Nevadans?

[chicharomirinda]

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wow! that was fast. And 25! they should give you credit for the polish but that's a bummer to miss out on it. not like you're going to have 1 chick shipped to replace it. good luck getting rid of the packing peanuts! maybe someone who has a snake could feed them to the snake.

 

[aubreynoramarie]

I put em on CL as "free food" an hour ago and they are already taken! woo hoo!

i was shorted a white crested polish but it looks like they put in some other kind of polish that i have never seen before... its white with little hints of blue/grey. weird!

 

[chicharomirinda]

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that's great!

it'll be interesting to see what kind of polish it ends up being.

 

[chicharomirinda]

Ok, just got some bad news from Jose. Our chicken coop has collapsed in the wind!

It's the posts holding it up underneath that collapsed. The walls, roof and floor are all intact and the chicks are ok, just a little freaked out. 3 corners are down and one corner is resting on a 5 gallon bucket that happened to be under there. Apparently, we will not have an elevated coop any more. luckily my plans for the run did include enough space for the chickens but i was hoping to have a little extra for them under the coop. when i get home we have to figure out how to get the corner posts off so the coop can rest only on the skids. perhaps a jack of some sort. I don't know. this is a bit beyond my knowledge. how crazy!

if anyone has any ideas about how to fix it, let me know. i will take some pictures when i get home.

 

[SunnyDawn]

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Oh man! I was thinking that the legs didn't look super sturdy but I didn't say anything cause I always go overboard with things like that when less would probably be fine. We used huge cinder blocks to prop up the corners of our coop and it worked great! There are 6 on each corner (24 total), 2 on the bottom (laid on their sides) 2 on top of that (laid in the opposite direction for stability) and then 2 more (laid same as bottom 2). I used liquid nails to adhere the blocks together and to hold the coop steady on top of them. The guys complained though, when they took the coop apart, that I had obviously never planned on moving the thing.

That Liquid Nails stuff really holds!!! As I said, I do kinda go overboard sometimes. And no, I had never planned on the thing being moved. Even when we added the bumpout later the blocks were super sturdy and never gave an inch. We did bury them 6" and we dug out 2' below the blocks and filled the holes with DG (DG compacts more tightly than sand so the base doesn't shift) so that water could drain and freezing wouldn't heave the blocks out of place.

So sorry that your babies were shook up! Hope this info helps. Although I feel a little silly not saying something earlier. Just trying to avoid being negative.

Oh, almost forgot. Yes scissor lift jacks will work great. You should be able to rent them. They are very user friendly too.


AUBREY!!!!!!!! Congrats on the babies!!! Glad you found someone to take the packing peanuts. I know they use extra roos for this purpose. Can't wait to see pics!!!

 

[chicharomirinda]

cinder blocks are a good idea. i was going to put diagonal support braces from the posts to the frame but hadn't done it yet. I saw several other coops on byc that had the same set up as mine with the posts. i hope theirs haven't fallen. do you think a car jack would work to prop up a corner at a time so we can remove the posts? or should i look for some other kind of jack at home depot?

 

[SunnyDawn]

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Just for removing the posts a car jack should be fine. Use a piece of wood between the jack and the coop bottom for stability. The bucket will come in handy to brace 1 corner. 2 jacks would work even better then you can lift one side at a time to avoid tilting or use a long piece of wood to brace entire side and raise from the middle.

Yes, I have seen many like yours on BYC too. That's one of the reasons I kept my mouth shut. I figured I must be the one that was over doing it since nobody else was worrying about it.

 

[chicharomirinda]

Ok, thanks for your advice, Sunny! I'm so glad you came on the forum this afternoon. You are a lifesaver! Jose is going to get some more cinder blocks and another jack so that we'll be able to fix this tonight. We are going to put cinder blocks at each corner as well as the middle of each side of the frame. We are not going to stack high though--just the height of one layer of cinder blocks. don't want to push our luck. I have a new thing of liquid nails already so we'll use that to secure the blocks. I'm just glad that there were no chickens or children under the coop when it happened. My kids have been playing under there. I will just put hw cloth around the whole space under there so nothing gets in there.

 

[chicharomirinda]

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When I update my BYC page, I will put in a warning about large coops on stilts! I know from experience how strong the winds can get here (still have a fence in need of repair for the second time) but I was underestimating its impact on the coop. well, hopefully we can get this squared away and at least no one got hurt.

 

[SunnyDawn]

So glad I could be of some help. That is great - nobody got hurt. That sounds like a great idea to warn others. I wish I had said something earlier.