Help....................
yes, finally........
In mid June I came home with 6 pullets from a feed store and started looking on CL for a coop. Well, before the day was over I had managed to go and pick up 12 more chicks from a breader that were 2 days old. By the time my DW got home from work I was sitting in here in my office with a box that was 2' x 2' and had 18 chicks in it.
The poor kids lived in that box for almost a week--I had to change the shavings twice a day! I built a 4' x 4' house for them out of pallets and OSB and sheeted the roof with osb and a garbage sack. They had a heat lamp for a couple of weeks as the weather was cruddy. Then came a pen a couple of weeks later; it is 3.5' x 7'........w/ corragated plastic roof.
Finally, after 13-14 weeks, I just moved 9 hens into their new house; the other 3 + roo I will move in the morning. Out of the original 18, 13 were hens and 5 roosters. I gave away 4 roosters and one HUGE mean hen. I 've been on this site daily since mid-June and most of my limited knowledge of poultry is from you guys..... I 've done so many things wrong, completely backwards. But I 've been so lucky to have not lost one of my kids to predators or sickness; no pecking or bugs(but what about that lump in her throat??
). But I would have never gotten everything completed had I not had them there daily to remind me, watch me........
So I built this coop trying to recycle everything and not have it cost a fortune..... I chased everything down off of CL, except the new plywood floor and roof and roofing comp., maybe 10 2x4's. I think I 've got about $200 into it.......
Here goes..... The rough frame.... the used skids are 6" x 8" x 14', joisted w/ 4x4's from an older guys rotted shed..... The framing is 7' x 12' and the used walls came from another guys old shed that I tore down.....
This is the front view. There are 4 nests that are 12" x 14" x14' high, half through the wall with out side access. I salvaged the windows from a couple of different places and added another big one(30"wX60"tall!) in the back wall.
This is the end where their door is and will be a temporary 10' x 12' pen. I have more vents to put in if I need them. The plywood section screws off for easier cleaning.
Here's the inside before I got their roosts in tonight, and hay/shavings, food and water..... I wanted to paint/seal the floor and walls(I have 5 gals of recycled exterior paint) but time didn't allow.... I will get the outside and much of the inside painted soon)
Were out on the Olympic Peninsula in WA and our weather is reasonably mild and seems to only get below freezing for a couple of weeks and rarely into the lower 20's. I didn't insulate as I will use a heat lamp if necessary----the coop isn't even 20' from a 200amp un-used meter(used to rent out this part of our property) that I can run a sub from: just using extention cords from there now.
So the girls house is now 7' x 8'6" with 8'+ ceiling---this left room inside the front door for storage/shop area that is 3'6" x 7' where I also would like to put a utility sink........
I do have a few regrets from the "recycling" part of this.......it took so much more time and effort(all the driving around and rebuilding stuff, pulling nails) and really limited what I could do for the girls not to mention how long they had to wait...... But then again, I am sure I saved over $1000!
Pretty good after coming from this---vvv ??
Let me know what you think and what you might do differently.............
I'll get some new pics soon--hope to get one of them smiling!!
Thanks so much for allowing me to lurk here in this wealth of knowledge, love for chickens............ I hope to be able to participate more!
Kelly
In mid June I came home with 6 pullets from a feed store and started looking on CL for a coop. Well, before the day was over I had managed to go and pick up 12 more chicks from a breader that were 2 days old. By the time my DW got home from work I was sitting in here in my office with a box that was 2' x 2' and had 18 chicks in it.
The poor kids lived in that box for almost a week--I had to change the shavings twice a day! I built a 4' x 4' house for them out of pallets and OSB and sheeted the roof with osb and a garbage sack. They had a heat lamp for a couple of weeks as the weather was cruddy. Then came a pen a couple of weeks later; it is 3.5' x 7'........w/ corragated plastic roof.
Finally, after 13-14 weeks, I just moved 9 hens into their new house; the other 3 + roo I will move in the morning. Out of the original 18, 13 were hens and 5 roosters. I gave away 4 roosters and one HUGE mean hen. I 've been on this site daily since mid-June and most of my limited knowledge of poultry is from you guys..... I 've done so many things wrong, completely backwards. But I 've been so lucky to have not lost one of my kids to predators or sickness; no pecking or bugs(but what about that lump in her throat??
So I built this coop trying to recycle everything and not have it cost a fortune..... I chased everything down off of CL, except the new plywood floor and roof and roofing comp., maybe 10 2x4's. I think I 've got about $200 into it.......
Here goes..... The rough frame.... the used skids are 6" x 8" x 14', joisted w/ 4x4's from an older guys rotted shed..... The framing is 7' x 12' and the used walls came from another guys old shed that I tore down.....
This is the front view. There are 4 nests that are 12" x 14" x14' high, half through the wall with out side access. I salvaged the windows from a couple of different places and added another big one(30"wX60"tall!) in the back wall.
This is the end where their door is and will be a temporary 10' x 12' pen. I have more vents to put in if I need them. The plywood section screws off for easier cleaning.
Here's the inside before I got their roosts in tonight, and hay/shavings, food and water..... I wanted to paint/seal the floor and walls(I have 5 gals of recycled exterior paint) but time didn't allow.... I will get the outside and much of the inside painted soon)
Were out on the Olympic Peninsula in WA and our weather is reasonably mild and seems to only get below freezing for a couple of weeks and rarely into the lower 20's. I didn't insulate as I will use a heat lamp if necessary----the coop isn't even 20' from a 200amp un-used meter(used to rent out this part of our property) that I can run a sub from: just using extention cords from there now.
So the girls house is now 7' x 8'6" with 8'+ ceiling---this left room inside the front door for storage/shop area that is 3'6" x 7' where I also would like to put a utility sink........
I do have a few regrets from the "recycling" part of this.......it took so much more time and effort(all the driving around and rebuilding stuff, pulling nails) and really limited what I could do for the girls not to mention how long they had to wait...... But then again, I am sure I saved over $1000!
Pretty good after coming from this---vvv ??
Let me know what you think and what you might do differently.............
I'll get some new pics soon--hope to get one of them smiling!!
Thanks so much for allowing me to lurk here in this wealth of knowledge, love for chickens............ I hope to be able to participate more!
Kelly
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