Sitting with a cup of coffee. (coffee lovers)

[tjo804]

Photo Bomb (took chicks out yesterday)

 

[TeaChick]

Alaskan is Right that is Awesome! Teachick! Thanks! =)

Do you recommend the solid sides on the bottom rather than the top? It seems that (regardless of climate, but I could be wrong, so I hope someone corrects me if I am) ventilation kind of "has" to be at the top, but like I said, no side is absolutely windproof; all the sides just protect them from the cold in the winter and give shade in the summer, really. Is that for predators or for ventilation? The chicken wire and chain-link on the top is for predator protection; it's open (not solid) for ventilation. How high do you put your roosts? Funny you should ask.
Here's a couple of pictures that show the roosts and the nest boxes. That's the roost, a 2x4 nailed across two logs (on their sides), but only about half of them use those, there are always about two on the logs instead of the 2x4 and another two-ish that sleep on the floor (IDK why, they just do) and the others sleep on the nest boxes (those aren't dead leaves piled up there...).
Bonus tip: Those nest boxes are 18-20-ish gallon storage totes with a hole cut in them (traced from 2/3 of a sheet of copy paper) and they're screwed to a 1x1 piece of scrap lumber on the backs.





I love it may have to copy. Do the have a run as well or just the open coop? No, no run; I free range. We're looking at building one or two breeding pens, and those will be large enough to be coops and runs, but we just free range everyone together for now and only keep the roos we want siring chicks (extra cockerels go to freezer camp). How many go in there? I have 17 in there right now (12 laying pullets, 2 crowing cockerels, and 3 big chicks), but the coop is slightly larger than 8' x 12' so you could theoretically fit about 60 in there (you'd have to set up the roosts and nest boxes differently, but you could easily fit that many as long as you have enough roost space.)

This is my currant set up that we want to change. 1st pic is run after covering for shade since the neighbors dog has a taste for fresh chicken.




West side of the coop same window on east and west.

Back of coop I have weeded and mowed since this was taken.

This is the front

I think that looks fantastic!!!

 

[TeaChick]

all combustive engines pollute.... even if its only in the form of heat. anyone who tries to sell "this is the best ever" is trying to make money off their widget or process or what ever....

Even Electric cars while its not obvious they do pollute... unless your filling station at home is powered by solar energy... This is the bit that ppl seem to forget, that our electricity from the power company comes from polluting sources, except for this ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Then there is the whole what do we do with the batteries deal. Talk about pollution... I worked in the battery industry for about a year....

Lead, Hydrochoric acid in liquid form or paste form... thats just standard batteries...

Lithium batteries have their own pollution issues.

so... we have to think down the line... Probably one of the best sources of power is either solar or nuclear...

Right now there are nuclear batteries that generate electricity without neuclear reaction.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_battery

pretty interesting stuff going on in the think tanks around the world. People just dont hear about it in the mainstream.

deb

Or maybe we get back to walking and/or horses. Maybe urbanization wasn't such a hot idea after all?????

Love the coop. I'm gonna have to build one soon. I bought one when I got the chick. With all this rain, it's already leaking. So this project just became first on list. I plan on turning run into coop, since I expanded run.

Thanks! =)
That sounds like a good idea.
I have enclosed the area right outside that coop and along the adjacent wall of the shed (which I also put sheet metal in front of so the chickens couldn't get under it from that side), but I just used big sticks and safety netting. It didn't really keep anybody out, but it kept the Cochin Bantam chicks in, so it did its job for the time it was needed. If I do a run, it will probably be a more perminant version of that one. But we'll see. Maybe I'll see about getting DH to help me do that instead of building new, stand alone breeding pens and just build an additional coop for the other roo that's living in this coop currently. IDK we'll see.
Always a next project to think about.

I have a friend that lives in the mountains... In a house called earth ship. They run on solar and windmill power.
I always wondered why a car couldn't use wind power. It has plenty one it's moving...

There was an episode of Bob the Builder about building a mayoral earth ship office for Mr. Bentley. I always liked the idea, but I know DH would never go for living in something built of old tires. lol

Photo Bomb (took chicks out yesterday)

Awesome pics! Cute chicks!!!
The dog is a nice touch. =)
Is that a Bantam Cochin Frizzle in the bottom pic?

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
I would love an earthship. there are a few Straw bale houses in my area... But I would love to have a rammed earth house with a heat pump for cooling and heating Earth mass has an incredible R value. Colums of water in the green house room to stabilize the temperature year round... Built will all recycled materials. Id have one too for a barn with a breezeway connector from the house.

for heat in winter use a Rocket stove with a mass heat exchanger...

They are just very very difficult to build for a person in their sixties who gets about with a Rollator... (walker with wheels and a seat) but what I can do and am planning on doing is the process of conversion. there are ways in every house that you can convert or adapt earthship principles...

me for instance I have a little one bedroom house in the middle of a mild climate desert. Technically its at most 1000 square feet. But that house has been added to... Green house and art studio on the south side... Laundry room living room and utility room on the north side. The exterior walls are one full foot thick. The house came this way I didnt build it.

But ferreting out its construciton had me scratching my head on many occasions till I had the bathroom rehabbed. It needed to be gutted down to the studs on one wall and down to the floor joists for the floor. (the only think keeping me from falling through the floor was the Linoleum) What did we find? On the external walls we found four inch studs like on a normal house... Yet the walls were twelve inches thick. And then we realized we werent looking at exterior siding.... we were looking at aluminum siding.... from a mobile home...

My house started out life as a mobile home... and they built a stick framed house around it...

So now I have two halves of the mystery wall thickness and odd lay out. But I am seeing an opportunity. The underside of the moblile home acts like a temperature moderatort... Cool in the summer and warmer in the winter... I have to figure out how to use that with a heat pump.

I converted the green house into a roofed patio ... it was either do that or watch the whole thing implode. Wood was sun rotted plexiglas panels were cracked and leaking... besides a south facing green house gets to be 140 degrees in the summer and none of the "windows' opened.... It had to go.

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: Europe developed a way to have town life and have the farm too. They live in town and commute to the farm either by bicycle or on foot... The US is too spread out to do this though.

Horse transportaion has its limitations. about 35 miles one way is the limit for a commute. horses walk at about the same speed we do Yet their energy is plant based so hence the 35 mile limit. Transporting goods to and fro is about the same... They have to rest.

On TV when they say they are going in to town... on a western... or they run back home to protect the ranch. couldnt happen unless the ranch was about five miles out of town.

Dont get me wrong I love horses but dont feel they are practical for day to day travel. They dont all get along they need special protection when they go to new places...

Bicycle or trycicle travel though could take most people as far as they need to go. Back when I was in my twenties I thought nothing of walking five miles to get somewhere. I couldnt do it now.

deb

 

[saltandpepper2]

Double Yolker! Some how it's always exciting. Lol

 

[TeaChick]

Europe developed a way to have town life and have the farm too. They live in town and commute to the farm either by bicycle or on foot... The US is too spread out to do this though. I think that the town and country life that Europe has developed is a great way of life. The US could do this; however, we have packed a zillion people into very small spaces (cities) and we no longer have towns, per se, or farms, really, or anything that lends itself to the way of life that you describe in Europe.
As an aside, I, personally, prefer to live on the farm and commute to town rarely and briefly for necessities that I cannot produce for myself or the materials to produce my own necessities. That, however, is just a dream.

Horse transportaion has its limitations. about 35 miles one way is the limit for a commute. horses walk at about the same speed we do Yet their energy is plant based so hence the 35 mile limit. Transporting goods to and fro is about the same... They have to rest. That would contribute to the more spread-out-ness of ppl that I like. I have no problem with only going 35 miles at a time and resting, hanging out with people, learning about how they do things, making friends, sharing ideas and activities and stuff like that.

On TV when they say they are going in to town... on a western... or they run back home to protect the ranch. couldnt happen unless the ranch was about five miles out of town. When I say I'm going into town, I'm going to the nearest town, which is maybe half an hour away by car, or I'm going into the next state to go shopping for above mentioned necessities (although the trips are not as rare or brief as I would like).

Dont get me wrong I love horses but dont feel they are practical for day to day travel. They dont all get along they need special protection when they go to new places... Americans have created a society in which travel by horse is unpractical.

Bicycle or trycicle travel though could take most people as far as they need to go. Back when I was in my twenties I thought nothing of walking five miles to get somewhere. I couldnt do it now. I couldn't do all that now either (walk or bike). I think cars should be banned in America; we wouldn't be polluting the atmosphere and we'd be getting healthier!!! =D

deb

Okay, so, I'm sorry for sounding so argumentative. I just finished my finals for the term, so I've got one light week of work to do.
Also, I don't actually believe in legislating individuals' choices regarding health or even pollution; I believe that would be unconstitutional.

Double Yolker! Some how it's always exciting. Lol

Yay!!!
Yeah, it is always exciting!!!! lol

 

[perchie.girl]

@TeaChick

Ah but banning cars in the US would have to be done through legislation.... and wouldnt ban the cars in the rest of the world...

Actually people who prefer to live in cities are taking advantage of Mass Transportaion and in some cases being able to live in the same building as their work...

Not argumentitive just sharing points of view....

For what its worth my home is 30 miles from the nearest grocery store... and I am not a farmer... just a city girl that wants space around her. I would love to learn how to grow my own food... maybe some day.


deb

 

[tjo804]

Yes I labled them 4 Silkies 1 blue bantam cochin and 2 white bantam Frizzle Cochin. Only Pom pom Frizzled way better than little Nitty.

 

[tjo804]

Oh yes the dog
That is my house rat Sophia. She was a birthday present 8 years ago from my daughter. Breeder said she was a pom-poo
She is not a good dog but she is not a bad dog More like a human toddler. she loves the chickens and the chicks. But she is easily distracted so she doesnt make a good guard dog.