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Do We Have a Chicken Thread Here?

Thefishguy77 said:
Your dog is obviously untrained and you’re a shitty shot if you still have raccoons going after your chickens. :flipoff2::stirthepot: The smell? Depends but accurate.
:flipoff2::stirthepot:
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critter control
Fly bait mixed with coke or other sugar drink.
Better have some holes dug, you will have a few things to dispose of.
 
Ransil said:
critter control
Fly bait mixed with coke or other sugar drink.
Better have some holes dug, you will have a few things to dispose of.
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I have lost like 6 birds in like 8-10 years due to predators. I live in the country I shoot things predating on my flocks. No poison or shit like that needed. If its at night cellular game cams give you very timely notice when they get tripped.
 
woods said:
The issue building now is the $11 2x4. :homer:
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Mill your own? Go find a contractor doing a remodel in your neighborhood and ask if you can have any scrap boards? Go jack a bed load of pallets from you local home improvement store? Find a free dog house on CL or MP?
They are chickens dont over think it. I have 2 coops right now with just 2 layers of 15#felt over 3/8 plywood and there is over a foot of snow on each of them and thy are dry. Used metal roofing is usually free and great for coops. The only load bearing you need to worry about is the roof and even then if you make it from pallets you have the 2x material in the pallets.

We bought our first coop because chickens were this new thing. When we moved down here the first spring I built a “Proper” coop, room for food and bedding storage in the coop, Gambrel roof, insulation all around, oil based barn red paint on the outside with white trim And all that got me was less money My latest coop built from mostly solid cedar deck boards and some hardware cloth gives me just as many eggs per bird and cost me actually nothing. Everything was scrap or scrounged. Just depends on how fancy or simple you make it.

Only musts for me now are easy to clean, easy to get eggs, stays dry and mostly non drafty. Other than that they are chickens.

If you have a lot of digging predators in your area a 12-18” apron on the ground around you coop with a thin layer of dirst over it discourages all but the most determined diggers.
 
We\'ve had a small back yard flock for about 10 years... anywhere form 5 to 17 birds.

1. They are fucking stinky and shit everywhere. Free range in the yard sucks. A large coop/run area is the way to go.

2. A treadle feeder really does keep the rodents down. Cut our feed usage by about 1/4. I used to trap 3-5 rodents a week in the coop area.... now it's maybe 2 a month. (our house backs up to a canal/huge grassy field so there\'s always gonna be some rodents) Amazon.com : PawHut 25 lbs Capacity Automatic Chicken Poultry Feeder with a Galvanized Steel and Aluminium Build, Weatherproof Design : Garden & Outdoor

3. Automatic water is so much easier and cleaner. Amazon.com : letsFix Chicken Waterer, Nipple+Tee Waterer Kit for Poultry Automatic Poulrty Drinking for Chicken, Quail, Duck, Geese, Turkeys [10 Pack] : Garden & Outdoor

4. some hens are retarded and lay eggs in different places every day... even though you build nice nesting boxes. It\'s like a daily easter egg hunt.

5. mortality rate of chicks is pretty high (sometimes) ... if you want 6 and buy 6, you\'ll have 4 survive. If you want 6, buy 7 and all will survive.

6. pullet sorting is an educated guess at best. If you're in an area that does not permit roosters, have a plan to rehome them.

7. if egg production is a priority, don\'t let your wife choose chicks based on "cute".... you\'ll end up with some silkies and polish that barely lay 2 a week at best. I like australorps, rhode islands and leghorns. 5+ per week. the australorp egg is big too.\n
 
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I’ve had chickens for years now...

build the pen the right way, one time.

predator proof
easy to collect eggs
easy to feed and water
easy to clean.

there are a lot of ways to screw the above up. You can make chickens easy and convenient or a total pain in the ass.
 
Thefishguy77 said:
Mill your own? .
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You actually gave some good advice in your post but I am deleting it so I can bust your balls about this.

someone says Lumber is too expensive to build a chicken coop. You suggest they buy or build a sawmill to build a chicken coop. That is fucking hilarious.
 
Mom and I were talking she was born in Northern NM their chicken coop was built out of logs. Ours when I was a kid was a board and batten shed about 9 x 9 with single heat lamp on the ceiling and a 24' x 24' chicken wire run. I have looked at countless coops in catalogs and builds on line, I have come to the conclusion they aren't for the chickens, but the chickens owners. When their friends and families show up they marvell at how pretty their chicken coop is. Don't get me wrong ther has been some neat stuff out there like the laying boxes that eggs roll out into a trough outside, keeping the chickens from shitting on them, plus you don't have to go inside to get the eggs.
We haven't had any kind of livestock here because it ties you down, but this last year has gotten us to thinking. Like I said earlier I have been studying about Cotrurnix quail, and mom would like to have chickens just to watch, and she likes brown eggs, maybe it is time for a change, we certainly didn't do all the traveling we used to last year.
Then again it is -1 outside and IF we had chickens I would have had to go out side to take care of them today :eek:
 
bigun said:
Mom and I were talking she was born in Northern NM their chicken coop was built out of logs. Ours when I was a kid was a board and batten shed about 9 x 9 with single heat lamp on the ceiling and a 24' x 24' chicken wire run. I have looked at countless coops in catalogs and builds on line, I have come to the conclusion they aren't for the chickens, but the chickens owners. When their friends and families show up they marvell at how pretty their chicken coop is. Don't get me wrong ther has been some neat stuff out there like the laying boxes that eggs roll out into a trough outside, keeping the chickens from shitting on them, plus you don't have to go inside to get the eggs.
We haven't had any kind of livestock here because it ties you down, but this last year has gotten us to thinking. Like I said earlier I have been studying about Cotrurnix quail, and mom would like to have chickens just to watch, and she likes brown eggs, maybe it is time for a change, we certainly didn't do all the traveling we used to last year.
Then again it is -1 outside and IF we had chickens I would have had to go out side to take care of them today :eek:
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Agreed that a lot of the fancy coops are more for show than anything. I intend to build something nice, but not over the top.

I just don’t want it looking like a homeless camp in my back yard.
 
Grnd93 said:
Agreed that a lot of the fancy coops are more for show than anything. I intend to build something nice, but not over the top.

I just don’t want it looking like a homeless camp in my back yard.
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:lmao:
 
bigun said:
Mom and I were talking she was born in Northern NM their chicken coop was built out of logs. Ours when I was a kid was a board and batten shed about 9 x 9 with single heat lamp on the ceiling and a 24' x 24' chicken wire run. I have looked at countless coops in catalogs and builds on line, I have come to the conclusion they aren't for the chickens, but the chickens owners. When their friends and families show up they marvell at how pretty their chicken coop is. Don't get me wrong ther has been some neat stuff out there like the laying boxes that eggs roll out into a trough outside, keeping the chickens from shitting on them, plus you don't have to go inside to get the eggs.
We haven't had any kind of livestock here because it ties you down, but this last year has gotten us to thinking. Like I said earlier I have been studying about Cotrurnix quail, and mom would like to have chickens just to watch, and she likes brown eggs, maybe it is time for a change, we certainly didn't do all the traveling we used to last year.
Then again it is -1 outside and IF we had chickens I would have had to go out side to take care of them today :eek:
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It's been around 5 degrees here all day. Only two chickens came out of the coops today.
 
Grnd93 said:
Agreed that a lot of the fancy coops are more for show than anything. I intend to build something nice, but not over the top.

I just don’t want it looking like a homeless camp in my back yard.
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Probably bring some class to the neigboorhood! :stirthepot: :lmao:
 
what's to say you can't just use an old minivan shell?
seems to me like it'd be way cheaper than building anything after you sell the engine and/or trans, and sell the cats
got doors that close and shit, nice windows to let the light in...
 
Secure your heat lamps lol. Coworker got woke up by the fire dept after one of his fell and turned his chicken palace into fried chicken.
 
AK_F250 said:
Secure your heat lamps lol. Coworker got woke up by the fire dept after one of his fell and turned his chicken palace into fried chicken.
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swhy they make those wire cages for light fixtures
don't see the floodlight sized ones near as often, but you should be using the ceramic resistance wire heaters rather than the floodlight style anyways
 
DMG said:
You actually gave some good advice in your post but I am deleting it so I can bust your balls about this.

someone says Lumber is too expensive to build a chicken coop. You suggest they buy or build a sawmill to build a chicken coop. That is fucking hilarious.
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I was suggesting if you have a sawmill or know a friend that may have a sawmill. Maybe he asks his friends in person and online.
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This site is full of fabricators for fucks sake. You probably have enough scrap laying in the corner to build a mill. But in reality it takes an 8’ piece of unistrut, clamps, and a few random pieces of steel stock to build one. You can buy a good one that will take up to a 36” bar for under $300.

I mill my own because it makes sense for me. I have had a chainsaw mill for about 10 years. They are a few hundred bucks for a good one if you have a saw. I started just milling maple slabs and shit like that. Then just big beams for personal projects because why not if you have access to the trees. Its just 4 passes for a beam. But at $7-12 a 8’ 2x4 I started cutting a lot of 7/4 dug fir and hemlock slabs from trees with 12” butts or less. Penciled out to fairly cheap project lumber if your doing more than a few projects. Its long paid for itself for me. I live near the Nation Forest and also have a lot of trees on my property so it makes sense for me. Sorry if your area sucks and you dont have access to trees?:flipoff2:
 
[486 said:
;n311278]

swhy they make those wire cages for light fixtures
don't see the floodlight sized ones near as often, but you should be using the ceramic resistance wire heaters rather than the floodlight style anyways
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Exactly.
 
[486 said:
;n311239]what's to say you can't just use an old minivan shell?
seems to me like it'd be way cheaper than building anything after you sell the engine and/or trans, and sell the cats
got doors that close and shit, nice windows to let the light in...
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i thought about that. I think it would be too hot in summer and too cold in the winter.
 
It hasn’t been above negative 5 here since Friday afternoon, all chickens still alive with no heat. Just get a hardy breed. Too expensive and heating a coop seems to start a lot of fires
 
We've had them for years (they actually belong to the people next door) they have always free ranged. My wife lets them out in the morning and they put themselves away every night. Another neighbor closes the coup and the people that actually own them buy all the feed and clean the coup, we get the eggs.

We've lost 3 in 5 yrs to hawks and owl's but not bad.
 
Fullsize80cherokee said:
It hasn’t been above negative 5 here since Friday afternoon, all chickens still alive with no heat. Just get a hardy breed. Too expensive and heating a coop seems to start a lot of fires
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If you need to heat a coop its usually not much. I have used a 5gallon bucket of water with an aquarium heater in it thw qater stays around 80 and thats a hell of a heat sink. I have 2 of them in my impromptu greenhouse and when it was 17 the other morning the green house was 42.
 
Thefishguy77 said:
If you need to heat a coop its usually not much. I have used a 5gallon bucket of water with an aquarium heater in it thw qater stays around 80 and thats a hell of a heat sink. I have 2 of them in my impromptu greenhouse and when it was 17 the other morning the green house was 42.
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You just heat the water and it radiates that much heat? I might try that the water freezing is the most annoying part
 
Anybody thinking of selling chicken crap to be used as garden fertilizer?​​​​​​
 
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