The building of Pea Palace(Pic Heavy)

[kuntrygirl]

    Kuntrygirl,,I know I can speak for everyone here when saying,,allow room for expansion.We all know how addictive Peas are,,one color is never enough and if you have the property space start building in the middle of an area so you can expand outwards.This project began with only wanting 3 pens on each side of the small 24x30 addition giving me 6 colors total.I now have 8 seperate colors and the entire west side of this building to add another aviary of equal size giving me room for 8 more seperate breeding pens.The existing corn crib building was kept in mind for pens for raising young peas in.I first need a new roof put on this building before I start sinking cash into more building materials for pens,ect.the small inside pens I'm making now will work for next summers hatchling  as well so when I see heavy use of something it always has priorities in my planning.
  Haunted,,the size of that building is equal to our garage.We can get 3 cars inside it,,but the pea building only having 21 or so adults in it only during the winter seems like a huge waste.The pens being occupied now by adults can be used for early hatch peas next summer when they get older.I want to build pens inside the existing crib sides to house my 4 diffrent ornamental pheasant colors,as well as a big brooder area for newly hatched pheasant chicks next summer.I did not hatch 1 ornamental pheasnt egg all summer because my bator was always full of pea eggs.I've had so many calls for pheasants that next year I have to hatch maybe 20 of each color.Plus I have now fed the pheasants for a year with no return  on them.

Thank you for the tip. I hadn't thought about allowing room for expansion. And I know I will surely need the room because I see a whole lotta peas in my future.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Got a good 6 hours of building time in today and made some much needed progress.I still had one group of peas outside in the pens and the weather for the upcoming week has lows expected down to 10 degrees with winds blowing,so it was top priority to get this last pen finished so the BSSP group could get inside.Heres the start of building of this pen.This pen is right in front of the wall pen I made about 2 weeks ago for the 2012 peas.It will be 8' wide and 12' long

 

[frenchblackcopper]

This pic shows I have one wall about done.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

One aspect of building anything these days is the cost.My inside walls all have a 4x8'sheet of osb at ground level.I always have to attach a 2"x4" across the top of this 4'x8' osb for a way to nail or staple the welded wire up to the roof in each pen.I had been nailing a 2"x4" under the roof nailers as a way to attach the top of the wire.The more I thought about it that seems to be a big waste of a 12' long 2"x4" so I came up with another way.All the other peas has been inside for about a month now,and I have never seen any of them fly into the top part of their pens,which is the welded wire.Even if they did they cannot get up speed and are not strong enough to break thru the wire.So I thought it don;t seem to need such a solid mounting point.
After thinking on tis some I decided to use the nice roll of electric fence wire I had,and run a length of it between the roof nailers and the sheet metal.Since I always have to trim the welded wire anyway,I always have a short piece of wire left that normally gets cut off anyway.This time I left the 2" of wire and bent it around the long wire I ran under the rafters.this by no means wasn't any quicker but it saved me a 12' log 2"x4" that would have been used to just staple the wire to all across the top.I did cut off the excess after I snapped this pic but it's just as secure doing the top of the pen wall this way,as it would be using a 2"x4" and about 1/10th the cost.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Here is the pen almost completed,less a gate.If you notice you can see the welded wire that goes all the way to the roof rafters.It is attached to a wire all along the top instead of nailing a 2"x4",then stapling the welded wire to that.Since this is a 1 person labor force for construction it is much easier for me to attach the wire at the top first under the rafters.With the roof pitch being as it is,this causes the welded wire to be at an angle instead or being straight up and down.It is much,much easier for me to start at the top,get the welded wire attached all along the top,then pull ot down and begin stapling it all across the top of the nailer 2"x4" I attached to the top of the osb bottom wall board.Sometimes I got lucky and my pen wall was in alignment right with a roof rafter so attaching the welded wire was easy,but not with this pen.It is about 8" away from the rafter if you look closely.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

The end result of todays work was moving the BSSP birds into this pen tonight. Moving birds in the dark in my opinion is a lot less stressful on them.Since they're somewhat limited with vision in the dark they very seldom cause much of a stir.I first grasp both their legs and then put them under my arm and more less cradle them.One arm and hand to grasp the legs under the leg joints and the other arm over their backs and held very snug.If they feel surefooted or you have a good firm hold of them including their wings they don;t seem to feel the need to fight or try to get free.I believe if they feel like they could fall they would struggle.Once I had them all on the perch I plugged the heat lite back in for the wall pen so there is lite insde for this new group all nite so they will not feel lost.If you look to the upper right of this pic you will see the wall pen ceiling osb.There was about a 18" gap between this pen ceiling and the roof rafters.I didn't want the adult birds that was getting moved into this pen to fly and sit on top of the wall pen so I attached welded wire from an attached wire,running across the top of the rafters again(just as I showed on doing this upper pen wall in post 264) and then bent the wire under the wall pen ceiling overhang.It can be flipped up if I need to replace a heat bulb shield or anything on top of the wall pens but I don't foresee much need to be working on top of the wall pens.I just didn't want peapoo building up on top here so this was a quick way to keep the adults off the top of the wall pens.
Tomorrow I need to get 18' of splash boards along the ground on the east wall before the ground gets frozen by next weekend.Then I plan to finish up the wall pen with 2 seperate pens and move the rest of the 2012 hatched peas out to the Palace here.Once thats all completed I still need to stuff foam in the sheet metal ridges where the metal is atached to the wall nailers to keep wind and especially blowing snow out.Then I have the two last sheets of sheet metal to put on the east wall. I've left these sheets off for bringing in plywood and boards but it's getting time to seal it up.old man winter is coming and it sounds like right before Christmas here.Roadtrip seems to like his new inside pen and settled right onto the new perch.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

You do such great work! I wish my hubby was a good worker like you. As an older woman I have a hard time getting all my pens built by myself but do have some friends that come help when they can.

All that you have done is very impressive! Your peas have plenty of room and will spend a winter in comfort instead of cold misery!

 

[frenchblackcopper]

WestKnollAmy,,Thanks for your kind words,and if I were closer I'd volunteer my time to help you build.I didn't take any construction classes in school,spent time studying girls and mechanics.I take entirely too long in building tho because as I go,I always think of the "what ifs" down the road.I spend hours upon hours watching my Peas,not fully understanding their way of thinking.But maybe thru observation is what gives me ways to make their life better with what I can do for them.Some here will read and say my pens are way too small for them being inside for 4-5 months.But they are not breeding at this time,only eating and growing and surviving until next spring.I've tried to make their perches in the most open part of these pens allowing for the males train to grow all winter,and still be able for them to move around without the males tails getting frayed or broken before springtime.Our winter may not be as bad as other areas but from past experience living on our rural homestead for over 30 years,I know how many days the wind can blow and how terribly cold it can get.Add a little snow and drifting happens and snow will blow thru any opening there is.Windchills at or below zero wil cause frostbite.Take the wind out of the equation and then it's just the cold temps they have to endure.Our area here is very,very flat,the orignal prairielands and it's possible to see 6-7 miles here with nothing but some occassional fencelines of trees to obscure the view.Not much at all to stop the blowing.
I had one fellow byc'er tell me his peas never goes inside the buildings he has for them.Even during snow and rain,his birds stays outside.My Bronze and Opals here have a door that allows them to still go outside into their breeding pens.Yet since I have finished their inside pens here,every night all these birds from both pens are inside,sitting on their perches.They have perches in their outside pens as well,but it seems mine appreciates or is smart enough to get out of the wind and rain now that they have a choice.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Well it's the end of another productive weekend.Today I managed to get another wall pen completed and moved the youngest-smallest batch of peas into the new pen.Here is the first part of construction, putting down pea poo rot preventer,,,say that fast 5 times! I use a roll of tarp paper used when putting on new shingles. It's a moisture barrier and in some pens I have had this down for 4 years now and the plywood floor under it is still good as new.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Next was another heat lite install on the pen ceiling.Done as before with a new 100 watt heat bulb installed.