MEAT BIRDS THREAD ~Plans, pics, pens, pluckers, processing! GRAPHIC!

[Beekissed]

Actually, we already had the paint here...used it earlier this winter to paint the windowsills in Mom's cabin. I love this color and even painted the bench in the entry way and the wood box the same color. We will be painting her porch and window trim that color this spring, so I thought the hoopty coop should match the house, ya know?

I had originally wanted the deep purple eggplant colored totes I had seen earlier in the year at Wally World but they were out of that color...then I saw these and thought~They ain't egg plant but they will almost match the paint I plan to use, so, why not? The eggplant would have went well with this paint also and that was the original plan.

I had wanted the eggplant colored tote with the egg-shaped entry for the irony of it all but, alas, couldn't bring it all together.

That is great to hear that their poop is still healthy....makes me smile because it confirms the theory that they just needed to have their bowels recultured to stop all that nonsense. As a nurse, I'm always looking at things like that in my animal husbandry. When I raised these CX, their stool almost looked and smelled like the Clostridium difficile infection we see in patients who have had strong antibiotics and their bowel flora have been affected, allowing the "bad" bowel bacteria to flourish and run rampant.

I'm just wondering what kind of antibiotics they give these chicks when they are hatched to cause that level of C.diff? For a day old chick, it wouldn't take much of a dose to cause this.

 

[Snowhunter]

The eggplant w/the light green.. ohh that woulda been a nice color combo!!!

Everything here is red or white cuz thats the cheapest paint we can find

I wonder if the C. Diff has anything to do with the nutrition in the parents... if they're kept on antibiotics and passing along residue via vertical transmission through the egg this effecting the chicks via yolk absorption right before hatch?

 

[Beekissed]

Could be....you could be right. Whatever the route, it sure skittles the youngin's and it lasts all through their lives unless corrected like you have done. I think it would be a great thing if you documented their stool via pic and posted a thread about it on the meat section of BYC....those folks need to see what a little prevention/intervention can do for these birds, don't you think?

 

[Beekissed]

A few more pics of the coop progress. To be honest, this coop has become a monster! If I had known then what I know now, I just would have built a stationary coop and saved myself loads of trouble and a lot of money. I could have put up one of those in a day with half the materials I've bought and used for this portable coop(which is now too heavy to move by one person..or even two!) If I had to do it all over again, I'd just have made the coop and forgot moving the darn thing around anywhere.

Here's a pic of the plastic cap that will be under my tarp. I've stapled it to the firring strips I added awhile ago and also zip tied it to the awnings I've since added to shelter the entrance and the nest boxes.

And with the front door added. I just cut down a 36 in. screen door and tried to make it fit but found it had some sag after the cut down, so added a turn buckle to bring it back in line. Works fine now. I repeat...please do not laugh at all my mis-cuts and mistakes, folks! I know they are there and I'm okay with it...long as it works and does what it's intended for, I'm fine with that.

 

[the funny farm6]

Bee- do you worry about strong winds flipping or moving this coop? We have had some windy storms already this year.

We had been thinking of something along this line but using pvc pipe instead of cattle pannels. But we worry about it being too light and blowing away.

 

[Beekissed]

With PVC pipe, I'd worry...but not with this coop. This coop has become so heavy that I can't move it, the lawnmower can't move it....we had to pull it with the truck. I'm adding some wheels to see if it will become less cumbersome but it would have to be tornado-force winds to move it and even a wooden coop can go in one of those.

I've read about these coops in areas where the winds are a real problem and folks report no flipping but you can always anchor it down if you are worried. Tied to a tree or concrete blocks. This coop? It ain't goin' nowhere....

I'm really hoping the wheels can help me move this thing because, if they cannot, I would have been better off to just design and construct it as a stationary coop and could have gotten by on WAY less materials, time and effort. I wouldn't have used the wooden framing at the bottom,would have bought an extra cattle panel and would have gotten done with the whole darn thing in one day.



Hindsight is crystal clear.... :/

 

[the funny farm6]

Lol. Good to know.

 

[Old Sew'n'Sew]

That looks pretty good in pictures. I doesn't look that heavy, but maybe something like this would work to move it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbHQCWt583k

Or maybe this:
We have had 2 of those Amish buildings delivered here, a chicken coop, and a storage building, they have some kind of hydraulic tractor cleats and come alongs on the truck, but the part of the building that is coming off of the truck they put short lengths of heavy duty PVC pipes under the corners and sides to guide it into place. When the building rolls off a length of PVC he walks it back to the beginning point and place it under the building again until it is in just the right place. This is done by only one man. He set the buildings in very narrow margins with accuracy using this method.

If you could lever up the coop at several places and place the lengths of PVC so that they will roll in the direction that you want to pull it, and use the tractor or truck or come along very slowly move the coop, this might work.
The PVC was about 5"or 6"cirumference and 2 or 3 ft. long. One length of pipe could be cut to serve this purpose and stored with the coop for more moves. I cut my PVC pipe with a hand saw. Some stores may cut to order.

 

[Old Sew'n'Sew]

That looks pretty good in pictures. I doesn't look that heavy, but maybe something like this would work to move it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbHQCWt583k

Or maybe this:
We have had 2 of those Amish buildings delivered here, a chicken coop, and a storage building, they have some kind of hydraulic tractor cleats and come alongs on the truck, but the part of the building that is coming off of the truck they put short lengths of heavy duty PVC pipes under the corners and sides to guide it into place. When the building rolls off a length of PVC he walks it back to the beginning point and place it under the building again until it is in just the right place. This is done by only one man. He set the buildings in very narrow margins with accuracy using this method.

If you could lever up the coop at several places and place the lengths of PVC so that they will roll in the direction that you want to pull it, and use the tractor or truck or come along very slowly move the coop, this might work.
The PVC was about 5"or 6"cirumference and 2 or 3 ft. long. One length of pipe could be cut to serve this purpose and stored with the coop for more moves. I cut my PVC pipe with a hand saw. Some stores may cut to order.

 

[Beekissed]

The PVC pipe idea would be a nuisance, particularly on this bumpy ground. The big piece of plastic ($50!!!! ) is what we do with blankets or rugs here...not a new idea but apparently it is to city folk who would spend that much. I've moved washing machines and fridges by myself with rugs and/or old blankets, loaded them up in the truck and moved them into the house the same way. All it takes is a little muscle and brain tissue to make it work....but I wouldn't pay $50 for the idea.

We got heavy duty wheels yesterday and will be putting them on soon...just need to get bigger bolts. It is an extremely heavy coop...I can move it one space on very level ground but it takes a lot of OOMPH to do it....I know the little ol' Bat would never be able to do it. The thing is, though, that we have very little level ground here, so wheels it is and has gotta be.

Today will be applying the mesh and building a pop door, maybe applying the tarping, cutting the windows and such.