San Diego Chicken meetup and Chat thread

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

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X2!

 

[luvanimals2]

Only $50? Pressboard here is $10 a sheet....? Maybe just from the pics, but it looks like it has more wood than just a few sheets.

I bought CDX for a nest box and it was $25 a sheet.

And that was on SALE.

Like I said, I shop in all the wrong places.

Nancy

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Cari, As you know, I moved and still spinning from the process. The LAZY person that I am, you cannot move from your current house to the BIG Place instead of a interim place? It is ALOT of work. And stress on the animals.

If not, I would do things moveable. Like kennel panels and not do chainlink fencing now. Would do that at the permanent location.

I would also do 1 long coop with the runs in front or behind. Seems easier than going to feed and water in 6 or 7 locations. Just my thoughts. Oh, from a LAZY person with too many chickens.

I do not know about SD but Lowe's here had a clearance on chainlink fencing and dog kennel panels. They were 10 footers w/ gates and I had them delivered. $75 for 4 panels. It is not the best materials but it worked for what I wanted since I did not want permanent. I wanted to be able to change the panels and have a garden for the chickens and be able to move it for them after they were done.

If you still need gates and poles for the chainlink lmk. I have some at the old house. A few gates and a bunch of poles. I also have the wire for the top, brand new and the pole covers ???? Caps? I know there is a proper name, just cannot think of it.

Good Luck! I hope it all goes smoothly.

Nancy

Hi Nancy! From someone that has recently moved I appreciate your input!

That is one of the things we are talking about; just waiting and moving ONCE. However, the "big place" might not be for a while and the main reason we would be moving is that we would be saving A LOT of money at the the 'interim' place. And I do mean a lot. It would make all the headache and hassle worth it.

Yes, that is what I want to do, one long 'run' separated into breeding pens, however, one problem is that it is similar to here; hilly, and I might not be able to get them all right next to each other. Steve has scoped out the "animal area" but I haven't yet.

I actually WOULD like to do the free standing chain link dog kennels or pens, that's my first choice as I wouldn't have to worry about putting poles in the ground since from my understanding the ground is REALLY rocky. Problem is they are SOOOO expensive and in such high demand it's almost impossible to find them here.

Another problem is money (like always).

As some of you know, I've built my entire farm 100% by myself on a college students budget while not working, that's why my animals have to make money if they are to stay (at least enough to pay for themselves). I'm 'hoping' that with the money savings Steve will help me out, but I can't count on that.

So I have to figure it out.

I will let you know about the gates and poles, right now I think it would be a YES.

Some ideas I've found:

 

[perchie.girl]

Cari I just bought two sheets of half inch thick plywood it cost me 26 bucks. And I bought it at Home Depot. I do not use anything but plywood. You can get two by fours for a couple of bucks a piece. But three sheets of ply wood if you cut them up right make a cube four feet by four feet by four feet. I know I built a dog house this way for my greyhound. Which lookes much like the crate you show in the picture below. Those crates like in your picture are not cheap new.

There is a Crate seller on Craigslist but I lost his contact info. Someone here was buying packing crates from him. Those crates are huge like big enough to walk into. But with a little creativity you can split them in half and make two boxes out of them. I believe those were going for a hundred bucks a piece.

A better place to buy plywood is Discount Plywood in El Cajon. They supply the roofing industry and they sell retail.

But if you are moving a second time DONT waste your effort in doing major construction that is not moveable.

Like I said before I can make a shelter for my birds when they need one but I dont bother till the weather gets bad. I have one solid wall where they can hang on their perches when the weather gets bad. That wall and the roof is just about all they need. And you can provide separators as necessary for each breed.

Oh I have another idea which you might want to take a look at..... I have to find the thread though.

deb

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[perchie.girl]

Cari Here is a thread that you might appreciate

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...er-house-follow-my-progress-with-updated-pics

He used a shade structure frame and swapped the legs for the overhead parts. making it wider than it was tall. It would be an investment but if you did something like this right it would most definately be moveable.

deb

 

[SunnyCalifornia]

Dana- the Eggs are hatching today!! My dumb hen broke several of them in the first two days, so I have been letting her sit on air, and I stuck the eggs in the incubator. I might sneak the chicks under her tonight when she's sleeping if she's still on the nest. I think she's giving up hope.

 

[dfdesigns]

Dana- the Eggs are hatching today!! My dumb hen broke several of them in the first two days, so I have been letting her sit on air, and I stuck the eggs in the incubator. I might sneak the chicks under her tonight when she's sleeping if she's still on the nest. I think she's giving up hope.

How exciting! Please take some pictures... I'm always curious to see what some of these babies look like.

Cari, have you ever seen what DMRippy did with pallets? I know she has links to what she built in her signature; it was pretty impressive.

 

[desertdarlene]

Hi everyone, it's me again. The two ducks that with with the duck that Knock-Kneed Hen rescued are still alive, but it doesn't look good for them. They hang around the edge of the parking lot and don't eat and drink much. There is a worker at the lake who is going to be bringing a couple of cages for them tomorrow and I have her phone number. So, if anyone wants to contact her and co-ordinate a time to pick them up, PM me. Otherwise, if anyone still wants them, but can't make it tomorrow, they will have to bring their own cage. These two ducks are much faster than the other one, but I still think they're catchable, especially with two people involved.

I am willing to help catch the ducks. If anyone wants them and lives close to town, I could try to catch them and meet them somewhere. However, though I've gotten better at duck-catching, I'm still pretty poor at it and it will take me forever to catch them on my own. The worker at the lake is good at catching things, but her boss doesn't want her to get too involved in things like this and I don't want to jeopardize her job as she's already supplying the cages.

This morning, I herded them down to the water and made them stay there so that they would drink some water as I don't think they've been drinking hardly anything. They also managed to eat some algae. I know people have given them food, but they don't seem to want to eat. The worker lady said when they first arrived, they smelled like they had been in a cage for a long time and doesn't think they'll make it. Someone else said they've been at the lake for two weeks, but I doubt that. I think they were dropped off last weekend.

Anyway, here is a photo of them that I took when I made them go swimming. They seemed to enjoy swimming, but as soon as they noticed I walked away, they followed me and then went back to their spot. They did no bathing, which is weird because even other dumped ducks I've seen love to bathe as soon as they're put into the water. They're both girls by the way.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Cari I just bought two sheets of half inch thick plywood it cost me 26 bucks. And I bought it at Home Depot. I do not use anything but plywood. You can get two by fours for a couple of bucks a piece. But three sheets of ply wood if you cut them up right make a cube four feet by four feet by four feet. I know I built a dog house this way for my greyhound. Which lookes much like the crate you show in the picture below. Those crates like in your picture are not cheap new.



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This could work if I find the wood cheap enough. 4 x 4 x 4 would work fine.



Yes I have a couple of those large crates from those guys on craigslist. They are BIG however, but only $100 bucks so that may be an option too... I'm not tossing any ideas yet.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

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Great idea! Pallets would actually work well if I could get enough of them, they are light, easy to transport, easy to build with and small! I'll look into it now!