The Old Folks Home

[Amberjem]

 

[vehve]

Chicki, real super glue works nicely too, and it's a lot cheaper.

I decided to squeeze on with the build and get the siding done.







Then I decided "Screw it, I'll throw on a first coat of paint too".

 

[ronott1]

Chicki, real super glue works nicely too, and it's a lot cheaper.

I decided to squeeze on with the build and get the siding done.







Then I decided "Screw it, I'll throw on a first coat of paint too".

That looks very nice!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I really need to make this more of a habit than just when cleaning or hanging out in coop. Good reminder, and again, I like your setup.

I buy the dust masks by the box of 50 or 100 and keep a bag of them by each coop. I just hang one around my neck if I may stir up dust so I can just pull it up if needed.

I think someone mentioned that also, use two.

I can't tell you how many chicks were saved when a heat lamp went out overnight and the chicks just migrated to the other heat source. I've found that the lamps also tend to vibrate or work themselves out of the socket.

I agree..:/ sadly, my son is coughing after having cleaned out the run for me today. No mask. He was just getting over that cough. It really isn't good to breath that in..not good. :/

I've been coughing for a week, flu. Just starting to feel stronger.

...
I was a sheet metal and metal frame designer for many many years. Big and small stuff.... Ranging from Electronic cabinets to assembly platforms the size of a foot ball field. I was smart enough though to leave compound cutting to the experts in the field....

deb

Yeah but when the compound angles come out right it is so rewarding.

I can't bring myself to build square buildings.

My first temporary grow out house built in an afternoon.
I built a smaller version of the brooder house as a hen house. The gambrel roof angles weren't too tricky but building the cupola from scratch was a little tougher.

Pythagoras is a hero of mine.... founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism... devoted to mathematics all between 571 and 495.... BC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoras

The other Hero of mine is Xenophon... as an Equestrian...

For me it was philosopher René Descartes, 17th century inventor of the Cartesian coordinate system which made the first mathematic link between Euclidean geometry and algebra.
Though introduced by Menaechmus in ancient Greece, further advanced by Persian Omar Khayyam in the 11th century, analytic geometry is attributed to Descartes.
Present day robotics would be virtually impossible without Cartesian coordinates. 3, 6 and 7 axis robots all use multiple aspects of the X,Y, Z coordinates, their arm lengths and rotation angle to calculate their position in space and where they need to go.

Better yet is the story of how he came up with it. Descartes was sick in bed watching flies walk across the tiled ceiling. He figured out that he could calculate how far they traveled by determining the angle and number of tiles they traversed.

I did ok... But hated homework as well... I wound up doing my calculus homework the half hour before class started... The part that clicked for me was learning to apply it in the real world finding out that telephone wires hang in a parabolic curve... the formula for it covers two notebook pages.... That I loved along with drawing the graphs....

but FORGET doing times tables or learning long division..... or basic algebra... I HATED it.... Multiplying two algebraic formulas though now that got interesting.

For what its worth NOW I couldnt do any of it....

deb

I was out sick a lot as a kid and never learned times tables. I came up with my own method. I missed a lot of cursive too and came up with different methods of creating the same letters.

I didn't get past algebra and geometry in high school but later needed trig for electricity.

quote

- Liar. Yep dude will be back. If 'dude ever really leaves.

I never did Calc but Geometry and Algebra 1 & 2 High school and Advanced in College. Love Algebra. Not so much geometry. Way more theorems, rules and practices than algebra.

Nice set up CC!

Just stopping in quick before going to work! Have a great night all!

I was fine with geometry but had a problem accepting theorems and postulates. I thought, "what do you mean, you THINK this is true".

...

Now, I need to figure out if I can make two out of an 8' 2x2. I know that would be 48" and the fence panels are 50" but I sure would like to be able to get two out of one piece with no scrap (especially not a 46" piece that I can't use.) I'm having serious doubts that I can make it work, that leaves an inch on each end that the fence panel will stick out. I want it to ride inside the fence panels, but I think that will only require a quarter of an inch on each end. I think I need more 2x2's.

...

Just make sure you account for the shrinkage from both the angle cut off as well as the kerf width.

I bought the $19.99 panels from TSC and they are not as ridged as the others I have dealt with. I plan to build a triangle for each end with doors for access and I decided to make one more for the center just to keep it a bit more stable. I will strap or wire them to the panels and they will just keep it from twisting and such. I am planning to cover the top two with chicken wire first and if I like it, hardware cloth later. The bottom section will be on the ground and I will pull it along the ground every few days. I also have plans to add a detachable coop that I can secure them in at night, since the chicken wire covered panels will not stand up to a coon. I am relying on my LGD to keep them away, but would feel better if they were locked away safely at night.

You could rip some triangular lengths from a 4X4 and screw the edges of your panel to that at each intersection rather than make a whole frame. Then if it is still flimsy, screw a 2X3 to the uprights at the center.

Do you have a welder?

Where is the exit?

You have to make your own. Just blow a hole in it with a new, more interesting topic.

give fastening them together a try. You'd be surprised at how much strength the wire to wire union will give it all.

My aviary panels are wishy washy flimsy to pick up but fasten them together along the edge and they become structural... They are 12.5 gauge. and a span of six feet by six feet will hold up.

those Cattle panels are advertised at 4 gauge.

4 gauge is just under a quarter inch. .225 dia
12.5 ga is jsut about a tenth of an inch .100 dia.

Galvanizing adds to the diameter of the wire... unless it was made in China...

deb

The quickest way to wire them together is with rebar wire and a twist tool. $2 for the tool and $2 for 100 ready to twist wires.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_260422-5183...RL=?Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&facetInfo=

http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay...gId=10051&cmRelshp=rel&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1

the best carpenters are just by going by feel. AND knowing to make it square you have to cut critical parts the SAME size.

I still cant figure out how a goood framer knows how to cut the Birds eye and keep the roof level....

I spent too many times working with metal shops and when you get material it was always the same size. Wood mystifies me....

I do build with wood but I have to step away from the scale... A machinist term for a really accurate ruler... I grew up with scales and calipers and Yep slide rules....

deb

It has taken a lifetime but I can finally fabricate with wood, metals, plastics, masonry and stone.
I still use wood a lot but being able to choose is very liberating.
I have both arc and wire welders. I don't use them that much but very handy when the need arises. I've built some things that saved me a lot of money over the years.
I have a cheap plastic welder too but I want to invest in a good one soon.

Deb, it's good to know that the center triangle support may not be necessary. I can use that material for something else. The triangles on each end with have access doors, I just thought that with the panels being 16' long, a support at 8' couldn't hurt.

I have about 65 chicks in cardboard brooder boxes in the garage and I need to get them outside, and the cabinet incubator is nearly full. I don't know if I am going to like this or not, but I will give it a try. I will depend on my LGD to keep predators away, but would still like to attach a small coop that I can lock them into at night.

So far, I have hatched about 50 Campines. My goal is to raise at least 150 a year and 250 would be better. The breed needs so much work that the only way for me to make any measurable progress is to hatch as many chicks as possible. My problem is space............

Good luck. Working on a breed in need is an honorable endeavor. There's a farm in Crystal Springs, MS with Campines. www.feathersun.com
ALBC says Campines are 'critical' status.
I've been going through it for quite a while. Penedesencas and Empordanesas aren't listed by ALBC but their numbers are even thinner.

I did use a level when I was digging in my posts... but they weren't EXACTLY level, that would have been too much time and agravation. (for the bantam coop)



My duck coop, I found my longest still sound wood, and made a frame and screwed old torn up plastic panels to it.

Then I made another frame, biggest I could with mostly sound wood, longest pieces I could find. For some of the parts I had to use squishy 1x6s so I doubled those up.

Then I put a sturdy table on the ground, stood up that good sound frame with the plastic up, had a kid hold it, then propped the not so good frame from the table on one end to the plastic front wall on the other end.

Then I screwed it all together.

Then I screwed on old rusty metal roof pieces onto the not so good kinda rotten frame I used for the roof.

This is the second year that it has made it!

I have some pieces like that.
I'll try to post some pics. I built a temporary grow out coop 6 years ago. It's still standing but went unused after the mink found an entry point last summer. The whole building will be redesigned. This time, I'll design it to last many years. I can't believe it lasted this long. The untreated legs sometimes stand in water, no posts.

Whats up on that cricket match?

Hockey season is almost over, then starts the second season. (playoffs)

I don;t think I even cut any wood... I just tried to find the right shape pieces that would fit:

See? I just overlapped them.

That's exactly the way my dad built animal housing. Almost everything was built from scraps, which is exactly the opposite of the way his father did things. A wealthy neighboring farmer came by to buy some pigs from us. He brought along his son and a friend that were about my age. I overheard the boys making fun of my dads slipshod construction. It really ticked me off.

Somebody shoot me with a nail gun

the emergency room will charge you one thousand bucks for a bandaid... no way you want to go there.

Not to mention the 7 hour wait.

We also have a free-form coop from scraps. There's definitely classism here on the farm: the goats have a nice house that we built, the chickens and turkeys likewise have a great coop. The ducks? They got whatever we could throw together from scraps.





Wisher, if you're using cattle panels, think about a hoop house.

Form follows function.

Thanks SCG and vehve for sharing your pics I would love a chicken tractor type pen. I need to grow out some turkey and chickens I have plenty of left over posts and 1x4's and two rolls of wire.
I think a tractor would be nice so we don't have dig any more holes for posts! That would be the best part!

vehve your bunny pen is nice and would work great with chickens also. People are always looking for new ideas.

I've never dug post holes for coops. Other than one on a concrete slab, all the others are on deck blocks. You just level the individual deck blocks and cut the posts to level the building. That way you can quickly build on a slope. They're very versatile.

I was just getting one of those myself.

If I made a level 10 x 12 frame out of treated wood, and put the hoop part on top of that, it would raise the ceiling height (I'm nearly 6' tall) solving both problems. I could compost in it and raise my juvenile birds there from January through March . I will need two of them so I can separate the cockerels from the pullets. Then I could remove the top and garden in it from April through the summer. I could add compost materials all fall and winter, repeating the process starting in January.

Or you can make one long one with a divider in the center (with a door) put pullets in one end and cockerels in the other.

The plan was to buy a new Brinsea 20 advance but then I found this on craigslist, I don't need one this big but if it is a good deal it isn't much more than the brinsea, I can't find out anything about it, anyone ever heard of it??
Natureform Safari Incubator - $400 NatureForm fully automatic commercial incubator. Game bird egg inserts. New motor. Used motor backup. New Hi/ Low temperature contacts. Metro-rack included.
< >

I'd go for it. You can always tweak it if needed.
NatureForm is a good company.
It is part of Pas Reform (or vice versa) http://www.pasreform.com/academy/publications.html

 

[perchie.girl]

Yes, it is almost identical. I am still in the planning stage, though. I would love to have a hoop house like SCG posted, but none of the ground around here is level and there would be gaps underneath that I would have to fill every time I moved it. It sure would be a lot more square footage.......

SCG, what are the dimensions of that hoop coop? I am assuming the panels are 16' long. I have three panels that are 50'' x 16' (each) so one side of the base frame would be 12 1/2', but what is the other? And how tall is it in the middle?

You can work around that with drop down skirts.... flip em up when you move drop em down when you park and put cinder blocks on them.

I SOOO much better like a coop that you can walk in....

deb

 

[vehve]

Quote: I was thinking a sand bag skirt. If you build the whole thing on wheels that raise it, it should be pretty easy to move around.

 

[ronott1]

@superchemicalgirl Try this next time you are in Arizona! (Or is it Utah you go to?)

http://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/video/fearless-biker-rides-white-line-cliffside-trail/vi-AA9JE0y

 

[Cynthia12]

Oh my goodness, loved this, maybe you've seen it. Just too cute.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Healthcare and a carpenter.

 

[dsqard]

@superchemicalgirl
 Try this next time you are in Arizona! (Or is it Utah you go to?)

http://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/video/fearless-biker-rides-white-line-cliffside-trail/vi-AA9JE0y

Ron don't scare her! She is a bit timid when it comes to heights. I can handle them a little better (SCG calls me goatgirl) but just watching that video made my palms sweat. That was shot in Arizona but SCG is coming out to Utah in May so we can hike Zion again. Never get enough of red rock country.