Video Time

Progress!









Remember back when I said that if I really cracked down and worked I could probably get the coop together by working a full weekend and every day after work....for a week? Well. I started work last Saturday and should finish up tomorrow. I am really hoping that they can sleep in there tomorrow night.

Whoo!


Hippo2b asked if I was going to put a latch inside so no chickens could escape when I was in there. Well, I vaguely remember thinking that I needed to do that but had totally forgot. So today I just put up a little safety latch, nothing all that fancy or strong but totally functional for what I need. All I need is the door to stay shut if I am in there...I should never be locking it "securely" from the inside.







Yesterday I got started on their pop door. It was way more work than expected (aren't most things?). I got it mostly finished up today, although I still need to add a few boards. It does function just fine though! Don't laugh at my windows as they have not yet been framed and so look horrible. They function though! I am all about function when time is short. I can fix the "looks" later.












The string goes up and through the front wall so that the door can be opened or closed from the outside. For now, it has to be locked closed from the inside, but I am going to try to think of a way to do that from the outside also. The first picture in this post shows a string going down to the left and that is the "lock" for nighttime, holding the door shut even if someone pulled the string or tried to push the little door up (like a RACCOON).









There is hook below where the ring sits when the pop door is "open" during the day.








Anyone who is curious how to make a sliding pop door. I used a 1x4 board underneath a deck board....not sure the size of those. A 1x6 or 2x6 would work as well, as the point is just to have an overlap of the "outer board". That provides the "track". As long as your door itself is thinner than the 1x4 (mine was 19/32 plywood), it will slide freely. I have not finished the top of mine. I need a "stop" on my track as in theory if I just pulled the string as far as possible, the door would come completely out of the track. I need a stop to hold it from going too far. Which would just be a board going across the "track" at whatever height you want the door to stop at.

Pretty simple, right?

The hardest part for me was framing both side of the damn opening. I had to constantly go out of the shed, down the little ramp thing and around the "wall" to the coop door, open and climb in there, do whatever I needed to do....and then go back out, lock the door back up, go back around the "wall" and up the ramp back into the coop.

Way too much work.

I did also build them a ramp to go up to the pop door from the bottom of the run. I forgot to take a picture though. Whoops?


And let me just note, I will definitely be making any other run 6 feet tall. Having to bend over in a 4 foot run is not only KILLER on your back, but dangerous with mean roosters. Fortunately the giant rooster has been very well behaved lately. Even though he is getting HUGE.


Speaking of roosters.....Crockpot bit me in the arm again last night. He doesn't just bite, he grabs onto me and won't let go. Little bastard. Since I have been outside working so late, I have been putting the chickens away later and later. A few nights it has already been dark when I put them away. Because I am outside working right next to the pen, I do not worry about predators, but the chickens are already "night blind" by the time I go to put them away. It sure is convenient trying to catch them though!

Two nights ago it was so dark when I went to put Crockpot and Stew away, they both seemed to be blind and confused, so instead of picking up Stew and letting Crockpot follow me to the night shed....I picked them both up, one under each arm, and carried them to the shed.

No problems!


So last night, same deal. It was dark and late and they seemed confused. So I go to grab the Evil Rooster and he just nails me and is basically hanging off the skin of my arm by his beak. And it was not pretty. And it hurt, damn it.

So I grabbed Stew and put her away and left his ungrateful ass out there for a bit longer. Then I opened the gate and just let him free to be confused. He followed me most of the way to the garage but did have one point where he stopped and seemed to be contemplating going into the darkness instead of following me to the light.

DAMN IT CROCKPOT. MOVE TOWARDS THE LIGHT.


Tonight I did not even bother trying to pick him up. He is really kind of becoming a bastard.

I read somewhere, in a post about someone trying to pick the "best rooster" to keep out of a group of them.....the poster said that the ones who crow a lot generally have something to crow about. Meaning they have THE STUFF.

Crockpot likes to crow. A lot. (how the frick do you flip a video right side up?)


(poor quality video, but you get the idea)









And if that did not make his point clear....








Speaking of videos.....did I ever mention how my neighbor's kid is a drummer? He is like 16 years old and he and his buddies have this little band and they all come over regularly to practice.


Which is part of why I totally do not feel bad about my roosters crowing all the fricking time. Loudly. Repeatedly.


This is why. Keep in mind I was trying to get the sound, not the video, so ignore the video part. I was just looking around inside the shed on Saturday before I had done much of the work.









I actually enjoy it. I get to build shit and do work around the house to LIVE MUSIC.

How awesome is that?


They have improved SO MUCH.


Here they are last August.










I can totally drill while I rock out. I can demo a wall with a sledgehammer whacking away to the beat of the drums playing across the road.


One time at band camp they had a buddy come over to "sing". Except they must be some sort of punk/rock band as he just screamed. It was hilarious. Like, I had to actually stop working and just laugh. This was last year sometime but man was it funny. I think it was actually when I was building the porch railing. He was just screaming away into a microphone the whole time they played.

HI-LARIOUS.



I haven't updated on the 9 baby chicks lately. I am giving at least 2 to a coworker who has been won over into the chicken world. Or rather, I am trading them for two Taco Bell burritos.

HA HA HA.


Of the two "reds", one is definitely a boy and hopefully the other is a girl. I do not need another Crockpot! Definitely not! And my friend wants a rooster, so she is going to get him plus one of the blue chicks as a "buddy". I leg banded the blue chicks so I could tell them apart....purple for the one that I think might be a girl (P for Purple, P for Pullet)...and an orange for one and a green for the other. The orange is looking a bit suspicious. I think I will give her that one along with the "red". She is going to get some other chicks in a few weeks and is wanting multiple roosters (to annoy her neighbors, ha ha ha), so either way it will work out for her. I would give her both of my definite boys, but they already fight at 2 weeks, so I am keeping the blue one.

That leaves me with 7 babies. Crockpot and Stew makes 2. Then the batch of 6 that includes the Jersey Giants, the White Leghorns and the Buttercups. Then the batch of 6 that are the chicks-with-pants. THEY ARE MY FAVORITES. Anyways. That totals out at 21. I am aiming for at least 3 square feet of coop space per chicken, which would be 63 for those 21 chickens. My coop is 8x8, which is 64 square feet. Perfect fit, right? And I still have to weed out more roosters out of the chicks-with-pants and the batch of 7, so I will have even fewer once it is all said and done.

However, you are supposed to provide at least 10 square feet of outdoor space per bird. Which means my 8x8 pen is okay for 6 chickens. The plan is to add an additional much larger pen eventually, and possibly free range the non-flyers out in the fenced yard during the day, so the run space is workable for another month or two as they grow. The buttercups and white leghorns can seriously fly, so they will not be allowed anywhere but a covered pen, sadly. I am hoping to get the second pen built and it will be for the Evil Rooster Crockpot, sweet little Stew, the whites and the buttercups. Plus the red girl of the babies (assuming "she" is really a "she"). That would be a nice set of 6 ladies for the evil rooster. If the other new chicks are girls, they can go with the Giant Rooster and his lady and whatever chicks-with-pants stay. I am really worried that they are ALL BOYS. I am keeping th two smallest spotted ones who are really sweet, no matter what. I may just need to build them their own mini run, or finally put an actual "top" onto the little pen that stays by the back of the house.


Decisions, decisions!


Tomorrow the brother in law will be coming over to help me get on a ladder and screw the roof down onto the new framing. That should complete the coop and then the chickens can hopefully sleep there tomorrow night, I can do a quickie cleaning of the tack shed turned chicken coop, and then move the new babies out there. They are really outgrowing their little tub in the extra bedroom and they are stinky as can be.

PLUS, my dad flies in at 10ish on Saturday morning, and I assume he will stay at my house Saturday night. Gotta get that room cleaned out tomorrow night. Pretty sure my dad does not want to 'sleep with the chickens'.