Hidden Forest Coop

[Jetpad]

I think that's a good idea. She may be just mad you didn't check with her first. Too late for that. Maybe a promise of eggs would help. But when folks have not been around young chickens, their hearts melt when they can see them up close. I wouldn't wait for changes in laws, make peace with the neighbors will help you more. Even the rich, wealthy and famous in our state have had to move their chickens when they built and raised in areas "against the law". Hope you don't get hassled by your neighbors. Good luck. Let us know how things go.

I don't know the neighbor that was complaining but heard she lives several blocks from my house. I'm just kind of lumping her in the general group of neighbors that may be driving by my yard on one of the side streets. That's the group I'm trying to hiding the coop from. I'm assuming she has better things to do and since she doesn't live near me won't be a problem (but you never know). I don't think my immediately neighbors will be a problem. They either know about the coop and will be getting some eggs or work so much (so that I've never met them) that hardly have any time probably to look out their windows or even go into their yards.

But my personality is definitely to do things on the down-low rather than try to get everyone's approval ahead-of-time for something that's not cleared with the county. Chickens are not actually banned in my county. In fact someone got a ruling a few years ago where they claimed the chickens were exempt from the (100 foot distance from neighbors) requirements because they were pets. Unfortunately, the old rules are still on the books and very ambiguous.

Jeff, not sure if you've read this entire thread, but IIRC jetpad went to the 'authorities', got an answer of NO and decided to build the coop in/for stealth mode.
Hopefully his bet with the risk turns out OK for him....time will tell.

What is kind-of funny is, when I tried to get the permit, the permit office said it would be ok if I kept the chickens in my house or garage or I could even add a room onto my house for them but it wasn't ok to build a separate shed in my back (well actually what turns out to be my side) yard.

 

[Misn-1]

Jeff, not sure if you've read this entire thread, but IIRC jetpad went to the 'authorities', got an answer of NO and decided to build the coop in/for stealth mode.
Hopefully his bet with the risk turns out OK for him....time will tell.

I have read every post of this thread. And I do understand that in his opening post Jetpad stated that the county permit office "really didn't want me to put a coop on my property". My suggestion has nothing to do with the 'authorities' but with the one(s) that might report him to the authorities. I can only imagine how they (the authorities) might react if/when they find out that he went against their authority. They could make him completely remove the coop and/or face a fine...and then decide not to relax the ordinance at all. We all know how people in power might react to a situation where their authority has been challenged. For me, I would try to keep it away completely away from the county permit office by winning over the neighbors. If they don't complain, chances are that the ordinance may be changed and the county permit office would never know about the "stealth coop".

Worst case scenario that I can see if the finicky neighbor(s) don't like it is to find someone who can care for your flock until the ordinance can be amended/changed. Hopefully this way, the county permit office won't require you to completely remove the coop from your property.

You could always say that is your children's playhouse and those rogue feral chickens keep breaking in

Jeff

 

[sunflour]

I don't know the neighbor that was complaining but heard she lives several blocks from my house. I'm just kind of lumping her in the general group of neighbors that may be driving by my yard on one of the side streets. That's the group I'm trying to hiding the coop from. I'm assuming she has better things to do and since she doesn't live near me won't be a problem (but you never know). I don't think my immediately neighbors will be a problem. They either know about the coop and will be getting some eggs or work so much (so that I've never met them) that hardly have any time probably to look out their windows or even go into their yards.

But my personality is definitely to do things on the down-low rather than try to get everyone's approval ahead-of-time for something that's not cleared with the county. Chickens are not actually banned in my county. In fact someone got a ruling a few years ago where they claimed the chickens were exempt from the (100 foot distance from neighbors) requirements because they were pets. Unfortunately, the old rules are still on the books and very ambiguous.


What is kind-of funny is, when I tried to get the permit, the permit office said it would be ok if I kept the chickens in my house or garage or I could even add a room onto my house for them but it wasn't ok to build a separate shed in my back (well actually what turns out to be my side) yard.

Well, if you need a petition that states chickens are pets, in fact "they are the new dog" , then I will be happy to sign or email for you. It is so absurd that most cities allow vicious dogs in neighborhoods but not sweet , productive chickens makes me so mad. A close friend of mine was mauled by her neighbors dog and her only recourse is a civil lawsuit!

So, if the nosey neighbors give you flack and officials give you problems, just plead this is a dog pen, and these are exotic dogs!

Truly, I hope all leave you and your family alone….why everyone doesn't want backyard or side yard chickens is beyond my comprehension.

All that said, you have a remarkable coop, chickens and children….good luck.

 

[Monguire]

You could always say that is your children's playhouse and those rogue feral chickens keep breaking in

LMAO....I almost fell out of the chair reading that line!

 

[Jetpad]

At this point the coop is finished except for one major last piece. I wanted to add a watering system that would supply their water for 2-3 weeks for when I'm gone. I'll have someone checking on the chickens (and hopefully collecting eggs) but I'd like for them not to have to mess with watering and feeding them. So, I've started putting together the watering system and I decided I want a tank that I can mount up under the coop and above the run. The tank will connect to a PVC pipe for filling it and connect to another pipe that has the chicken nipples on it. Right now I'm working on the first phase of the watering system. The next phase, I'll be heating the water to keep it from freezing.

The figures that I've found say chickens will drink as much as 2 cups of water on a hot day. I don't think my chickens will be getting as hot in the forest during the summer but I'm going to use that calculation. 2 cups * 6 chickens * 3 weeks * 7 days in a week is 252 cups of water. 252 cups divided by 16 cups in a gallon is 15.75 gallons. So I'd need a 16 gallon water tank to provide water to the birds for 3 weeks.

I found a black 15 gallon tank on Amazon that is made out of ABS plastic. Since it is made out of ABS, I should be able to cut holes in it and "weld" connectors in any additional spots I need.



15 gallons of water weights about 125 lbs so I need to make sure it is securely fastened to the bottom of the coop. I hacked together a few brackets that I think will hold it securely.



What's nice about this spot is that you can't see it without bending down and looking under the coop. It also shouldn't interfere with cleaning out the coop.


To fill the tank, I'm going to run a PVC pipe from it and drill a hole in the side of my "utility room" on my coop. I got a package of ABS fittings with the tank and took the fill-hole fitting and I'm going to mount it to the outside wall of my utility room. But I had to make some way of attaching the bigger sized ABS fitting to my 3/4" PVC fitting and here is where I've glued them together with ABS-PVC glue. So that's where I am so far. Just waiting for the glue to dry now.

 

[vehve]

For the heating, see if you can find something like this (before you start playing with thermostats)

It's self regulating, only heats to above freezing, and can be submerged in water (you can thread it through the pipes that hold the nipples). It's meant to keep water lines or gutters from freezing, don't know what I'd call it in English though. But just to make you aware of such a product I thought I'd post this.

 

[Jetpad]

For the heating, see if you can find something like this (before you start playing with thermostats)

It's self regulating, only heats to above freezing, and can be submerged in water (you can thread it through the pipes that hold the nipples). It's meant to keep water lines or gutters from freezing, don't know what I'd call it in English though. But just to make you aware of such a product I thought I'd post this.

Thanks. I had looked for something like that but didn't find one that could be threaded throughout the nipple pipes. I'll have to give it some thought.

My current idea for heating the water (and the nipple pipes) is to continuously circulate the water though the tank and pipes using an external fish tank heater and fish tank pump.

 

[vehve]

I first thought about those, but the only ones I could find at reasonable prices had a thermostat going from 18C to 32C, which is a horrible waste of heat. Of course you can throw something together yourself that just keeps the water at around 1-2C, but this cable seemed more convenient, I'm just using a large container with nipples on the bottom so I don't need the circulation.

 

[aart]

Are you going to use the horizontal nipples?
The vertical ones could well freeze, despite the heated water.

 

[Jetpad]

Are you going to use the horizontal nipples?
The vertical ones could well freeze, despite the heated water.

I only have the vertical ones right now but I think I'll get some of the horizontal ones to try out.

I first thought about those, but the only ones I could find at reasonable prices had a thermostat going from 18C to 32C, which is a horrible waste of heat. Of course you can throw something together yourself that just keeps the water at around 1-2C, but this cable seemed more convenient, I'm just using a large container with nipples on the bottom so I don't need the circulation.

Yea, so far I've found the same thing. The coldest setting on them is 18C. One idea I had was plugging it into one of those thermostat plugs. That would help it be a little more efficient. I'm sure the chickens wouldn't mind the water being at 18C instead of 2C.

The way I'm setting it up, It would gravity feed down to the nipples from the bottom of the tank and then be pumped back up into the top of the tank. So if the pump/heater were turned off, the nipples would still work (as long it didn't freeze).