My Grandparents came over last night to check out our chickens and ducks... They're crazy about the eggs.
My Grandpa is retired from being a roofer but it still very much in construction around his home (even though he's nearly blind) well anyway.. He started eyeing our old horse barn and suggested we turn the front two stalls into a coop. "I don't have the money for the renovations that would need to be done.." He replied with "I do. Me and your Uncle Frank will do it."
(of course my fiance & I will be helping)
So he is talking about opening the two stalls to one another, closing them off on the front from the rest of the barn, adding a human-door on the inside (so it'll be a room inside the barn), adding a tiny chicken door on the front of the barn (that can be closed), that will lead into a nice big pen.. Then he's going to put up roosts, nests boxes, etc. He even wants to install a solar powered light out by our pens that comes on at night.
I was trying to think of "cheap" ways to add "little" things here and there. I know one thing is that chickens need 14 hours of light a day to lay regularly. We do not have electricity in our old horse barn. They make those lights that "stick" to the wall, that run off of batteries, would that work for inside the coop? Or does it need to be a heat lamp or something?
Any suggestions otherwise? I'm excited.
The way he's talking.. This will be happening in the next week or two! I can't believe my Grandfather is enabling me.. He's even dragging me to ANOTHER auction this weekend.
My Grandpa is retired from being a roofer but it still very much in construction around his home (even though he's nearly blind) well anyway.. He started eyeing our old horse barn and suggested we turn the front two stalls into a coop. "I don't have the money for the renovations that would need to be done.." He replied with "I do. Me and your Uncle Frank will do it."
So he is talking about opening the two stalls to one another, closing them off on the front from the rest of the barn, adding a human-door on the inside (so it'll be a room inside the barn), adding a tiny chicken door on the front of the barn (that can be closed), that will lead into a nice big pen.. Then he's going to put up roosts, nests boxes, etc. He even wants to install a solar powered light out by our pens that comes on at night.
I was trying to think of "cheap" ways to add "little" things here and there. I know one thing is that chickens need 14 hours of light a day to lay regularly. We do not have electricity in our old horse barn. They make those lights that "stick" to the wall, that run off of batteries, would that work for inside the coop? Or does it need to be a heat lamp or something?
Any suggestions otherwise? I'm excited.
The way he's talking.. This will be happening in the next week or two! I can't believe my Grandfather is enabling me.. He's even dragging me to ANOTHER auction this weekend.
