So I have purchased my tractor. Ready to build a 10-12 chicken coop. I want to use recycled materials and build it on the cheap. Any good plans on CP? I would like one that I can walk into [Reply]
I would put out some coin to get a good system for the nest boxes that includes the eggs rolling out and being accessible from the outside of the coop.
EDIT: I assume that wouldn't result in frozen eggs where you are... ask around in your area though I guess. [Reply]
The neighbors across the alley had them for a year or so and they were constantly getting out, drifting around aimlessly down the alley. One even made it under my fence at one point. My German Shepherd apparently noticed it and it didn't end well. The dog wouldn't have bothered it if it had run into it in the alley, but God help any living breathing thing that actually makes it into my back yard.
I would guess they finally got tired of them and they ended up in the freezer. I see the coop is still back there, but I haven't seen a chicken for weeks. As someone above mentioned, check Craigslist, you can probably pick one up for little or nothing. [Reply]
Are you going to sit the coop in one place, or do you want it to be mobile?
Building it on an old trailer works really well.. you can easily move it and the chickens can find some shade under it during the day when you let them out. [Reply]
I'm in the process of building a coop now. Mine will be stationary with a outside run as well. All wire is 1/2" hardware cloth and 3' is also buried, 18" deep and 18" away from the coop. Hoping I'll actually achieve a predator-proof coop since we live in the middle of the woods and we don't have a free-roaming dog. [Reply]
Originally Posted by IA_Chiefs_fan:
I'm in the process of building a coop now. Mine will be stationary with a outside run as well. All wire is 1/2" hardware cloth and 3' is also buried, 18" deep and 18" away from the coop. Hoping I'll actually achieve a predator-proof coop since we live in the middle of the woods and we don't have a free-roaming dog.
You have badgers over there? Fuck badgers with a fucking tire iron. [Reply]
They are nice to have when eating eggs is involved. We eat farm fresh with our eggs. They free range during the day. Hoping they eat a ton of bugs around the garden. [Reply]
As I stated earlier, it got ugly when hillbilly started taking pot shots at dogs. We have an invisible fence and our across the road neighbors do, too. That didn't seem to sink in to said hillbilly's pea-sized brain and one of her shots hit the neighbor's house. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Renegade:
I am guessing or maybe speculating that Buehler would shoot badgers from his enclosed tractor cab if he could
Most of the time I don't see them. They're nocturnal.
I don't typically carry a gun in the cab, because every time I do, I never see ANYTHING. Then the gun just gets dirty.
However, last fall, I saw one drinking out of my irrigation pivot, so I grabbed a shovel and took off after him, thinking I'm so fucking old and slow there is no way I get within 50 feet of the fuck. Well, he's slower. So I closed the distance in like 100 yards and then he turned around to fight. Fuck. Now what? He was a big son of a bitch.
Well, anyway, as long as I looked threatening, he'd just stay coiled up hissing at me. So I called my nephew who brought a gun and plugged him. He was like, "WTF are you doing?" I told him I was staying close enough to keep him from running but out of his range to lunge. In point of fact I was shooting from the hip because I had no idea WTF to do, but if I'd yell and wave my arms he'd lock down to fight.
If I would have actually had to engage him, it would have went....poorly. I keep my spade pretty damned sharp, but it's still a fucking spade. [Reply]
Originally Posted by mlyonsd:
Badgers are the worst. You can never get all the dirt back into the hole they've dug it out of.
Turn your shovel around and use the handle to tamp in the dirt as you fill it. Pack it as tight as you can and don't stop until you have a little mound where the hole was.
Or if you have water, water pack it and fill it in the next day.