New plan! (LOTS O PICS, adding them as I go)

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Hope - I'm a "deal hound", lol. I suppose it comes mostly from growing up broke, lol. We live comfortably but not over board now, this project was done on my budget, lol, which is still way below anyone's minimum wage...I do under the table accounting for my Mother for around $200 a month! So it had to be made from the cheapest stuff I could find! I did use some of "our" money when it came to things like the "nice" lumber, and fencing stuff though.

I have a few single pics of the girls, but they are at a stage now where they won't hold still for nothing! I have a video from a few days ago I need to get up there...they've started making the cutest "buck, buck" noise! I know it's just their "big girl" voices coming in...but I giggle every time they tell me off for something! Here's one of the three of them hanging out on my washer from about a week ago...somebody always moves just as I snap them! I really wish it would acknowledge that I did in deed shrink that photo down...

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We got the rest of the fencing up and I got the wood for the run doors bought yesterday! I'm hoping to guilt someone into helping me cut them, but it's not looking god, he has to work all evening (the joys of being salaried, he's leaving for work now, will be home by 5, but at 6 he has some computer work to do that will extend past midnight!), so nothing today unless by some miracle I can figure out how to cut straight! I really don't want to flub up the door! I'm making two 27" (I think) doors that are 61" tall (that's 5'1"...). Then I need to go get one of those "Watch your Head!" signs for above it...my SO was out there and watched me walk into the dang beam twice, hard enough to knock me off my feet (literally)! I have a very thick head though...
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big ole gas hacross the top, but not one drop of blood! Until we got to the hardware cloth....we both have tiny gashes all over our arms and legs from that stuff, lol. All of them though are from lacing the hardware cloth to the 2x4 wire fencing! We used 24 gauge picture hanging wire (galvanized steel wire) to tie them together and "fix" places where we had to make cuts in the mesh to get it around odd ball things. It worked really well! I also got a blister on my index finger, right in the "knuckle crease" from holding the long piece of wire tight that I was tying with.

Of course, I keep forgetting to take "progess pics" of the run...but really, all I have left to do is a door! And then I need to screw a few screws in the coop where I forgot to actually attach the two pallet crates to one another, lol. That'll help keep the door on straighter (I hope)! After that, it's just "add chickens" time! And shavings in the coop and play sand to the sand box...oh, and clean up all the scrap wood that's still in there!
 
As for the blog...something is wrong with my computer, or maybe it's me, but I can't post any comments anywhere, my blog or other's blogs! I can post though...it's very strange.
 
Hello WSW. Been a while since I've last checked in on you. Can't wait to see the pics of your little chick-a-dee's inside your coop and run. They will enjoy it for sure.
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All your thrifty shopping is contagous!! I have to build a second coop (smaller this time) and my hubby has been bringing home scrap lumber from work. They built something that was temporary.... then tore it down a couple months later and was going to scrap the wood. Well here he comes one day with about 25-30 2X4's that were only 4ft long, but they were free!! Then a couple days later, he comes home with 8 4X4 post. He said they were going to throw this stuff in the dumpster.... but he thought of me and saved it from the dump. Now he tells me that he thinks they will have some plywood soon. He don't know what size they are, but who cares, right? I guess he's told the guys that he works with about our chicken coop project and they are on the lookout for stuff that is headed to the dumpster, and saving it for us. I think this is going to be one of the cheapest projects that we have done.... ever!!
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On a sad note.... I've lost 2 of my babies from my second batch of chicks. They are about 14 weeks now and the bigger hens don't really like them much. Which is why we are building the second coop. The first one I lost (a Barred Rock) about a month ago and the older hens pecked her to death, under the coop, one afternoon when I had to go in town.
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I was soooo mad at them... I went in the run and yelled and stomped around!!
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I don't think I made much of a difference, but it made me feel better. The second one (a Jersey Giant) was attacked about 3 weeks ago and had some feathers missing on her side. I healed her up and put a saddle on her to protect the wound. I found her last night in the coop. I'm not sure what happened, she was just laying there.
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I also have a third baby (a Barred Rock) that I've named "booboo"
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because they have pecked at the back of her head (about 3 weeks ago) until all the feathers and skin were missing and she was bleeding pretty bad. I've tried to put her back out a couple of times, but they are mean to her and peck at the wound again. So I have her in the house, in a pen.
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A friend that my hubby works with is going to take her. I hate to give her up, but I'm afraid that they will end up killing her if I put her back out there.
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So, she's going to go to a new home. This guy and his wife are just starting out with chickens and she will be the first chicken they have. So, I think she will be fine with them, and hopefully top hen in thier flock.
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Quote:
Straight edge or adjustable square.
smile.png
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?rlz=1T4GFRE_enUS317US317&q=adjustable+square&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=5416895728664397163&sa=X&ei=RPr3TZWtH4mssAOjwMD6DA&ved=0CFcQ8wIwAw#

A long level works well, too. Use a sharpie to draw along the edge. The cutting straight is a breeze!
big_smile.png


Sadly, I have many squares, straight edges, and all that...and I do try to make straight cuts...they just never turn out, lol. My cuts always come out at an odd angle and sometimes no where near the line I made. I do need t get the door up though, the girls are almost as tall as the brooder now! I'll be out there today attempting straight lines, worst thing that can happen is I ruin $20 worth of lumber and the other half has to go buy more, lol.
 
Quote:
Straight edge or adjustable square.
smile.png
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?rlz=1T4GFRE_enUS317US317&q=adjustable+square&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=5416895728664397163&sa=X&ei=RPr3TZWtH4mssAOjwMD6DA&ved=0CFcQ8wIwAw#

A long level works well, too. Use a sharpie to draw along the edge. The cutting straight is a breeze!
big_smile.png


Sadly, I have many squares, straight edges, and all that...and I do try to make straight cuts...they just never turn out, lol. My cuts always come out at an odd angle and sometimes no where near the line I made. I do need t get the door up though, the girls are almost as tall as the brooder now! I'll be out there today attempting straight lines, worst thing that can happen is I ruin $20 worth of lumber and the other half has to go buy more, lol.

What type of saw are you using? I have the same issue with circular and jig saws.
If you have some C clamps or anything that can securely hold a T square, spare board or something else that is straight you can set it up as a guide, you want to make sure it wont move on you.
 
Quote:
Sadly, I have many squares, straight edges, and all that...and I do try to make straight cuts...they just never turn out, lol. My cuts always come out at an odd angle and sometimes no where near the line I made. I do need t get the door up though, the girls are almost as tall as the brooder now! I'll be out there today attempting straight lines, worst thing that can happen is I ruin $20 worth of lumber and the other half has to go buy more, lol.

What type of saw are you using? I have the same issue with circular and jig saws.
If you have some C clamps or anything that can securely hold a T square, spare board or something else that is straight you can set it up as a guide, you want to make sure it wont move on you.

x2 Plus some saw horses. Somewhere to cut where its reasonably flat and you can get a good view of your work. Eye protection is essential.
 
Quote:
Straight edge or adjustable square.
smile.png
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?rlz=1T4GFRE_enUS317US317&q=adjustable+square&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=5416895728664397163&sa=X&ei=RPr3TZWtH4mssAOjwMD6DA&ved=0CFcQ8wIwAw#

A long level works well, too. Use a sharpie to draw along the edge. The cutting straight is a breeze!
big_smile.png


Sadly, I have many squares, straight edges, and all that...and I do try to make straight cuts...they just never turn out, lol. My cuts always come out at an odd angle and sometimes no where near the line I made. I do need t get the door up though, the girls are almost as tall as the brooder now! I'll be out there today attempting straight lines, worst thing that can happen is I ruin $20 worth of lumber and the other half has to go buy more, lol.

gig.gif
 
Done, finito!

After a (unrelated) trip to Urgent Care this morning, we were able to get the doors cut, screwed, and mounted! YEAH!!!!
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The UC trip was my other half having a gout flare up, he couldn't put his shoes on this morning it hurt so bad! Of course, the weather man was incorrect in his guess that we would only have spotty rain (here and gone in 15 minutes) this afternoon...it was raining when we got outside and is still raining now with no end in sight! The edge of the deck is under a giant Maple though that kept the majority of the water off if us. We did finally call it a day after the poor tree was so water logged that the rain came pouring through the leaf cover!

But, we are done! I still need to clean up inside the run, add a few screws to the coop (mostly to help hold up the roost), add a roost, and add things like the sandbox, and some large tree branches I saved to use as a sort of jungle gym for the girls! Then it's down to the silly things like ordering them a watering jug...I can't find anything larger than a chick waterer that actually hangs! Okay, so even the chick ones don't technically hang...I have my Mason Jar Waterer wrapped in steel wire to make it hang...but I really prefer they hang! A 5 gallon one is around $38...more than I want to spend on a water dish! So, we'e down to ordering a nipple system and making on out of a bucket that I can then hang.

The photo isn't the greatest...I blame the rain! I do plan on painting it...but figure my 7 year old nephew can help do that.
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Also, it isn't a funky angle...one door is 2' 3" wide and the other is 2' 1 3/4" wide. Or something like that...we cut the first door's smaller pieces at 24" instead of the 22.75" I had figured out for both doors to be totally centered, so the other door had to be cut 1.75" shorter (at 21.5"). This is also the reason the wider door has some 2x4 mesh on it...the smaller stuff wasn't wide enough, lol.

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