INCUBATING w/FRIENDS! w/Sally Sunshine Shipped Eggs No problem!

[BantyChooks]

@Sally Sunshine
   3 years in the making !!!   so excited. 

post #104767 of 104774
of course it will need to be a spazz jr. or somewhere along those lines.

 

[BantyChooks]

Anyone else like my new title? Thought it was time for a change.

 

[Akrnaf2]

I now undrstand way they call it Miranda And not George or Mike........

 

[Jessimom]

not a great image, its a light image for some reason, CHAOS your eggs are minus one sapphire chaos, ma bad, I droppededededed it!!!

dog was in between seizures just cant seem to get her under control. so frustrating the poor girl.





6 Sapphires
7 Red Leghorn x Legbar
18 Project CBarredRock X Legbar Pretty much sexable
5 Giant Brahma
9 OE (crested Cuckoo marans or crested welsummer) Pretty much sexable
1 lonely Crested Barred Rock and sexable
10 CCLegbar

do yer own math

I'm so, so sorry to hear about the dog - I hope you find a way to control her seizures. It took us a few months of various amounts to control my pup's.

The eggs are BEAUTIFUL!!! What kind are on the left side of the photo? Saphires and Red Leghorn x legbar? If so, which is which?

 

[Jessimom]

maybe I'll see if i can get my hubby to duplicate yours, lol

we had a bear wipe out our coop on monday so, i want more chickens. The only ones to survive happened to be sleeping in my barn that night

I'm sorry about the Bear! There isn't much that I have seen that can keep out a determined bear. I hope that it doesn't come back, or if it does, you are allowed to deal with it.

Good luck!!

 

[daxigait]

@Sally Sunshine
   3 years in the making !!!   so excited. 

post #104767 of 104774
of course it will need to be a spazz jr. or somewhere along those lines.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

By popular demand...Finally got pictures to upload. This one shows one end, with the door installed (which has since been painted). The other end is behind it.


This is one of the two ventilation panel that will go under the roof overhang, one on either side


Both ends, both sides bolted together, to make sure everything matched up.


One of two hinged lids set in place (again, to make sure all the pieces of the puzzle fit)
Shown below the lid, standing out from the lower part of the side, is a hinged clean-out door, a departure from the original coop upon which this one is modeled.


Raised platform the coop will sit on. Plywood screwed to the legs, legs braced, plywood covered with vinyl sheeting for easier cleaning.


Finished coop (corner molding added after photo taken). Entire coop, with the exception of the roof, was built & assembled in the basement (out of the wet & cold, and close to the tools), where more than a few screw-ups were corrected. Then the whole thing was disassembled (all carriage bolts; not a nail in it, except in the roof shingles), carried out piece by piece, & reassembled at its final location.

Unlike the original coop (barely visible @ extreme left center), this one is enclosed within the run, which is approximately 5'x12'. Pressure treated fence posts, 6' apart, with 5' T-posts between, support the 4'x 2"x4" welded wire fencing, which will have 1/4" hardware cloth zip-tied to the bottom. Visible through the door mesh is the platform I had to add 'cause I neglected to rotate the coop 90 degrees to allow room for the ramp (major attack of the dumb-ask on that one)

The people door, also assembled & screened in the basement, actually came out square, much to my delight and surprise. It swings to the inside so I wouldn't have to remove any soil to accommodate the sloped terrain...I own two shovels, neither of which fit my hands very well.

I used materials on hand as much as possible. I had to buy the plywood for the coop, the hinges, the carriage bolts, washers, & nuts, & some of the 2"x4" welded wire & hardware cloth, the 5 T-posts, & a quart each of primer & paint. Everything else was left over from other projects. Costs for new materials approximately $150, not counting far too many trips to Lowes due to PPPP (pee-poor-prior-planning).

Tools used:
Radial arm saw...........to rip 2x4's for the 2x2 framing & door molding
Circular saw...............for whatever the radial saw wouldn't handle
Mitre saw...................for angle cuts
Cross-cut hand saw....for small cuts when I didn't feel like setting up any of the other saws
Battery-operated drill..for carriage bolt holes & pilot holes for screws
Many cups of coffee..for regrouping whenever I screwed up, or just felt like taking a break

Would I tackle it again?
Yes, I would. Not only was the total cash outlay less than the $300+ that I paid for the original kit coop, not counting the materials I already had on hand, but I had the satisfaction of producing it myself. Of course, I didn't have a 9-5 job to work around, or a completion deadline to meet. The biggest payoff, for me, is the fact that this one has sturdier materials in it than the kit coop, plus a few modifications to make it more user-friendly for my particular circumstances. It all depends, I guess, on how much time you have, & what you figure that time's worth.


The 1st resident of the new digs

She's what you'd call an "easy keeper". She don't lay much anymore, and she's never raised a chick, but she requires little care & I don't have to clean up behind her.
Actually, she was made by my Grandmother many,many moons before she died in '66, and was used as a doorstop. The partially visible plastic horse in the background was also hers. Both are among my most treasured possessions.

I hope at least some of you enjoy this little pictorial as much as I enjoyed putting it together & bringing it to you.

That whole thing needs to be posted on the 'coops' page.

But you lied to us. You said you had no building skills.
That shows, if you have a plan, can use some basic tool and common sense, it works.

I wore out a pair of shoes running back & forth double checking measurements

I feel you on that.

I have the hinges on the bottom, and a hook at the top, but I am going to put one of those sliding bolt things(name?) On each upper corner. I am just not sure if the plywood needs to be a thicker piece or something else to keep critters out and prevent access without warping so I have not put them on while I think.

Besides some 1X or 2X trim on both the door and surrounding edges, you may want to add some metal flashing to the edges so animals can't chew through.

I'll try to post pictures of a pop door that raccoons pulled the trim off the door and chewed through the OSB. They killed every bird in the building.
After you go through all the trouble of building the building, make the doors and windows like Fort Knox.

 

[Chaos18]

I now undrstand way they call it Miranda
And not George or Mike........

 

[DwayneNLiz]

I'm sorry about the Bear! There isn't much that I have seen that can keep out a determined bear. I hope that it doesn't come back, or if it does, you are allowed to deal with it.

Good luck!!

Unfortunately, i cannot do anything about the bear but build up defenses. My father in law contacted fish & game for his bear and they said if he tried anything he would be arrested for poaching, lose his firearm and hunting license. I don't even want to call because i don't want them to know i have a problem. I hope it doesn't come back but i have my 30.06 loaded next to my bedroom window and the 12 gauge by the back door

i just hope it goes away, don't know what i'd do with a dead bear ugh

 

[spankarelli]

So does setting eggs in the "good days" really make that much of a difference?

I just cleaned out my homemade incubator after the first hatch and got 3 out of 6 to hatch and they are doing great and peeping their lil heads off and pooping their lil butts off. I wanna set more so I can replace my older girls this year and I'd like to know if it really matters that much as to whether you set them on days that they will hatch during the water signs as the almanac says? This last batch what set on a "good day" and I'd say 50% is great for a first time in a homemade incubator. Out of the ones that didn't hatch only one had a baby in it and it was dead but mostly formed. The other two either weren't fertilized or died so early on in development that they were really just rotten, smelly eggs. lol. Good thing one didn't explode.

So whaddya y'all think from your experience, does it really matter to the hatch rate and development or anything if it's a "good day" or not?