Enjoy a 6.5 minute tour around the farm!
Sights & sounds from around the farm on a quiet day, in the midst of spring clean-up and planting. Includes video of all our Orpingtons & their coops as well as a look at our NEW Colored Freedom Rangers’s coop and the 3 week old chicks who live there. The bantam Cochins & their coop are not featured in this video.
Archive for the ‘Chicken Coop Tours’ Category
Springtime Tour
Saturday, April 10th, 2010Lexi’s Bantam Barn
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009So, we’ve been working SLOWLY on Lexi’s new coop! We didn’t start from scratch, we are converting our former Turkey brooder to use as her coop and so far so good! Even though we’re not done with the finishing details, we did manage to get enough done yesterday to move her little guy & gals in.
I’ll do up a nice page on how we created her coop as soon as we’re done in a couple more days. It’s around 7 feet long and around 3′ tall inside and we’ve raised it up off the ground with cinder blocks footings that are 3 blocks tall. We don’t have the roof installed yet, but the frame is up and the panels are laying ontop, which as long as the weather holds for a couple of days, should be just fine. I expect we’ll have it screwed down before the night is over tonight. The whole coop is right up against the house, underneath one of our bedroom windows and so is actually under the eves of our house. It’s a shady spot 365 days per year and should be a great location for them. They will be the only chickens on the property so far that have a full time play pen or outside run. Of course we are working toward everyone having that but it takes time. The Cochins get the first run because their coop is so so small!
So last night in anticipation of completing the new “Bantam Barn” I went looking for some Barn Red paint! How silly of me to think that would be an easy or simple process. After 30 minutes at my local Lowe’s we left empty handed, no paint. :( You see, apparently any decent type of exterior paint that is ALSO at a decent price +/- $20 per gallon CAN NOT BE TINTED the deep red color I am looking for. Of course this information didn’t come to us easily as our paint rep from Lowe’s was only on his 3rd day. Anyway, I left without a color because I did NOT want to spend any money spontaneously and so I needed to go home and think it over. Here’s my options, what do you think. Please keep in mind, the color I select for her Bantam Barn will be the SAME color I finally put on my own Hen House.
1. Choose the “perfect red” currently selected is Heirloom Red from Valspar.. at a cost of $30 per gallon. While I’ll only need 1 gallon for HER coop, I’ll need probably 5 gallons for the rest of my coops.
2. Choose Redwood Exterior stain at a price of around $10 per gallon. Redwood is not really the color I’m looking for, but it surely is common.
3. Choose Red Barn & Fence Paint, which suprisingly resembles the Redwood color found in the stain, at a price of $12 per gallon.
The cheap alternatives are just the WRONG color, but can I learn to live with it and maybe even LOVE it? I’m just not sure. What do YOU think? Here are some samples, keep in mind monitor colors aren’t always very true, so this is just an example:
Heirloom Red Sample: http://www.myperfectcolor.com/Match-of-Valspar-1010-3-Heirloom-Red-p/mpc0098582.htm
Redwood Color Sample: http://www.myperfectcolor.com/Benjamin-Moore-Country-Redwood-p/country_redwood.htm
You can post your comments on my paint color or anything else by clicking “comments” right below this post!
New Coop Complete & It’s time to move!
Monday, August 17th, 2009My Darling Husband has finally completed the new coop. My daughter and I spent half a day installing a perch system & tying the wire walls together and now the happy little hatchery White Orpingtons are enjoying twice the space as they previously had. I’ll get some pictures as soon as the weather clears up a bit.
My Black Australorps are now moved into half of the hen house, which is REALLY nice because the 15 of them DID NOT fit well inside my brooder anymore at 4 weeks old. They too are very happy with LOTS of extra room. The sand floor is new to them, but they are doing great.
Next on the TO DO list is to get Pierre & his ladies ready to move to their new home this coming week. Then get Steve back with his ladies, which frees up an entire stall, Stall 3 to be exact! We plan to conver this stall for the winter months to a 3 pen rooster coop for keeping our extra guys through the winter. Making use of the roof will be great, as that is always the hardest part about making chicken shacks… getting a suitable roof in place.
Once Steve is moved into his new place, I can get our Small Coop ready to house the Gilman Farms White Orpingtons (I decided to keep these guys but offer the hatchery type ones for sale). That will be fantastic as they are fast approaching the age of lay. Then I need to move Miguel out from his black hens, move the new Blue roo & pullets in with the blacks, and I think that is the biggest part of the moving & switching.
Finally I’ll have to make something to keep our Blue Australorp Mixed rooster happy for a few more months until the Black Australorp pullets are ready to meet him. So by winter, everyone will be happily settled down and hopefully busily producing.
Oh I forgot my GLO Chicks!!!!! How silly of me! Anyway, my two GLO Families will occupy the hen house for the winter months since it’s already split down the middle for the little chicks. That will be so much easier than splitting another coop in half. Why the split? Well there will only be a pair and a trio, so they don’t really need a WHOLE coop to themselves.
Well.. the weather has been overcast here and so I haven’t been too motivated. The shingles are better, wow what an ordeal, although I feel the stress in my back now when I’m stressed, I’m still hoping I’m on my way to total recovery. The kid & hubby have been helping out immensely with all of my chicken chores, I can’t thank them enough. I know today’s post is kinda scattered, I just wanted to give you a quick update before I head outside to start doing what I’m typing!
We also have to finish Lexi’s Bantam Barn.. her little bantam cochins are the CUTEST LITTLE CHICKENS EVER!! I never thought I would think feather footed chickens are so cute but they really are! Their personalities are so unique, SO friendly and really just great. Who knows, maybe I’ll become a convert someday 