Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Maximum Output

Before they moved into the coop three of the four hens were laying. The better light and more space helped #4 start and we are now getting 4 eggs a day, woohoo!  

The eggs are gradually getting bigger. One of the hens is giving us large size eggs after 2 weeks. The shells are way harder than store bought and they taste totally different. My wife Chris said "they taste like eggs did when she was a kid".

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Moving in Day

The inside of the coop is finished. Well I still need to put a couple of windows in, that will be done in June. Just got to do the trim around the open front and replace the siding on the North side. I have put up a temporary poultry mesh wall up so that I can separate the growing chicks (in a few weeks) and the 20+ week old RSL hens.

The RSL hens get a 13'x3' pen and the chicks will get 13'x6' once they are out of the brooder. In fall when the young birds are the same size as the RSL hens I'll remove the wall and they can live in harmony. ;)

I put the hens in the coop this morning, had lots of fun catching them :|   Checked them around 10pm and the 4 hens were in the 3 nest boxes. Hopefully they start using the roosts at night.




Wall on the left is temporary.

View from the 6'x10' brooder/egg collecting room

Friday, April 25, 2014

Another Library.

Trinity College Library, Dublin, Ireland. A great photo, symmetrical, goes on forever.



Thursday, April 24, 2014

New Arrivals

I got a call from Performance Poultry regarding my order. The Ridley Bronze turkeys won't be ready until May some time. The Chantecler chicks are ready for pickup. So I arrive at Jason Cains place and the sight was unbelievable. Acres and acres of fenced poultry runs with chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys. I left there with my order of 6 Chanteclers plus 6 Dominique chicks. 

They all turned away when I did the group shot.

Dominique

Chantecler

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Conversion: Shed to a Coop

I have spent the last 2 weekends converting a 10'x16' shed into a chicken coop & brooder room.
It took me 2 hours to empty it. Full to the roof.
The coop will run across the shed. Open front on the left, roost bars will be in a 3 foot extension on the right. It will cover the back 9.5 feet. The front 7.5 feet will be for brooding chicks, food storage and collecting eggs. 

I couldn't find my ruler.
The coop will be 13' x 9.5' giving 123 sq.ft.  With enough living space and roost space for 30 birds. I only intend to have maximum 16 chickens.

Left side faces SE and is perfect for the open front of the coop.
So where do you start? It was a cold day so I went for the extension side first. Ripping Carefully taking off the siding from the right hand side (north) of the shed.


Then cutting out the wall leaving one support which needed to be beefed up. I also added a 16' 2x4 the length of the shed under the roof trusses.



The support on the left was removed later.
I then added the floor of the extension and extended the roof trusses. The roost extension is raised 2 feet above ground to maximize the chicken run. 



I didn't take any more photo's that day due to a concussion. I forgot the trusses were above my head and wham!  The next Photo is of the extension boxed in. 


Opened up with a reciprocating saw. Hardware cloth in place.


Below: 3' roost extension on the right and open front on the left. Cleaning it up before sealing the floors with Rubr-Coat rubberized coating. It's too thick to call paint.

Black Jack Rubr-Coat #57 - $47.99 from Lowes


I used a paint brush to cut in around the edges and a roller for every where else. It dried enough to walk on in 4 hours. The leaves blew in when I opened the door, permanent litter now. Note that I went up the walls 3-4 inches as I'm going to be using the deep litter method.

Tomorrow, I frame the interior walls, add some windows, a pop door and put the layers in their new home.

to be continued.........

Our first egg!!

I picked up 4 Red Sex-Link (20 week old) hens and it took 3 days for our first egg to arrive. This was a week ago, I've been busy with the coop. 







Sunday, April 6, 2014

Skunk spray neutralizer recipe.

This recipe for Skunk spray neutralizer was just posted on Poultry Swap Ontario.  Write it down or save it to your hard drive, you never know when you'll need it.


1 Qt 3% hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup baking soda
2 teaspoon dawn liquid dish soap (it has to be dawn.)
Soak dog’s fur (not yet bathed. dry.) in the mixture. Keep on for 20 minutes. Use a sponge on head and keep out of eyes. Rinse thoroughly with water.