Landing strip length

[Foster's Freehold]

Alaskan, If I lived up there, My whole house would be a greenhouse, well lit lol. How you guys do it, I'm in awe.

Greenhouse and coop will be a 48 ft run, oriented east west so that the only sun blocked would be very early in the am. A buddy gave me about 20 pieces of tempered glass for storm doors, so there will be windows everywhere. I'm going to use Suntuf polycarbonate on the greenhouse roof, and a combo of suntuf and tin roofing for the coop.

I'll be insulating heavily in the greenhouse for the winter, The common wall will have a woodstove on the greenhouse side. I'm hoping for heat bleedthrough to keep water unfrozen. A thermosyphon of about 16 55gallon barrels of water hooked to the stove for thermal mass.

I've been waiting a long time on this and have studied solar and thermal physics in the mean time lol. I think with a little boost from the woodstove at nights and during February when we have lots of clouds, I can keep it above freezing.

Yep, personality will be a big cull factor. I live way out in the country, so backyard chickens are everywhere. I had a roo when the girls were young that was mean. He tried to flog one of them, ended up in the soup pot that night. 4 yr old said the best dumplings she had ever had lol.

I want to develop a sexlink colored egg layer that is big enough for the cockerals to be meat birds. To support this, I'm selling chicks, birds that don't cut the breeding program, compost and the odd egg. The greenhouse is to start herbs and veg to be sold. The swap meet over here is a great place. Twice a month, no charge to sell, bring whatever you want to sell. And they are a chicken breeder of RIR and have a hatching service too.

 

[aart]

Gonna have to put down the puter and get with the pencil and paper on that one.

Well, yeah!
Being an old drafter, and a meticulous planner(sometimes beyond reason),
scaled drawings could certainly help you figure out the best thing to do.
easier to fix ffffowl ups on paper than in lumber.
I use cadd, but graph paper can work too.
Draw your building outlines and elevations,
then use tracing paper over those originals to try out different configurations.

 

[Foster's Freehold]

lol aart. I've tried learning the sketch up, just don't have the patience for it. But I've long known how to draw up blueprints, I come from a construction family. I even usually remember to allow for size of lumber lol.
As I just look at my coffee table, there are three different sizes of graph paper, a couple of different straight edges and about a dozen pencils.

I, like you, plan and plan and change and plan and fix the oops and plan some more. The better the planning, the easier the build.

 

[aart]

Well, let see some sketches!
Just take pics of them and post.

Even with 20 year cadd experience I gave up on sketchup pretty quick,
mostly because I didn't want, or need, to learn a new software.

 

[Alaskan]

I do flinch a bit every time you mention you want to put a wood stove out there... sounds like a combo between too much work and a fire hazard.

Didn't you say you rarely go below zero?

Not sure why you need any heat at all.

Above zero, the solar gain and lack of wind should keep your water liqiid for long enough.

 

[Foster's Freehold]

We can have weeks of below 32 with no sun. No sun, no solar gain. I have this deep seated hatred of being cold lol. And in the dark, I'm telling ya, I'd be gaga in a month where you live lol. The greenhouse is my plan to get me out of my hibernation in the house in the winter. I get bad, I'm telling ya.

The woodstove I'm going to use is a small camp stove, just enough to take the edge off and charge the water barrels. We do a lot of historical camping (all you can have is what was available in 1770 or so) so I'm very familiar with fire and how to use it. I have a guy that does copperwork, so he is going to make me a boiler for the stove so that the hot water circulates into and out of my barrels.

I want to keep it above freezing for the plant starts, part of my business plan. My oldest's mother in law owns a florist, so I have an outlet for January and February bulb planters in bloom. So plant starts and bulbs in bloom are part of my revenue stream during the hen's winter down time.

As far as work goes, I have about 40 acres of woods. A pole saw is all I need to cut wood that will fit into the stove. Small stove, small wood lol. I won't have to chop or split, just cut and stack. That's how I take wood to camps, nothing heavy, nothing large. I'd rather do that bit of work than be stuck being in the house, or out in the cold. A couple of sticks of hickory or oak in last thing at night, charged barrels and bob's your uncle. At least that's how I hope it works.

 

[Nardo]

I just worry about getting roosts higher than nest boxes. I really don't want the boxes on the floor, these knees don't appreciate it anymore lol. I'm going to start with the nests at 18in off the floor, that means the top of it will be at 34 in and if I have a second row, will be 50 inches. So that's just over 4 ft high but roosts should be higher lol.

Might have to raise nest boxes to 36 off the floor on both sides of the doorway and put a shelf above them for storage and food and water beneath them. I dunno, I keep reading and changing my mind. Gonna have to put down the puter and get with the pencil and paper on that one.

Can you do a turn around with a landing? 1/2 way up with a ramp and a landing and turn to the other 1/2? Sort of like this? But maybe better built? It doesn't take as much room.

 

[Foster's Freehold]

Nardo, that is cool. I think I can incorporate something like that. This is all in the designing phase. I have a few post holes dug, waiting on weather to decent up some so I can set them. I haven't yet drawn up the interior to final plans.

Lots of things will be temporary as need arises, the breeding brooding pens. Everything for those will be panels that can be reconfigured. Will only be in there January to April then they would have lots of room to fly down.

I'm working on plans to post. The one's I have are just sketches and messy lol.