So I decided to build an underground coop: UPDATE pg 33

[the1much]

Quote:
I haven't figured out the details yet, it's kind of taking shape as it goes along. The hole is now 10'x14', and I figure with the soil and potential snowload, it'll need to be built to hold 100 pounds per square foot. I'll ask the lumberyard to figure out what I need for a ten-foot span. If necessary, I'll put in a center support.

It's become a neighborhood project - I bribed them with a boat ride to the pizza parlor:

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c116/Oblio13/IMG_1642.jpg

when your done with them,, send them this way,, i'll buy 4 pizza's and i have use of many boats over 50' lol

 

[BeardedChick]

We had one of those when I was a kid. It was an old root cellar first converted into a skeet shooting trap then converted into a coop. It worked well, and thermoregulated nicely. Ours just had a short wall with a small roof on top.

It was a pain to clean out and carry the food and water in 'cause everything has to go down and up. Because ours was earthen, it was always dim inside and kind of spooky... The chickens freeranged, though, so they were only in there at night. I just remember not liking to go down in there to pick up the eggs.

I didn't read all the posts, but please be careful it's well protected from your horses. I know someone who lost a nice warmblood after it got out and walked across a root cellar. It fell through and severed it's tendons.

 

[Faye]

Hard workin' kids!!! They're so cute...

 

[purr]

what a good looking family you have and they all look happy to be helping out. they must be looking forward to that pizza.

 

[Oblio13]

Quote:
Most of them aren't mine, they're from down the road. The little girl in pink is The Gopher From He**. She was filling buckets faster than I could dump them and didn't want to quit for lunch. The puppy very enthusiastically joined in the digging, too, except that he was mostly putting it back in the hole.

 

[emilyfrancis]

that's awesome!
I can't wait to see the finished project.
I live in Colorado now but I'm originally from Lyndeborough, NH

 

[crzychicken]

Awsome Idea !


djackjr, I had the heron issue also, we took green banboo garden stakes drilled 3 holes about 2 inches apart pushed them in the ground and strung fish line around the pond and then across pond like a grid. I would see them land but wounldn't go in the pond we did leave it about 4 inches from the edge of the pond also.

 

[patandchickens]

Ventilation in late winter and early spring may be an interesting exercise. I know that bank barns can get reeeaaaaaalllllll wet (from humidity and condensation) around that time, because the walls and floor are a large cold thermal mass and you start getting warm humid-air days and the building acts as a giant condenser. Heck, I even get that in my slightly-below-ground-level (don't ask) cement-floored horse barn. Even with the doors and windows virtually closed, condensation will be dripping off the overhead beams and the floor will be dark and shiny with moisture. I suppose it might not be as bad in a coop with the floor entirely covered by litter but that still leaves the thermal mass of the walls...

Something to think about anyhow.

Have fun,

Pat

 

[vfem]

I don't even think WOW covers this one... I will be watching in suspense to see how you solve each issue as it comes along.

 

[3 sisters farm]

looks interesting...but here it would be a duck pond...watertable is a few inches below the surface!