Selling and going big -- 100+ chicken ideas

[aart]

Kewl Beans!

How deep is board...~30-36"?
Might get some poops on the wall behind due to height.

What will you put on board?

I assume you sanded all sharp edges?

They may well roost on the front edge of board too, hopefully facing the 'right way'. ;-)

 

[Alabama Jack]

Board is 36". We just put down Sweet PDZ last night. 6 bags barely covers!! We did sand the roosts. I know we'll get some "off shoots", but we're doing deep litter, so not too worried.

 

[Alabama Jack]

Started working on the egg boxes. Had to cut two flat, so we could stack two pairs to get 24 boxes.

Before paint, but after cutting, and after bleach and power washer:

Painted with rust converter and some silver paint to cover up:

Kids in the coop... Loving our setup. Only downside is that we had an eagle visit and the girls are hesitant to range. Hope it's just moving through... And yes, we need to clean our poop boards!

 

[Alabama Jack]

Got the feeder and waterer done today. They're going through ~30 lbs of feed and ~7 gallons of water a day...! Luckily, we're close to a feed mill that does non-GMO feed. Once we switch to layer crumble, it will be $0.17 per pound.


Waterer with horizontal cup nipples. We're doing some trenching in the near future to move water out to our sheep pastures. When we do this, I will put a high rise spigot just outside the coop and run a line to the top, with a float valve. This barrel had olives in it.

Girls figure it out in about 5 minutes.

Feed barrel had jalapenos in it! We had to wash this one 4-5 times to make it manageable.

Picture has 6 3" street elbows. Had to run back to HD to grab the 7th one. Still haven't figured out how we're going to transfer the feed into the barrel from the barrel we use to bring it home from the feed mill in. Today, I just scooped for 10 minutes to fill it a 1/4 of the way...

And here's a pic of our barn cat, Skipper, watching over the flock. We haven't left her unsupervised with them, and not sure we will. We'll soon have the barn fenced in and will have our Great Pyrenees patrolling at night.

Here's our four stooges. Right hand side are a year old, and the left two are 7 months.

Our boy watching over new born goats and my DW. Goats get pasty butt too!

 

[aart]

You're gonna need a bigger scoop!!
....or the biggest bucket you can find that will rotate within barrel neck.

Were the chicks using the horizontal nipples before?

It's all looking fantastic, Jack!!

 

[Alabama Jack]

Were the chicks using the horizontal nipples before?

Thanks Aart! I really appreciate you following along and the feedback.

This was their first time with nipples, but they were very curious and just started pecking, and then drinking from them within 5 minutes. Their old water was still full and right next to it. We're going to let the old waterers run out today, and force them on the nipples.

On a chicken note, we're starting to figure out some of our assorted rare breeds from Meyers.

We think this is one of two Frost White Legbars (blue eggs). Meyers charges $70 per chick for these! (we paid around $3)

And this one looks like a Blue Wheaten Americauna. But Meyers doesn't advertise them, so could just be a cool Easter/Olive Egger.

Also, Meyers has a sale right now on several breeds ($1.75 per chick, for American breeds). Only for the 31 May hatch.

 

[aart]

I've had varying success with chickens/chicks picking up on the HN's after using an open waterer, some get it right off the bat and others take weeks<rolleyes> drives me nuts!
Am trying it now with a couple of 2wk chicks, they don't get it enough to do it themselves.

 

[Alabama Jack]

We finished one set of nest boxes. Pictorial below.

Made a simple brace to go under the nest box. The long piece sits against the wall inside the coop. We added a middle brace too.

Fabbed up a box to go on the outside of the coop.

Added hasps, which will also have caribiners in them.

This is the wall before cutting. Person door in the middle of the pic. You can see the roosts on the far wall through the HW cloth.

Wall cut open, then added a 2x4 on bottom, top and sides.

Inside the coop, we ran a 2x4 across the middle, so we could screw the back of the nest boxes to the 2x4. One tray is on bottom and the second tray has not been put in yet.

This is from the outside looking in at where the nest pad rolls out to the box.

Put new wood on the perches. You can see the bottom brace that's holding them in place. Both boxes are also screwed to the wall.

We're really happy with how these turned out. Top boxes are about even with the height of the poop board.

Perches flip up, in case they decide to start roosting in the nest boxes.

Box needs some chicken silhouettes or some other fancy art. I'll never build doors that open up or down again. These are so convenient to open and not worry about holding something. Also better if there is ever a snake in the box....

Box sticks out 7" into alley way. And adds a convenient shelf!

 

[aart]

You're going to love the nest covers....would be even better if you could operate them from the egg access side

 

[ScottandSam]

looking awesome I just caught up on the build and it has turned out great. wow 30lbs of feed a day. That is crazy.

Scott