Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Lutefisk]

So -- here's my version of the willow arbor: Standing on my patio looking up at the shop, and beyond that the Henitenitary. About half way between house and "The Yard". The raised garden boxes are new this year. Made from recycled pallets and other lumber. This shot is taken from the same point of view in my garden, as the point of view in the example I posted. I'm standing "in" the garden, facing the shop/house. Second View - more house, less shop. From this view you can see the small deck off the master suite. I've posted photos that were taken from that balcony. The Arbor - one day's "shiny object" (don't ask) My version of the egg color wheel And finally -- two days worth OH -- click the pictures for a close up

schweet! What a nice place you have! When is the coop run? We don't need any coop labor but would love to hang out if you make it to the Shelton area. We'll make you dinner if the schedule works out.

 

[VelvettFog]

No date set yet -- hmm.. I should add that to my list above .. along with ...


Keep an eye on the hatching process - it should finish tomorrow

 

[ChickAudie]

Well, I got Elphaba's gut issue worked out and she is pooping normal. But she was still pulled in and not keeping up with the flock. She walked right up to me and wanted up. Picked her up and gave her a real good look over. She has mites. Dusted her with Permithyn(SP) dust big time. Dusted down the roosts and litter. Dusted the Silkies just in case. No one else appears to have them. Gonna dust her again tomorrow real good.

Why does this sound like more of a threat than a promise?

4x2 welded wire is too big of an opening low to the ground. It will not keep baby birds in, nor will it stop a racoon from reaching through and eating your bird one handful at a time.

We also want to be sure we deter diggers, so we want a short apron around the run. What I do (Jess can show you a picture) is take a roll of 3' 1/2" hardware cloth and bend it at right angles so that the short "leg" of the L is about 12" and the long "leg" is about 24". I put the long leg "up" so it becomes the first 2 feet of wire on the run. (I think of a run as a really big cage. Cages are made of wire and supports [often thicker wire]. So this hardware cloth is the first two feet of wire around the bottom of your cage). We've done a good job of keeping the chicks in, and diggers out, and we've prevented the ground-level-chicken-rustler (grab 'em and run).

The above 2 feet we no longer worry about reach-throughs and any bird this tall is obviously bigger than the 4x2 opening of the welded wire, so it works great to keep out the rest of the furry folk. Should you feel you need to cover your run, I'd use the same welded wire - unless the only threat you are protecting against is airborne, then I'd use the string-and-cd method.

So - on to your specific build.

Your birds will be quite happy with enough room to stand up tall and flap their wings. Full strech !! In my opinion it is better if your birds choose not to try and fly while in the run. It is confined, they are extreamly clumsy in the air, that seems to me to be an injury waiting for a landing. So if you are happy with your run being 6 ft, so will your birds.

What I'd do is rip one board in half. Take one of the halfs and a full width board, and make a T, only you want the skinnier board to be the vertical part, and the wide board to be horizontal. Use screws, into pre-drilled holes that go through the wider board, into the edge of the skinner one (gosh I hope that makes it just unfuzzy enough that you can figure out what the heck I mean) This will give you a good strong 6' post that is easy to connect to. You can stand two of these upright and put a fence board across the top. Remember not to trust the standard "staple gun" when attaching wire. Either use a screw-and-washer, pneumatic staples, hand-driven fence staples or some other suitable, strong attachment. Racoons will test this.


That is the longest post I've ever made in my life. I can type only so many words a week. I just used up 90% of my quota.

You da Man! Didn't think of making a T, saves screws, I like it! You answered every concern I had about the chicken wire and when is your book coming out?

Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU for talking about chicken wire vs. dogs, and the digging issue!!! SO many people use chicken wire and feel they've made a safe pen, and it makes me worry for them. We used hex head screws and wide washers to secure the wire to the posts and I've been SUPER happy we did because we've changed the configuration twice in 2 years. It's so much easier to take these out rather than any kind of staple that sturdy enough for this job. Please note folks, if YOU can pull out a staple with relative ease, so can animals!

I like your idea of using the fence boards for a coop. I did something similar with 5/4" deck boards. I thought they were dry enough, but they'd been laying outdoors all winter and in May they were still damp. After building a coop wall, making sure they were very snug together, 2 months later there were sizeable gaps between them. My advice would be to lay them in the direct sun, off the ground ASAP to dry them super well!

Oh, d'yes, d'yes, I was a lurker on this site for months, made sure I knew what I wers gettin' into NO CHICKEN WIREs!(Idk? I have a strange accent tonight?)
We are fortunate to have the boards stacked in a dry(ish) garage, so hopefully are well aclimated. I see a playhouse coming next! The chickens need more places to pooh....

Quote:
I have Sevin dust for the garden, but have heard you can make a liquid with the powder and paint that too. Is that what you did? If so, can you give me any more info on how much powder to how much water? I would like to paint the roosts tonight.
I have the Sevin dust, that I use in the garden and on my rabbits, and have heard you can make the paint/paste as well, but the Sevin Dust powder is only 5% Carbaryl (bug killer), and I just happened to be at HD, and read the label of the Sevin Concentrate and it is 22.5%, so I took the Tim "the Tool Man" Taylor approach of the "Sevin 22,500" and painted that sh...tuff on there.

Now I will have to re-evaluate after a couple weeks since my Mr. Rabbit decided to lick it off the wall.

Hmmm.. the bottles I buy come with a different warning!!


Teheheeh

I notice several new posts about chicken nipple watering systems.

Is it just me, or does it feel very strange to go into a store and ask for chicken nipples. Just sayin....

--Nikki

So -- here's my version of the willow arbor:

Standing on my patio looking up at the shop, and beyond that the Henitenitary.



About half way between house and "The Yard". The raised garden boxes are new this year. Made from recycled pallets and other lumber.



This shot is taken from the same point of view in my garden, as the point of view in the example I posted. I'm standing "in" the garden, facing the shop/house.



Second View - more house, less shop. From this view you can see the small deck off the master suite. I've posted photos that were taken from that balcony.



The Arbor - one day's "shiny object" (don't ask)



My version of the egg color wheel



And finally -- two days worth




OH -- click the pictures for a close up

I just have one thing to say to you

Quote:

winner winner chicken dinner

Here's the pic of the hardware cloth bottom and you can barely see the apron now, it's covered in dirt and tiny bits of spring grass. There's 2"x4" fencing on the top part.

I want to use the yes guy, but don't want to over do it! That's awesome, is this under a patio? What do you have for a roof?

I took the rest of the week off -- for my own "coop tour' .. LOL

I have a load of spring time projects - many of which have been on my list for a while - and none of them start with Willow Arbor - but "fence the garden" is there - so this is really just stage 1 of that

One thing I want to do is build a 'stack brooder'. Top "shelf" is eye level, and that's where the babies are. Next shelf down, holds your 3-4 wk olds, bottom shelf will house the 5-9's. Then they can go outside. The entire unit is on wheels, so I can roll it around the shop. Food and water are filled from the 'outside'. Maybe I'll go to Lowes tomorrow and buy some lumber, 4 heavy duty casters and slap something together.

Or .... I have permission from DW - to build another coop ... I really want a "Woods style open air" coop. 10'x16'.

Or a duck pond, with a small duck shelter.

Or a turkey house.

I know I need to order more poultry netting so I can expand their free-range area.

I could shop for a silo, grain mill, auger

I could make a tractor for some meat birds.

I could get meat birds.

Saturday I'm going to a small chicken show in Benton City.

I think I can plant some of the garden - peas and lettuce.

I want to make cold frames for the raised beds - even if I use them next year or in the fall.

All three coops need a little maintainence.

I want a feeder station out in the pasture so the birds have a place to hide from hawks.

I'd like to try using a nipple-watering system.

I need to set up the drip irragation for the garden

I have a big pile of compost to sift

I'm sure I could think of more.

schweet! What a nice place you have! When is the coop run? We don't need any coop labor but would love to hang out if you make it to the Shelton area. We'll make you dinner if the schedule works out.

X2! (only in Tacoma

)

 

[ChickAudie]

Quote: Oh, LaughingFeather, this is no good.

Bad handyman. very bad.

 

[Chickielady]

I've used blue kote once, in my laundry room which has lavender walls..now it has purple specks all over lol. At least it matches

 

[Chickielady]

Yum, and now for dinner, Oyster on the half shell~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




What can I say ???????
My Marans are multi-talented !

 

[Chickielady]

okay, so finally got around to taking pics of the chicks we hatched in our inCOOLbator on March 2nd. We've got Wellies and Barnies and silvers from a local breeder, plus we tossed in some blue/green eggs we had from our stock- black EE rooster x EE/Americauna bearded hen. Here's pics

This is a silver leghorn, and this one looks suspiciously like a roo, dontcha think?

ya think ?

 

[Lutefisk]

Yum, and now for dinner, Oyster on the half shell~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What can I say ??????? My Marans are multi-talented !

*choke* omg! As a big fan of oysters on the half shell...I just about swallowed my tongue on that!!

 

[TerrorBird]

Today, Pudge was standing around yelling the egg song a few minutes after she laid her egg. She showed no signs of stopping, but then she sneezed. Didn't make a peep after that sneeze. It was overly amusing.

 

[sarahkatie]

Yum, and now for dinner, Oyster on the half shell~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What can I say ??????? My Marans are multi-talented !

^^^^funny post :-D lol