Thursday, June 5, 2008

The chicks arrive!!!

The baby chicks arrive and more work to do on the coop. They are still small and need a very small area and heat until they get their true feathers. Right now they are pure down right now and have no way of regulating their body temperature, there for they need a lamp with a 60-75 watt bulb placed inside a brooder box which has 3 sides of plywood to keep out the drafts, and one side of 1/4 inch hardware cloth to keep out the varmints and on half of the top a hinged door made of plywood with hardware cloth on the other half of the top so a metal bell clip light could be placed on the wire to create a heat source for the chicks.. The only place we had for them was up on the covered slab we had poured years ago. We set them up on a table with a light. Luckly it was warm already so it wasn't a problem.


So on with the coop..... the sides start to go up. We framed out a stationary window on the back for added light into the grain room. We dug a ditch about a foot from the siding and but old fencing roll up in it to prevent varmits from digging their way into the coop.

We already had the front door , which we had to make some minor adjustments to. Richard made the other two doors so they fit tight . We planned the door to the feed room so it would be a door that closed off the main room when it opened from the feed room. It really works well!

The perches are 4X4 posts with 2X4s , edges rounded, attached to the sides at the top.