The Girls' Coop is FINISHED!

[kynewbchickie]

That's awesome! I'm looking into a few organic beef farmers myself but I'm not close enough to make a trade but once I get a small freezer imma by a whole cow

The local beef farmers around here sell a whole cow for around $1000. A half-cow would run around $500 from the farmer we plan to do business with, and as long as I can keep him with 18 eggs a week, he'll knock our price down to $280. We usually eat more chicken and venison than we do beef, so we figure that half cow will do us for at least 8 months. I think our guy ships nationwide, I'll ask and if you're interested and he does, I'll message you his contact info!

 

[outdoorgal]

Looks great!

 

[res]

We priced all the individual materials to build something not NEARLY this nice at this size, and it was going to be over $2400. Converting seemed to be the way to go. We worked on it all weekend and I look forward to seeing how they react to being out permanently next weekend! Thank you!

Same here. We got A LOT more square footage for our money by purchasing a pre-built shed. And it was so simple to convert - I did 99% of the work myself.

 

[Rachy]

That is a brilliant coop!

Top work

 

[kynewbchickie]

Looks great!

Thank you so much!

 

[kynewbchickie]

Same here. We got A LOT more square footage for our money by purchasing a pre-built shed. And it was so simple to convert - I did 99% of the work myself.

Absolutely. And I LOVE the beautiful horse in your photo! Arabian?

 

[kynewbchickie]

That is a brilliant coop!

Top work

Thank you!

 

[kynewbchickie]

I'll be updating later when the pasture is finished. We were going to go with a 8'x60' pasture, but when I went to measure and set flags for the post locations yesterday, it's more than 120' long and my husband said we'd be better off redesigning the pasture for their safety. That would've been an awful lot of ground to cover to get from the back of that pasture to the coop if there was danger overhead or in the neighboring field. So, it looks like we're doing a 32'x44' pasture for now, and will maybe add another separate pasture of the same size later this summer for pasture-swapping purposes.

 

[miquwid]

The local beef farmers around here sell a whole cow for around $1000.  A half-cow would run around $500 from the farmer we plan to do business with, and as long as I can keep him with 18 eggs a week, he'll knock our price down to $280.  We usually eat more chicken and venison than we do beef, so we figure that half cow will do us for at least 8 months.  I think our guy ships nationwide, I'll ask and if you're interested and he does, I'll message you his contact info!

Thx so much that would be awesome!

 

[kynewbchickie]

Wellllll.....LOL

I ended up getting my arm twisted to go to the Scioto County Fair yesterday by my husband. And I just HAD to buy a trio of Self-Blue Bantam Old English Game birds. They're gorgeous - and they're in the pasture next to the house (biosecurity, and probably beyond the waiting period just because they'll be so much smaller than my other 30). I also got 5 guinea chicks, only a day old.

So, the work got put off until today, but I will say I had a blast looking at all the different breeds of chicken people had for sale. I was *hoping* to find a pair/trio of Lavender Araucana, but that didn't happen...and for a Poultry/Livestock swap meet, there sure was a lot of "yard-saling" going on that was rather disappointing. I feel like the organizers could have done a little better in setting up the vendors - livestock in one area, farm implements/tractors/ATVs in another, guns in one area, yard-sale stuff in another, and the antiques in the buildings. It would have made the experience a lot more organized for people who, like us, were only there for livestock. The food vendors being scattered everywhere also brought a serious trash problem...there was litter everywhere, which to someone selling livestock, could have been detrimental if their animals ate something that blew into their enclosures that they shouldn't have.

I'm headed out to do the work that should have been done yesterday...and I'll post pictures of the work, the new babies, and the new game birds I bought my son to show and breed when I get done - if I'm not too worn out. 32 posts to drive, over 140' of fence to run, and another small coop to renovate and spruce up.