Nevadans?

[laceynoelle]

Hey everyone!! I just got finished reading like 35 pages, whew. And I wanted to say thanks to everyone on this page. When I registered on BYC, I was a lot younger, and I was just looking for people who liked chickens like me. But we're so much more on here, we share our intimate lives and have created friendships. We keep eachother busy and stick together through hard times, and we chat about everyday things, and discuss life changing decisions. I love this forum, because we rejoice, mourne, and feel with eachother. This website has become somthing all together different than what I was looking for, but I'm really happy its that way. Thanks all. :]

I'll post a few pics. Ive really got nothing spectacular to share. :/ I'm loving all the family portraits and photos though!! And I tried with my cell phone to take a picture of my Stockton show prizes, but for some reason it hasnt sent the pics to my email. Soo, these arent my birds, but they look a lot alike:
The rooster looks like this, but his silver is a little more uniform. I'm realitivly happy with him, but I think he's got a little too much silver on his chest. I guess if I ever feel like showing him I'll sharpie it out.

The hen looks like this, except her comb is smaller by a fraction. Im super happy with her, shes sweet and really good quality.
They are Birchen old english game banties, and I'm hoping to breed them, but so far the hen isnt laying.
Okay, I need to find a couple pics.

 

[laceynoelle]

Okay, I had to share this one, its my littlest sis, Rachelle, at Pyramid. We made her into a sand murmaid. ^^

This is one of my favorite pics of my dad being a beast and taking down this tree.

Here's my dog, the most beautiful and compassionate animal ever. Ive had her since June of '99. She's my first friend.

Ready..yikes, this one's me. My sister took it, we were climbing the one of the trees in my yard to try to get some good air shots, but I was paranoid about climbing with my camera, so we double teamed it and handed it back and forth every few feet.

My mom and dad together

My evil sister trying to catch something

And my family at the river festivle last year. :]

 

[wolftracks]

Pam and SagebrushMama... you're all so beautiful! We have great-looking families on this board.

Elizabeth... congratulations on two eggs, even if one got broken. When I started getting eggs, I didn't eat any of them until about 7 eggs later. The first three went to our friend Mark, who is from Brooklyn and had never had homegrown food until he came to live in Reno. So he got those eggs plus a storebought one, to show him the difference in value. I really don't think he realized what an honor it was to eat our first eggs.

Sheryl... I vote for happy as well. Unless your #1 cause of stress is money. I have worked so many jobs where I was SO miserable! When I started having work nightmares, it was time to reconsider my position. Now that I'm in this line of work, my #1 cause of stress is money... but that's ok because it's pretty much my only stress. I can parent my children, raise the food my husband needs to survive, and be calm enough at the end of the day to nurture my family relationships.

Sunny... travel safe! Of all the weekends to actually get notable weather!

Well, we didn't get nearly as much of the coop done as I wanted, but I we accomplished almost all I need my husband's help for. He's going to help me again next Saturday, but after that he ships out for Manila on the next Friday so anything else is all up to me. But after next Saturday, it will be completely comfortable for the chickens. Just really, really ugly.

This is what we have so far. Russ calls it the best-looking chicken shanty in the yard. And it's going to be much MUCH more attractive as soon as I sand everything down and get some artwork on it.

Everything in these pictures, except for the bolts and screws, is recycled.

The main framework consists of two industrual metal racks, without using the sidebars. The legs go down a foot into the soil, and the bottom horizontal brace is dug into the dirt. A piece of 3/4" plywood, leftover from a friend's house renovation, is attached with strong bolts.



The nesting box is made from part of an old bed. It originally had three shelves, and a section of drawers on the end. We knocked out the metal tracks for the drawers. Here Russ is cutting into the wall of the drawer area, and we used that wood to make a lip for the bottom boxes. Then we sectioned out the top section and put a hinged lid on it.




This is everything we got done today, from the back end. The back end consists of the headboard and footboards of the bed, bolted to the running boards (which are bolted to the metal racks.) The gray things on bottom are part of a pressboard shelving system.

The bottom area beneath that lower horizontal brace is going to be boarded up except for a chicken door, which is going to consist of another 4'x4' industrial rack, enclosed with hardware cloth, with a sturdy door at the end. That way, in the winter, I can put clear plastic over the hardware cloth and it can serve as an air-warming chamber. That top section is going to be hardware cloth all the way down to the top horizontal brace, with a hinged cover to reduce drafts in the winter. Then the area with the diagonal brace is going to be completely covered with plywood. The gaps in those footboards are going to be wired in with hardware cloth.



Here's the front. Ugly, isn't it? The photo is a bit blurry because it was getting dark pretty fast, and my old camera was struggling. This is a recycled door, cut to size, and the running boards of another old bed. I'm going to cut up the last couple of running boards so I can cover in the end of the nexting boxes (you can see one board at the bottom, just set beside it so I can picture what I'm doing.) That way it can also cover up that ugly piece of gray metal that's sticking out. I also have a few gaps that I need to close up with 1" pieces, then cover with some trim so I can paint it up all pretty.



So Russ is going to help put the rest of the plywood up. I can wire everything in by myself. The doors for the nexting boxes will be painted, all artistic-like, during this week so we can install them next Saturday. Everything plywood or pressboard is going to be painted to look like a stone wall, Old World style, to match the pond and stone walls around the yard. Everything made of good wood is going to be distressed and sanded a bit, then stained, with a little artwork to make it look a bit more rustic. For instance, that cheap door is going to be painted like an old barn door, with a fake diagonal brace.

The inside is going to have several tiers of roosts, with a ladder going up to the second ones and a platform coming out of the wall. The ceiling is going to have a fluorescent light

The plywood roof will stay covered with plastic until Russ gets back. Then we'll buy some rolls of asphalt shingles to cover it. The run is going to extend from about 6 feet out from the left side, then all the way up to the fence on the back and right side, so the chickens can climb on the rock walls. Then we'll stretch netting over the top.

Man that thing is gonna be like Fort Knox!

 

[chicharomirinda]

Great Job, Missy! You got a lot done for one day.

It's going to look really good with the artistic painting.

Lacey, glad you popped by. what great photos!

 

[2seth2]

cool coop missy nice chickens lacey

 

[aubreynoramarie]

Sheryl- WH adult ducks on CL right now.

 

[2seth2]

i just got into clucker coledge and am getting a degree in chicken math i am looking at a 5x6 chicken coop ith 3 nestboxes extended out please give the bantum satndard mostley in and mostley out calculators. any help professers.

 

[SagebrushMama]

Missy, what a great coop it's gonna be. I used a bunch of free wood pallets and a roll of roofing paper! HAHA

 

[2seth2]

if me and my dad built one it we would have to put an all you can eat chicken sign on it

 

[wolftracks]

Got to visit with Sunny, Steve and Karen for a little while. They left to pick up more chicks and try to beat the weather, so they missed out on a great lunch, Karen's daughter made. They had 2 boxes of chicks from me and eggs from both of us, so if there wasn't enough OEs there are eggs. Was so good to see them. Wish they were closer. Anyway, the California chicks are Reno bound.