post your chicken coop pictures here!

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
The wind hits the screens just right on this house that during a wind storm you cant hold a conversation. Dad used to say "it was blowin so hard I saw a chicken lay the same egg twice" But yah Trash cans have to be fastened to the fence along with the lids. ONe year I found Trash cans Buckets and a few pieces of tin in an arroyo on my property. And the Wind wasnt bloiwing that direction....

Another reason to not have solid anything on animal structures. Here at least. If a gate is solid It gets blown off its hinges. I cant keep shed doors on too. The only way is to use a bar that goes across the front of the shed and is fastened to the sides.

One thing though its good for .... keeps the yard clean.

 

[ShrekDawg]

The wind hits the screens just right on this house that during a wind storm you cant hold a conversation.    Dad used to say "it was blowin so hard I saw a chicken lay the same egg twice"    But yah  Trash cans have to be fastened to the fence along with the lids.  ONe year I found Trash cans Buckets and a few pieces of tin in an arroyo on my property.  And the Wind wasnt bloiwing that direction....

Another reason to not have solid anything on animal structures.  Here at least.  If a gate is solid It gets blown off its hinges.  I cant keep shed doors on too.  The only way is to use a bar that goes across the front of the shed and is fastened to the sides.

One thing though its good for ....  keeps the yard clean.

Wow! Sounds like it is VERY windy there!!!

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
enough that many of us have our own windmills. Usually though the wind is seasonal. We should have had a couple of good solid windstorms up at my house by now. SantaAnna winds come from the desert and flow toward the ocean. But where I live it goes either direction. I tell people I live where the earth breathes.

Yep a Windmill is next on the list after solar panels.

this kind has no preference for wind direction.

 

[Granny368W]

I'm about as far Northern Wisconsin as you can get. About an hour from the Michigan border. Been to Montana a couple times. Very nice scenery out west!

My husband was planning on using the lath method but he's been working a lot, and we had freezing rain a couple weeks ago, and I had to get the stuff on right away. So I stapled the heck out of it. I have a special needs chicken who I had to keep out of the elements. (Our chickens are much loved pets.. Not dinner). It may come back to haunt me.

I think it's 6 ml high vis.


Thanks to El Niño it should be a mild winter here which is great, my lil flock of 9 were mostly born in April so this is their first winter. It's been in the high 30s here lately when usually it's around 15. It can be brutal, I wish we could relocate, but my husband has a good job so he won't go.

Yeah, I bet you get stronger winters than we do.... we live in the mountains and I love it... Rae

 

[Granny368W]

enough that many of us have our own windmills. Usually though the wind is seasonal. We should have had a couple of good solid windstorms up at my house by now. SantaAnna winds come from the desert and flow toward the ocean. But where I live it goes either direction. I tell people I live where the earth breathes. Yep a Windmill is next on the list after solar panels. this kind has no preference for wind direction.

Wow, that looks really nice, what does it cost to get it set up?

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
OH they run the gambit of prices. I was checking a different brand out that was only about six feet tall about ten or fifteen years ago.

http://www.windspireenergy.com/ is only one of many.

I used to be on a design team that put up wind farms. I do know that the reaction loading on the foundation requires a very well engineered foundation. Deep and lots of rebar.

deb

 

[ShrekDawg]

enough that many of us have our own windmills. Usually though the wind is seasonal. We should have had a couple of good solid windstorms up at my house by now. SantaAnna winds come from the desert and flow toward the ocean. But where I live it goes either direction. I tell people I live where the earth breathes. Yep a Windmill is next on the list after solar panels. this kind has no preference for wind direction.

Oh wow, that's awesome! And yeah, usually it's colder here too and/or snow. Weird weather. And ive only seen the blade ones here.

 

[lynnehd]

Yep a Windmill is next on the list after solar panels.

this kind has no preference for wind direction.

That windmill looks a lot more bird friendly, too. Just got solar panels myself in September. We love them!

 

[Latestarter]

Solar panels in Vancouver? I thought you folks had like 362 days of clouds and rain there?

Folks talk about bird issues with the large typical 3 bladed (commercial) wind turbines, but the issue is way overstated/dramatized. Those blades are typically turning at like 20-30 RPM. They are HUGE and SLOW... VERY visible. A bird flying into those blades could survive if they don't break their neck. Birds do that on all sorts of things aside from wind turbines... I've had birds fly into my sliding glass doors under a huge porch roof... go figure.

I don't know if you've ever seen these vertical wind generators in operation (as pictured above), I have... when they are spinning, they are like a food processor! I mean they CRANK! A bird would just see it as a blur and if they flew into it, they'd be hamburger instantly. I suppose you could build a hardware cloth cage around it, but that would interfere with wind flow and alter the efficiency... Trade offs.

 

[lynnehd]

Solar panels in Vancouver? I thought you folks had like 362 days of clouds and rain there?

It's our big secret, lol. We can get about 60% of our house energy needs for the year covered by a solar system in SW Washington State (more in Eastern Wa, I would imagine).
Not much being generated now, I can assure you, but we sell energy back to the electric co. in the summer and get credit.
In summer, our panels are actually more efficient than those in areas like the SW US, because the panels are less efficient in temps >85f.

The state incentives are sooo good here, that combined with the Federal tax credit, we can pay for the installation over 5 years.
Now that might have been TMI, but once I get started....run away!

(interesting info about the wind turbines, too!)