 weeks old. How easy would that be? I couldn't possibly kill them before they were, say 5 to 10 weeks old!

My husband is so great. He isn't excited about the chickens or anything, but if I want chickens, he wants me to have chickens. I think that he will enjoy them. He really likes animals. He came from a cat hating family, and so he never knew any better than to hate cats. So, when he got me, he got a cat in the bargain. A big spoiled ball of yellow fluff. He was less than thrilled at first. But you should see him now. We have 2 cats and he is CAT DADDY!!! I can always tell which cat he is talking to by which baby-talk voice he uses. I giggle because he's so big and macho, baby-talking the cat.

I believe that he thought he was going to get me chickens for Christmas. It has been warm here all week and I was changing the garden around, turning it into the chicken run. It's a bigger job than it sounds. He came out and told me he was ready to build the chicken coop. I'm like, no, I'm not quite ready for it yet. And he says, I want to get it ready before Christmas. Okay, let's build it then. We have a stack of scrap lumber, and we frame up the coop. It's sort of a big hutch thing, 18 square feet plus 15 more if I convert the bottom into a second coop. So we're talking as we build and I say something about getting chickens in spring, and his face just fell. I realized right then that he wanted to give me chickens for Christmas. I thought the coop was for Christmas! I can just picture the box full of chickens wrapped up under the tree. Don't shake that box!

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

HA! Well, if the present were under my tree here, there would soon be little chicks running all over the place. Max the Cat will not leave the tree and presents alone. I've been finding slaughtered felt ornaments all over the house!

What a good husband that he wanted to get you chickens! Go him! Don't you know he'll be out there baby talking the chickens too.

I'll go check out the breed chart. Copper brown eggs would be cool too. I was pretty pumped about the whole green eggs and ham bit myownself! I like the dark chickens too.

Let me know if you find the lady on the TN/AL border. That's not that far from me, all things considered. I'd prefer to buy local if I can (although the idea of the post office having a box of chickens for me is pretty funny!).

You are going to have huge coop! I'm jealous. I'm doing good to get the little one in place. Hopefully that will hold me until I develop better carpentry skills.

Have a great night!
CG

 

[WoodlandWoman]

You can also split an order of chicks with someone else. I've done that a couple of times when I didn't want a full order. You could post in the buy/sell/trade forum that you are looking for other people to split an order with you in the spring or post a note at your local feed stores. It's just another option.

 

[lauralou]

Good idea WoodlandWoman!

City Girl, I just sent you a PM. I have no idea how they work, if it goes to your email or if you have to check on the messages tab here. So, I just thought I'd let you know.

 

[ebonykawai]

Hehe, I just got back from Lowes and decided on this exact playhouse/coop! How hilarious to find you decided on the same one!

It is absolutely adorable. I, too, was trying to figure out what kind of floor I want. Did a search and found this thread. Sweet! Thanks, everyone!

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Hey, Ebony!
Isn't it adorable? I finally got mine assembled today. Now I can't wait for spring so I can fill it with chickens!

I ended up taking Lauralou's advice and framed out a floor. I had Lowe's cut (3) 2x4s and a sheet of 1/2" plywood in half so they would fit in my car.

I then had to trim 4 of the 2x4 pieces around 3.5" inches so I could make a true 4'x4' square with two cross pieces. The framing wasn't hard to do at all. Once I got the frame together I laid it on five cinder blocks (concrete blocks, whatever you want to call them...) and then screwed the plywood pieces down with the grain running purpendicular to each other. It feels pretty stable.

The trickiest part of the house was getting the first two walls together. I needed another set of hands to hold things up while I screwed them together. Once the first two were connected though, it was pretty easy. I haven't attached the shutters yet. I think I can put hinges on them and make them working shutters. Seems like it would be handy to be able to close the windows when it gets cold. I also plan on covering the windows with screening and the floor with some leftover vinyl linoleum scraps. Oh, and paint it if the weather ever cooperates!

It went together pretty quickly and was easy to do. Now I only need to get the run finished and we are good to go!

Good luck on yours!
CG

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Oh and I'm so glad I'm not the only one that saw that playhouse and thought "What a great chicken coop that would make!".

You should have seen the clerk's expression when she asked if I was getting the house for my daughters and I said, "No, for the chickens!"

 

[lauralou]

Yea City Girl!

Isn't it exciting to have your coop together? Mine is finished, too. Also not yet painted! And I went ahead and made the second coop underneath. I couldn't resist. It begged to be another coop.

Was the roof of your coop hard to put together?

Did you end up putting it under the tree out front?

Did you ever get in touch with the lady with the chicks you want in AL?

So many questions! In case you can't tell, I'm thrilled for you!