Building a new run

very clean bib tyg! :D Maybe we are a bit like our chickens? :D :D I prefer the gentle elegance of the French Faverolles, hybrids have always seemed a bit aggressive for me.

Most of our houses are home built, more adapted sheds but hubby does like to make his own henhouses now, he is even making his own bee hives now and that really is a labour of love! :roll:
 
foxy said:
very clean bib tyg! :D Maybe we are a bit like our chickens? :D :D I prefer the gentle elegance of the French Faverolles, hybrids have always seemed a bit aggressive for me.

ll:

Yes I do imagine you as gently elegant, Foxy. But come and meet my soppy hybrids one day, and then you might change your mind about them.
 
Bit of a scruffy bird Tygrysek, with those feathers sticking out of his? neck. That seems to be what happens at the first cross. You start to see re-feathering, then at the next cross the crop becomes covered. So it goes on.

Back to my coops.
 
Sweet version http://www.forum.woliera.com/album_page.php?pic_id=11545 and http://www.forum.woliera.com/album_page.php?pic_id=9424
and last picture as we highjucking this trad allready http://www.forum.woliera.com/album_page.php?pic_id=7733
 
Castara said:
Marigold said:
Your first post was on September 7th last year, Castara - it's been a long journey to those chooks, getting on for a year. Did you think it would take so long to make that coop and run? If you had known, would you still do it the same way, or just go out and buy one and get some hens the next weekend?
An interesting thought , I've taken a few days to ponder it :-)19 and Yes I think I would do it the same. Its an instant gratification world, press a button and click, it arrives via courier, then it breaks , we bin it , buy another , and probably missed the whole point in an instant, Doing it this way, My brain has been stretched ,My skills improved and broadened, my 8 year old girl has learnt some carpentry skills, my 4 year old tells her teachers why chickens eat stones and their built like a dinasor , they've learnt patience and enjoyed suspence , gone to bed dreaming of chickens and when we finaly got them, they were ... so happy ;) . As a family we've worked together And I've got 'SOME' professional respect from the old man :lol: (only took 30 years :-)07 ) ,I don't think much of most of the coops I've seen for sale off the peg as it were, When I first thought of doing this I was looking at those little chinese jobs on Ebay , (holds 15birds, etc :roll: ) but I've seen some in the flesh :-)06 and I'm glad i didnt part with my money , I think you have to spend quite a bit to get something decent . Making stuff is fun, especially for yourself , and to your own spec. It does feel good when it comes together, and if your like me , then usually theirs something wrong with the way any body else does something lol
As for the time , Well Its part of the fun in a way , I work to other peoples deadlines all the time so it was nice not to have to rush / work in the cold, etc , and the working with my Dad was ........Good :-)07 and actual hours spent on the coop and run wernt to bad , it was the excessive paint job :-)07 that chewd up the time, Also I do like a bit of research :ugeek: And its given me time to read a lot, and take part and learn from informative Forums like this one (which coincidentally, after road testing a few is by far the best :-)08 ) Originally I wanted 3 Silver Laced Wyandotte bantams , I thought 'Hybrid' meant over bred weird thing . , but were a big familly , need eggs /robust/reasonably priced/friendly birds . So Hybrids it was And Jolly pleased I am with them too . sorry but ya' ll can keep yer naked necks :lol:

Interesting pictures, but as you said, Tyg, maybe a bit of a diversion from Castaras thread. I really liked this reply, it seemed to sum up the whole marathon project so well, which is why I just came back to it here, to see if anyone had any comments about anything apart from the last sentence!
 
Castara said:
Why are you sorry? This was fantastic post you wrote and I really enjoyed to read it.your aproach to life is very down to earth and you definitly had delayed gratification which so many people really lack off this days.Most would like an instant prize without any work and put everything on c/card which they struggle to pay off.So do not be sorry this is a right way to achive goals in your life and the lesson kids had learned is priceless :-)08 :-)08 :-)08 Sorry for mine not so perfect english :oops:
 
Bet your English is miles better than my French Tygrysek. God knows what they will make of me when I log into a French Poultry forum -if they have them? But it's the only way to learn the poultry terminology. I have a MASSIVE dictionary but I bet it has just 10% of all the nouns I need for stuff.
 
tygrysek75 said:
Castara said:
Why are you sorry? This was fantastic post you wrote and I really enjoyed to read it.your aproach to life is very down to earth and you definitly had delayed gratification which so many people really lack off this days.Most would like an instant prize without any work and put everything on c/card which they struggle to pay off.So do not be sorry this is a right way to achive goals in your life and the lesson kids had learned is priceless :-)08 :-)08 :-)08 Sorry for mine not so perfect english :oops:
i ment sorry for my quip on Naked necks , Thought I'd set every one off :lol:
 
Close encounter of a Poultry knidAPDC1276 (600x450).jpg Not to sure about the window , Bit of argy bargy at bed time , no one wanted the window seat! Curtains maybe ?? :-)07
 
APDC1274 (600x450).jpgHouston the chicken has landed :lol: One small step for chickens , One pain in the neck for me :roll:
I think I will have to block the roof off (at least temporarily) They seem to go for the roof every night , Its the White Star , that starts it off :roll:
 

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Well , I've had to block of the roof :roll: , they just kept goin up there every night :-)07 , so to try an break the habit before it takes hold I cut a piece of old trellis and patched some mesh off cuts over it . The white Star still tried :-)07 ,several times, :-)07 :-)07 to fly up there , Before finally settling on their top perch out side :-)11 APDC1292 (600x450).jpg Where she was joined by the others I left em till 9.30 at which point I put um in the coop , they reluctantly whent to bed on there perch ( the lowest , smallest one in there??? ) Actally lower than the nest box??? , Now what should I do :
A, Leave them out all night, I think the run is secure now , the fox comes now and again and sniffs the air and they just look at him then off he trots .
B , Put some light in the coop ?? Feeders ?? , a bit of Bach??? Cocktail lounge???? I have thrown a bit of scratch in there for them late afternoon,
C, Keep puttin um to bed , manually, ? But wont this just develope dependent birds , ( I've played that game with kids :-)07 )
I probably wouldn't worry , but I'm supposed to go on hols end of the month , And I was hoping they would have a nice orderly routine by the time the chicken sitter arrives (son from Uni)
 

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Just for the record , Eggs is up to 4 , The wrinkley one , and 3 small , slighltly oblong but perfect brown eggs , Not sure whos layin what , we thought the copper black had laid one It was a slightly redder brown , but then another which would mean 2 in a row ?? in just 24 hrs??? , And do white stars always lay White Eggs ???
 
Now I've never liked a bully , and this White star 'Princess :-)07 Bl'dy Leia', seems to be top bird. and yet , shes the smallest? hasn't laid an egg? is the most skittish , and hides behind the others when there's trouble about although she is curious for sure, watches me work on the coop , then comes, I suppose the Colombian 'Barbarella' although she just moves around so fast and doesn't seem bothered by any thing, just food. And lastly the big Copper black, 'Uhura' the thoughtful one , perhaps the most clever, But shy and the brunt of feather pecking from the white star , Which results in a scramble to eat it between the Colombian and white star , and even sometimes the copper black herself ??? , but of recent this is escalating in to some chasing of the Copper black and corralling away from food, she is not as active as the others But doesn't seem distressed , if any thing ( not bothered) if a chicken can be not bothered, my instinct is to chastise Although I'm sure this is silly, but I have on reflex on occasion vocally chastised her while shushing her away from the others something she really does not like, so now if i see her about to peck I shout 'Leia' and point and she runs away,??
 
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