Ribh's D'Coopage

[WhoDatChick]

I swear.. SAME person! ..... the “getting excited and obsessing” part.... and I explain it all to my hubby.. who doesn’t want to hear it.. AGAIN! Can somehow turn it out better than my explanation/description

 

[drumstick diva]

whoa can I have the long haired son? I'm an empty nester and too old to have any more kids. Just one son 33.plus nearly 6 mos. and lives far away.

Two empty bedrooms and really need one with grass cutting skills, etc.

 

[WhoDatChick]

A different sort of chickabee. They have since turned into hairy monsters with huge ginger beards but they were rather cute @ this size.
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They are too stinkin cute.. I can’t stand it!!! And I’ll bet they look great with all that hair!! I love long hair AND beards! That’s what hubby had when we got married ... two of my boys have long hair.. in the pic.. one has a man bun .. and I’m their hair cutter

 

[Kris5902]

The new coop has already brought me to tears. What I am good @ is concepts. I understand concepts. What I am not so good @ is explaining those concepts to someone else ~ especially if it involves some sort of mathematical concept. Math & I are not friends.

Now I live in a subtropical climate. Summer nights here can get super hot & sticky. Remembering my very first coop was an upturned trampoline that had a tarp over it when it rained I knew chickens would be perfectly fine, even in winter, without full enclosure so when I read about a woods coop I got really excited. I understood the concept because I had seen it work ~ yeah, in a weird way but...

I get excited & then I get obsessive & I decided that this was the sort of coop I wanted but explaining it to my poor long~suffering hubby, who is a bricklayer, a carpenter & a horticulturalist ~ you know, the super PRACTICAL sort~ was beyond me. I could explain ventilation, ventilation, ventilation & the *sweet spot* where moving air grows still but I have no idea how one makes that happen. Yeah, I know about the 6:1 ratio ~ but seriously... I have no idea what that actually means.

I blathered on about nesting boxes & roosts & accessibility & storage & my man, bless his heart, listened patiently ~ then he produced a mud map. It wasn't what I had in mind AT ALL!

Visualising a 3D object from a 2D drawing is not my forte either. *sigh* So. After I had my melt down Hubby patiently went over everything I'd told him I wanted & explained how that worked out in practical terms given council restrictions on what can go where & what face which way.

It turns out he's provided me with exactly what I asked for. I asked him to add a window ~ not because I think it will need one for ventilation but because I need to be able to check on the girls without actually entering the coop.

So. I will be able to stand up to clean & access my bins. The roof will slop from west to east with ventilation under the western eves. We have no choice in this. We are not supposed to slope the roof towards our neighbour's yard. Storage will be under the coop floor but as the entire front will be open with air flow coming up from below, over & through the western ventilation I shouldn't have trouble cleaning it with a rake. This sheltered area is @ the western end of what should be @ least a 6 X 18' run. Not sure where our drop off point is exactly as there's a bit of a cut back in the hillside @ the end. I am allowed a maximum of 12 chooks, no rooster, but am aiming for between 8 & 10, depending on what breeds are available.

I do prefer the bigger breeds on the whole. They feel less fragile when handling. My breeder does Campines. So pretty. Sussex ~ large enogh & pretty enough for me but I also want wyandottes & may have to look elsewhere for those.

Be patient and understanding and involved in the build... and try not to get too wrapped up in the details and stresses... my husband and I didn’t argue at all, until we tried to work together on our house renovations and landscaping projects. I’m also better at getting things figured out in my head... but then trying to work with a partner that doesn’t visualize things the same way presents interesting challenges, and opportunities!

I’m sure your coop will work out great in the end... I’m really looking forward to seeing the build and finished chicken abode!

The “Council restrictions” sounds annoyingly familiar... I’m sorry you’re having to change things to accommodate them, but they are the same thing that stops your neighbor from building a deck right at you property line looking in your back windows or draining their chemical laden hot tub directly upslope of your veggie gardens! Not enough people have common sense, so everything seems to get micromanaged when it comes to buildings and property management now...

 

[Ribh]

Be patient and understanding and involved in the build... and try not to get too wrapped up in the details and stresses... my husband and I didn’t argue at all, until we tried to work together on our house renovations and landscaping projects. I’m also better at getting things figured out in my head... but then trying to work with a partner that doesn’t visualize things the same way presents interesting challenges, and opportunities!

I’m sure your coop will work out great in the end... I’m really looking forward to seeing the build and finished chicken abode!

The “Council restrictions” sounds annoyingly familiar... I’m sorry you’re having to change things to accommodate them, but they are the same thing that stops your neighbor from building a deck right at you property line looking in your back windows or draining their chemical laden hot tub directly upslope of your veggie gardens! Not enough people have common sense, so everything seems to get micromanaged when it comes to buildings and property management now...

Good advice.

This is sadly familiar. The overall *look* of the thing is important to me but we are on a really tight budget so I am really trying not to be overly fussy & Hubby is a well known cheapskate. I managed to escape the clinker look ~ thank goodness! We are going to use marine ply which will be super easy to work with as he & I will do this build. My son really wants to but he's about to leave for a 14 week stint @ sea & I don't want to wait that long as my breeder has birds NOW.

Part of the change had to happen in case of cyclonic winds. They don't happen often but they do happen.

We are putting our timber order in Tuesday but you know how it goes...we wait on the island carrier having enough orders to make the barge trip worthwhile. Depending I will probably just seal the walls keeping a natural look But paint the roof. The slabs go tomorrow...

 

[Ribh]

It has begun. The girls are hugely interested. Their coop view has just expanded.

 

[Banditschickens]

 

[Ribh]

I hope we are entertaining you. Already this morning we have had more drama than I need. Middle son clipped himself with the chainsaw. More blood than I can cope with.

 

[Banditschickens]

Here's hoping Middle son is ok!
Chainsaws are not to be eating us humans.

{I'm a bookworm so like to read..lol}

 

[Ribh]

Here's hoping Middle son is ok!
Chainsaws are not to be eating us humans.

{I'm a bookworm so like to read..lol}

I started my working life as a librarian because I like to read.