Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

Roadrunners

Of course you want Roadrunners - the fluff, the combs, the wattles!!

Gratuitous pictures of Dotty and Minnie my beloved Roadrunners (RIP) to follow.
View attachment 3369920View attachment 3369921View attachment 3369922View attachment 3369923

Such beauties - yes I would love them, they are gorgeous and love the combs.

But they don't offer Roadrunners at their hatcher. They have these Japanese (Black tailed Buff) that is a bantam - but again straight run... and Sebright - straight run only

They have Belgian Bearded d'Uccle - very pretty - but straight run.

Salmon Faverolle are sold as sexed chicks ($9.50 for 5 to 25)

Ooooo look they have this Barnvelder I looked it up (https://www.thehappychickencoop.com/barnevelder-chicken/) and they sell it at sexed chicks for $7.30 (5 to 25 chicks) - and they lay chocolatey brown eggs

I wonder if they will sell me a mix of one of each I love? I don't want 5 of each, but I think 6 chicks would be great!

I must give them a call next month and chat with them.

Anyways the plan is when all those crazy broody nutty hens go broody this spring/summer I am going to give them each a couple chicks to care for and mare them do all the work! And grow up some more pullets to replace my older gals who are slowing down with egg laying.

Oh darn I have to get going! It's 6AM and I need to drive into town! 3.5hrs to Peace River.... woohoo civilization ha!

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Okay, @ChicoryBlue here goes. I hope I explain what I am thinking clearly enough to understand.

Starting with your 2X2s, keep them as is - but the exact with of the plywood apart, so the edge of the plywood is even with the edge (at least the front edge, anyways - if the fence spacing doesn't allow both front edge and back edge to be even) of the plywood.
I made a model from cardboard to illustrate most of what I'm thinking.
View attachment 3369588

See how 2x2s are spaced to be even with edge of plywood platform below:View attachment 3369591

On the under side of plywood, attach strapping/ 1x2s so that when you place the plywood on the 2x2s, the strapping fit snuggly inside the 2x2s:
View attachment 3369599

This should help hold the plywood in place so it doesn't slide, so no need to screw it to the 2x2s.

Then, for the ladder (I'm not sure if this will work with your ladder, as I don't know just how wide the 'hooked part' is that would slide over the below set-up)

Can you screw two short pieces of 2x2 to the outside edge of your cross bar 2x2, just a bit farther apart than your ladder is wide, then screw a piece of 1x2 to that that you can hook the ladder over? Examples of what I mean below...View attachment 3369606View attachment 3369603
Above is a 2x3 screwed to 2x3 'spacers'

This gives me something to 'hook' the ramp to, below images:

View attachment 3369605

I actually hook the ramp to the door handles I put in an angled edge (see middle picture), but I know someone who did something similar, but hooks it to the board that is spaced out from the frame.

Thank you for putting this together with the pictures, these are some great ideas, I hadn’t thought of either one!

I’m not sure yet what form the ladder attachment will take (or no ladder at all, and see how that goes), but I think I will definitely attach one rail or two to the underside of the plywood top. It may be that 1x2’s will be better than strapping, the thicker width will help it catch, depending on how flat it all lies together.

Thanks!

 

[RoyalChick]

Such beauties - yes I would love them, they are gorgeous and love the combs.

But they don't offer Roadrunners at their hatcher. They have these Japanese (Black tailed Buff) that is a bantam - but again straight run... and Sebright - straight run only

They have Belgian Bearded d'Uccle - very pretty - but straight run.

Salmon Faverolle are sold as sexed chicks ($9.50 for 5 to 25)

Ooooo look they have this Barnvelder I looked it up (https://www.thehappychickencoop.com/barnevelder-chicken/) and they sell it at sexed chicks for $7.30 (5 to 25 chicks) - and they lay chocolatey brown eggs

I wonder if they will sell me a mix of one of each I love? I don't want 5 of each, but I think 6 chicks would be great!

I must give them a call next month and chat with them.

Anyways the plan is when all those crazy broody nutty hens go broody this spring/summer I am going to give them each a couple chicks to care for and mare them do all the work! And grow up some more pullets to replace my older gals who are slowing down with egg laying.

Oh darn I have to get going! It's 6AM and I need to drive into town! 3.5hrs to Peace River.... woohoo civilization ha!

But in your earlier post you said they had Legbars.
Legbars = Roadrunners

 

[RoyalChick]

Here - you even had a price for them!
Those are Roadrunners!

Oooo pretty! Ok maybe a few of those too....

Yup gonna need a bigger barn... and more work to pay for all these !

The Sultans are only sold as straight run boohoo - so that is NO GO for me. I am not willing to risk any Roos - too much heart ache there

But Cream Legbars are $9 each for pullets

View attachment 3369846

 

[rural mouse]

Both - did you get chicks to raise up?

My in-laws have some

 

[ChicoryBlue]

That's interesting. The instructions say to specifically put the screws in the valley on either side of the ridge. I do have the screws with the rubber washers.

As I recall metal roofing was the opposite of polycarbonate roofing, but I don’t know why. You have to consider the expansion and contraction characteristics, and what you’re attaching to. The Suntuf roofing I used (polycarbonate) say to attach on the crests, and we used special supporting pieces under them, placed on the purlins first. We still had to be careful not to screw down too much. Our metal-roofed barn, roofed in 2004, has the screws in the valley, so closest to, right on the purlins, and with no support pieces under it. Our roof style is a crest and then maybe eight inches of flat, then a crest again.

The mistakes our builder made was using fairly green rough cut lumber from the local hilltop sawmill here. They don’t have a kiln. Then our builder left them out to dry further, okay, but then we got freezing rain /snow. So he was scraping them off, kind of ineffectively….overall an impossible situation. The result is that our barn leaks in a few places. Now that there are a few screws coming up too, I think if we got up there and tightened them all everything might be fine.

Tax and question: discovered the gang has found there’s something tasty about the tubing of this lawn chair in their run. I think it’s an aluminum frame. Does aluminum oxidize in the air and produce a yummy but toxic element? Should I be worried? Well I am worried, should I be? Besides getting their tongues stuck on it in the freezing cold, which for some reason doesn’t happen. Here’s Butters pecking at it.

 

[bgmathteach]

Pre drill the holes where you wish to put the screw in, and put the screws in the ridge not the valley so you lessen the risk of water.

Lastly did you get the screws with the rubber washer on them? To make it more water resistant?

Yep metal roofing is expensive but it will last a good 30 or more years!

He also needs those 'spacers = the plastic ( or wood)things that go under the roofing. I think they call them 'closure strips' And the roofing screws should be self tapping, so no need to pre-drill.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

I need to consider this. Changes to roosts are really hard right now with the roof on. That's why I waited until the roof was off to do it this time.

Can you physically get in there, or lean in enough? I can see assembling a roost, and putting on angle brackets ahead of time, but then ultimately having to attach it in there is the thing. Small helper available?

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Roadrunners

Of course you want Roadrunners - the fluff, the combs, the wattles!!

Gratuitous pictures of Dotty and Minnie my beloved Roadrunners (RIP) to follow.
View attachment 3369920View attachment 3369921View attachment 3369922View attachment 3369923

They were lovely and a great pair, RIP and

 

[BY Bob]

When working with metal roofing the most important thing is to get the first piece perfectly square with the edge of the roof. After that it is fairly easy to out on the remaining pieces, especially the type you bought. Make sure to do it when it isn’t very windy, or you will have metal kites trying to fly around.

Roof tax
View attachment 3369886

It is calm and sunny today. Wish me luck!