Coop O' Procrastination

[Euphillia]

Well, we put building our coop off for far too long do to heat and Army taking bit of hubby's time on the weekends. The girls finally outgrew their wardrobe box brooder this weekend.

So we opted for a temp solution that involves my dogs old extra large wire crate with a turned over plastic box for sleeping. They are being housed inside our 1000 sq foot fenced garden with LOTS of free range time right now.

We scored all our building material for free(minus nails, screws, and hardware cloth) So this great long weekend the hubs is getting will be for building our 4x4 doghouse type coop with run.

In the mean time, check out the temp quarters(and no worries, we have garage back up in case the weather gets bad)




Totally horrible I know, but they seem to be loving it! I keep that bowl full of ice water to keep them cool. This is the worst summer I have ever seen in Colorado.

 

[furbabymum]

Same over here in WY though I blame it on the constant smoke keeping the heat in.

My husband is procrastinating on my duck pond build. He says they can swim in the stock tank till he gets around to it. I might have to tell him we have 2x as many ducks as he thinks.....

 

[Ashdoes]

Don't feel bad. Between the weather, unpacking the new house and the long hours at the squadron we haven't finished our chicks run yet. Now we have a possible last minute deployment, and hubby is rushing and stressing. Our chicks are two weeks and still in their brooder, how do people last six weeks? At two weeks ours are flapping and trying to fly all the time. We have one right now that hurt her leg from all the attempts at flying, yet they still aren't ready for outside. Hopefully we get the run finished this weekend, and the last few tweaks on the barn and coop. Then these chicks have two more weeks, and I'm kicking them out.
Once you get going on your coop it goes up pretty quick. Just don't rush too much, or you'll spend more time on fixing mistakes then actual building.
Good luck!

 

[Euphillia]

Yea We have been pretty lucky to not be hit with the smoke too much from the fire here at Waldo Canyon. But gosh this heat!! even our poor malamute is fed up!

 

[Euphillia]

Don't feel bad. Between the weather, unpacking the new house and the long hours at the squadron we haven't finished our chicks run yet. Now we have a possible last minute deployment, and hubby is rushing and stressing. Our chicks are two weeks and still in their brooder, how do people last six weeks? At two weeks ours are flapping and trying to fly all the time. We have one right now that hurt her leg from all the attempts at flying, yet they still aren't ready for outside. Hopefully we get the run finished this weekend, and the last few tweaks on the barn and coop. Then these chicks have two more weeks, and I'm kicking them out.
Once you get going on your coop it goes up pretty quick. Just don't rush too much, or you'll spend more time on fixing mistakes then actual building.
Good luck!

ugh!! So sorry!! Nothing worse than possible last minute deployments!! I see you are out in Peyton, are you at Carson or with the Air Force My girls are about 10 weeks now and we had them in the house the WHOLE time!! Except during outdoor play time. I just couldn't take it anymore. We put a baby gate over the top and it made them quit trying to fly.

 

[Ashdoes]

He's with the Air Force. This would be our second last minute deployment, although the last one we ONLY had 16 days notice. I just keep saying...."only six more years, only six more years" Our number of deployments is in the double digits, so what's a few more?
Two days ago one of the chicks practically got out of the brooder and my hubby says, how much longer till they go out? Then like two seconds later he's asking if I'm going to order more...yeah, I'll get right on that.

 

[Euphillia]

ugh. We have 4 years left. He leaves again in January for year. 3 deployments in the past 5 years. We started with 2 hens and my dog got excited one nite and took one out. So we gave her sister to a nice lady on the west side and replaced them with 4 new ones...it was his idea. I only wanted two. What are you using as a brooder?

 

[Ashdoes]

Big R told my husband they'll have more chicks in august, so if he isn't gone I think he may end up coming home one day with a box full of them. He swears 7 or 8 more wouldn't be a big deal. I'm just sick of needy chicks, poor things hurt themselves with all these attempts at flying. We're using the garden tub in our master bath as the brooder, I hate the tub and want to rip it out, but it's a great brooder. We don't have a basement and our garage is detached and I didn't want to walk out there all the time. I figure with it being summer and warm, these chicks can go to the coop full time in two weeks.

 

[Euphillia]

That's a good place! Did you fill it with pine shavings to help with footing? We seriously had a leftover wardrobe box right in my living room!

 

[Ashdoes]

Actually, we had these giant sheets of paper, from the movers packing our big pictures, so I put those down and then pine shavings. I fluff, and add more pine twice during the week and then the whole thing folds into a big black trash bag. It takes five minutes to clean out Friday mornings. I also spray and wipe down the tub with Method bathroom cleaner. Which deodorizes and cleans all the dust. I'm sure that more chicks would mean emptying the whole thing more often, so the 6 we started with weren't too bad. We ordered 7, one didn't make it into the box, and our Polish died after two days. If we had more, the tub wouldn't be big enough.