There is nothing like finding useable materials for chicken coops for free. I have been worried about my roosters that are just in the fenced pens with tarps over the top since we have been having so much rain. It is starting to get cold too, ok...cold for Texas. It is suppose to start getting down in the 30's and with the ground being so wet, my roosters need up off the ground and a way to keep out of the north wind.
I was able to get materials for another cattle panel coop, but after finding a source for free pallets I decided to make a bigger coop that could be divided into sections and use the cattle panels for the top. I found a source for pallets recently, some have boards really close together and make good walls. I have created a decent sized start of a coop so far, it is about 8'x12' and it will have a pallet floor in it to get chickens up off of the ground. I need solid walls to keep rain and wind out...the north and south walls are made with the more solid wood pallets, the East and West walls are the more open panels that will have to be covered with wire and some kind of waterproof materials. I have been using some of the feed bags to cover coop windows, I will probably do the same thing for the walls on this new one and a tarp over the top for now.
The coop that I am working on held up in some high winds we had with yet another storm system. The rooster pens are rather wet and I did get a couple of pallets in the worst of them. I need to get some more out there, this weekend is suppose to get down close to freezing. I stopped by the place I picked up the first two batches of pallets and picked up about 20 more. These are not big pallets, they are only about two feet wide and four to almost five feet long. They are not exactly the same sizes either, some are close to the same size, but not square, I am not sure what they were made to hold either. Some of the pallets have large spaces between the boards and others are close together, some are light in weight and others are very heavy. I loaded up as many as I could, then took some out and changed things around so I could get more into my truck. I had to make sure everything was strapped in well and would not shift. I did not want to loose my free pallets! I also found a place that I can get pallets for three dollars each...so if I am not able to get enough pallets of the free variety to do what I need to do, maybe I can get cheap pallets to finish up the job.
I will say that I have had to make quite a few repairs to the pallets I am using, most of them have loose boards, or missing boards, or the runners are cracked, broken or parts missing. A lot of them are made of what looks like dog eared fencing or they actually have tree bark on them...kinda log cabin looking. This coop is going to look very rustic, not going to be very square or level. But if it can keep my poultry realatively warm and dry...I can live with that.
I am starting to imagine what else I can use pallets for...I have seen a lot of great ideas and inspiration enough to wonder about making all kinds of things.
Friday, November 20, 2015
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Give Thanks Every Day
Since the time change and "Falling" back an hour, I have been getting up early...5:00 to 5:30am early. Sometimes I put on a pot of coffee and clean or organize something...today I write. I got up and my dog Kensie wanted outside...I took Kensie and Bailee out and Bailee stayed on the porch by the back door and Kensie ran out in the yard to do her business. I looked up at the stars and said a little prayer, the sky is clear, the air is cool and I can see the Big Dipper right outside of my back porch in the sky above my head.
We received almost three inches of rain yesterday, I am thankful that my poultry is doing well. With all the mud and getting wet, I have only had one loss of a mixed breed rooster...not sure why, but I found him on the ground in a coop and he was so still and cold I thought he was dead already, but his eyes opened. He didn't live long after that though he was very cold and already stiff when I found him. Normally I try a multitude of things to help a chicken I found like this. He is probably the third one in three years that has done this. When they get to this point they are too far gone to save. I have prolonged their agony before but once they can't stand up, and basically have rigor setting in...I am not going to try and nurse them back to health anymore. He was only about six months old, I think he was a Gold Laced Polish and Black Sex-link cross...he was always kind of weird looking and stayed off by himself. I saw a lot of bruising on his skin when I inspected him, there are a lot of roosters in that pen with him, he may have gotten beat up...but I didn't see any cuts on him though. Roosters can be rather mean to the weakest amongst them.
I performed a Bumblefoot surgery of sorts yesterday. A Black Sex-linked hen has been on my porch for the past few weeks, I sprayed her feet and legs with Scarlex Scarlet Oil a few times a day. The infection on a chicken like this is a staph infection caused by an abrasion or cut on the foot, a cheesy material forms and must come out to heal totally. A sore formed between the toes on her left foot and part of the infection protruded out, a week ago I removed some of it. I kept spraying the oil and yesterday noticed a large scab protruding out and got all the supplies together to remove the rest. I picked at it with tweezers and pressed the bottom of her foot, I could see it rise up through the area I removed the scabbed part. I had her wrapped in a towel, had my nitrile gloves on and switched to forceps...I had her wrapped fairly tight because I didn't have her tight enough and she was able to flap her wings...made a mess on my kitchen floor...she is molting and feathers flew all over the place. I wrapped her tight and laid her on her back, she calmed down and I braced her with my forearm while I pressed up on the bottom of her foot, and the core of cheesy material started protruding enough to grab it with the forceps. It took about four tries, the first few times pieces broke off. I had to press up a bit harder and my chicken was struggling a little, but I finely got a good hold of the plug...and wiggled and pulled on it with the forceps until it finely came out. I sprayed more scarlet oil on her feet and put her back in the cage on the back porch...I found myself saying another prayer that I was able to do the surgery.
I am thankful, every day...I thank God to give me the strength and the wisdom to get through another day here on the farm. I am fortunate that I get to see the sunrise every day, and thankful every morning to wake up. There was a time when I was afraid that I wouldn't wake up. I still have a lot of pain some days, but pain tends to keep me more active...if I keep busy, and not just sit in my recliner watching TV or on the computer I feel better. The sunshine and fresh air help, as does moving...whether it be, feeding the chickens, gardening, or building...it doesn't really matter. I rest more often these days, but I work hard too. Stepping outside and seeing so many stars makes me smile. I chose this way of life and I enjoy it. Some days I may cuss my poultry...for some reason, whether it be getting flogged in the face by a turkeys flapping wings, or getting bit by a rooster I snatch up to separate...in that moment I may hurt, I may be bruised, I may even have a cut...but I am alive and well and thankful that at the ripe old age of fifty-six...I can pick up a thirty pound turkey or chase and capture an overly aggressive rooster, or a goose that is limping...and build things to house them.
I found a place I was able to get free pallets, I am working on another chicken coop made primarily of those pallets...well, I was until it rained anyway.
We received almost three inches of rain yesterday, I am thankful that my poultry is doing well. With all the mud and getting wet, I have only had one loss of a mixed breed rooster...not sure why, but I found him on the ground in a coop and he was so still and cold I thought he was dead already, but his eyes opened. He didn't live long after that though he was very cold and already stiff when I found him. Normally I try a multitude of things to help a chicken I found like this. He is probably the third one in three years that has done this. When they get to this point they are too far gone to save. I have prolonged their agony before but once they can't stand up, and basically have rigor setting in...I am not going to try and nurse them back to health anymore. He was only about six months old, I think he was a Gold Laced Polish and Black Sex-link cross...he was always kind of weird looking and stayed off by himself. I saw a lot of bruising on his skin when I inspected him, there are a lot of roosters in that pen with him, he may have gotten beat up...but I didn't see any cuts on him though. Roosters can be rather mean to the weakest amongst them.
I performed a Bumblefoot surgery of sorts yesterday. A Black Sex-linked hen has been on my porch for the past few weeks, I sprayed her feet and legs with Scarlex Scarlet Oil a few times a day. The infection on a chicken like this is a staph infection caused by an abrasion or cut on the foot, a cheesy material forms and must come out to heal totally. A sore formed between the toes on her left foot and part of the infection protruded out, a week ago I removed some of it. I kept spraying the oil and yesterday noticed a large scab protruding out and got all the supplies together to remove the rest. I picked at it with tweezers and pressed the bottom of her foot, I could see it rise up through the area I removed the scabbed part. I had her wrapped in a towel, had my nitrile gloves on and switched to forceps...I had her wrapped fairly tight because I didn't have her tight enough and she was able to flap her wings...made a mess on my kitchen floor...she is molting and feathers flew all over the place. I wrapped her tight and laid her on her back, she calmed down and I braced her with my forearm while I pressed up on the bottom of her foot, and the core of cheesy material started protruding enough to grab it with the forceps. It took about four tries, the first few times pieces broke off. I had to press up a bit harder and my chicken was struggling a little, but I finely got a good hold of the plug...and wiggled and pulled on it with the forceps until it finely came out. I sprayed more scarlet oil on her feet and put her back in the cage on the back porch...I found myself saying another prayer that I was able to do the surgery.
I am thankful, every day...I thank God to give me the strength and the wisdom to get through another day here on the farm. I am fortunate that I get to see the sunrise every day, and thankful every morning to wake up. There was a time when I was afraid that I wouldn't wake up. I still have a lot of pain some days, but pain tends to keep me more active...if I keep busy, and not just sit in my recliner watching TV or on the computer I feel better. The sunshine and fresh air help, as does moving...whether it be, feeding the chickens, gardening, or building...it doesn't really matter. I rest more often these days, but I work hard too. Stepping outside and seeing so many stars makes me smile. I chose this way of life and I enjoy it. Some days I may cuss my poultry...for some reason, whether it be getting flogged in the face by a turkeys flapping wings, or getting bit by a rooster I snatch up to separate...in that moment I may hurt, I may be bruised, I may even have a cut...but I am alive and well and thankful that at the ripe old age of fifty-six...I can pick up a thirty pound turkey or chase and capture an overly aggressive rooster, or a goose that is limping...and build things to house them.
I found a place I was able to get free pallets, I am working on another chicken coop made primarily of those pallets...well, I was until it rained anyway.
Friday, November 13, 2015
Poor Muddy Roosters!
We have gotten more rain, the area under "The Big Top" is rather squishy. The rain is washing the dirt down the hill, picking up the pine needles and settling in the fence and against the coops and pens. It is holding the moisture now, several of my breeding pens have a few inches of muck in them. It rained a half inch in fifteen minutes with the last front. The good part is, the grass is starting to grow again. I have been trying to find perennial rye grass to reseed it, so far I have had no luck. I can special order some, but it is $85 for a bag and they said if it doesn't come up the first time, it won't be back next year and there are no guarantees. I may have to get some in Texarkana. I would have to keep the the poultry off of it while it started growing too. I would rather not buy a fifty pound bag of seed. If I can get a ten pound bag and see if I can get it growing first, then I might invest in more. I may look on Amazon, they have pretty much everything on there...why not grass seed?
My husband and I are both realizing we need another big coop, we don't really have the money to build one right now but, it must be built before winter sets in good. I found some free pallets and may try and go get another big load of them. I will attempt to make a coop out of pallets. I found a feed store that sells them for three dollars each too. Whatever I end up building, I will be constructing by myself, so It can't be too terribly heavy...it must be durable though. This will be for the roosters, and they fight so it also needs to be divided into sections and easy to clean. My mind has been working ninety to nothing for several days trying to figure out an inexpensive way to construct the house/s. It has to be able to handle a snow load, we got snow twice last year and the second time was about ten inches. That doesn't happen very often in Texas...well, not in the Fort Worth/Dallas area anyway. I want to use cattle panels in the construction, they are pretty sturdy and the curve I will put in them will shed snow pretty well with just heavy duty tarps as the roofing material. If I order the white tarps, they will get more light inside of them, that is what I got for the side of the big run on the Big Coop.
I am having issues with the last batch of roosters that hatched out now. I need to separate them too, they are mating machines and they pick on the most vulnerable of my hens. I still have about ten hens that have no feathers on the lower part of their backs, because of the roosters. The quantity of eggs I was getting has gone way down too. Light plays a factor in egg production, hens need 14 hours of daylight to produce an egg, but I think that and the stress of so many roosters wanting to mate is causing havoc in the hen house. I am beginning to understand why hatcheries cull the roosters as babies. I don't know how to sex chicks, but with Sex-links you can tell visually between the sexes. I may have to hatch a batch of sex-linked chickens...there is an egg shortage and I need layers...not roosters! It seems like I get a greater number of roosters every time I hatch chicks. I would like more Marans, they are a more docile breed and since my dog Bailey killed one of my white Marans hens, it would be good to have a few to replace the ones I have lost, I lost a white Leghorn looking one too. My broody hen Brown Racers baby, she had started laying and I really liked her...but, I guess Bailee does not want chickens going in the backyard. She has killed any chicken that has jumped the fence when I wasn't there to intervene.
I rooster Buddy Chicken bit me on the arm while I was cleaning his cage, it was almost healed up and yesterday I grabbed up a rooster terrorizing multiple hens. I guess he was pretty pissed off that I grabbed him off of her while he was busy with her. A surprised rooster equals another bite and bruise on my arm...just above the spot that was almost healed...I grabbed him by the wings and let go of one to grab him by the legs...that was a mistake. He flapped his loose wing and was able to get me good...not only about an inch and a half cut/abrasion but about a two inch bruise around it that is swollen. I washed it well and have been applying tea tree oil. I have been tempted to use Scarlex Scarlet Oil, which is an animal wound dressing that I use on the chickens. I have a hen on my back porch that I have been spraying her feet with it for a staph infection called Bumblefoot.
My husband and I are both realizing we need another big coop, we don't really have the money to build one right now but, it must be built before winter sets in good. I found some free pallets and may try and go get another big load of them. I will attempt to make a coop out of pallets. I found a feed store that sells them for three dollars each too. Whatever I end up building, I will be constructing by myself, so It can't be too terribly heavy...it must be durable though. This will be for the roosters, and they fight so it also needs to be divided into sections and easy to clean. My mind has been working ninety to nothing for several days trying to figure out an inexpensive way to construct the house/s. It has to be able to handle a snow load, we got snow twice last year and the second time was about ten inches. That doesn't happen very often in Texas...well, not in the Fort Worth/Dallas area anyway. I want to use cattle panels in the construction, they are pretty sturdy and the curve I will put in them will shed snow pretty well with just heavy duty tarps as the roofing material. If I order the white tarps, they will get more light inside of them, that is what I got for the side of the big run on the Big Coop.
I am having issues with the last batch of roosters that hatched out now. I need to separate them too, they are mating machines and they pick on the most vulnerable of my hens. I still have about ten hens that have no feathers on the lower part of their backs, because of the roosters. The quantity of eggs I was getting has gone way down too. Light plays a factor in egg production, hens need 14 hours of daylight to produce an egg, but I think that and the stress of so many roosters wanting to mate is causing havoc in the hen house. I am beginning to understand why hatcheries cull the roosters as babies. I don't know how to sex chicks, but with Sex-links you can tell visually between the sexes. I may have to hatch a batch of sex-linked chickens...there is an egg shortage and I need layers...not roosters! It seems like I get a greater number of roosters every time I hatch chicks. I would like more Marans, they are a more docile breed and since my dog Bailey killed one of my white Marans hens, it would be good to have a few to replace the ones I have lost, I lost a white Leghorn looking one too. My broody hen Brown Racers baby, she had started laying and I really liked her...but, I guess Bailee does not want chickens going in the backyard. She has killed any chicken that has jumped the fence when I wasn't there to intervene.
I rooster Buddy Chicken bit me on the arm while I was cleaning his cage, it was almost healed up and yesterday I grabbed up a rooster terrorizing multiple hens. I guess he was pretty pissed off that I grabbed him off of her while he was busy with her. A surprised rooster equals another bite and bruise on my arm...just above the spot that was almost healed...I grabbed him by the wings and let go of one to grab him by the legs...that was a mistake. He flapped his loose wing and was able to get me good...not only about an inch and a half cut/abrasion but about a two inch bruise around it that is swollen. I washed it well and have been applying tea tree oil. I have been tempted to use Scarlex Scarlet Oil, which is an animal wound dressing that I use on the chickens. I have a hen on my back porch that I have been spraying her feet with it for a staph infection called Bumblefoot.
Thursday, November 5, 2015
So Much To Get Done
I have a rule...take care of live animals before doing anything else. My husband feeds the poultry in the mornings and most of the time I check on them a few times during the day, I change water or clean or whatever I need to do. Strange things happen sometimes, like finding a chicken hanging upside down from a gate, or a turkey with the neck caught in the fence...or chickens with wounds I notice. I have two turkeys separated right now because they were getting picked on and I found them bloodied. I have two hens that have swollen areas on their feet one has Bumblefoot, but the other one doesn't have the scabby part...it is just swollen. I feed my special needs chickens and Doctor them if needed while my husband is feeding the other poultry most of the time. I have two chickens that are blind in one eye that I am keeping on my porch at the moment. So I basically hit the floor running a lot of the time. Today was no different.
We have had a lot of rain lately, I have hung tarps and plastic on coops trying to keep rain out it doesn't work when you get 5-1/2 inches of rain in two days and it gets worse when you get even more rain a few days after that and it is 1-3/4 inches and it all comes in about 15 minutes. That happened early this morning, my husband baled out tarps and reset t-posts and pounded them back in...but I will have to do something more, we are suppose to get even more rain the next couple of days. I went and raided the trees we cut down trying to clear some around the pond. I am going to try and tent the pens that I have roosters separated in...until I can get something else figured out, you never know I may end up having to go cut down a bunch of trees and make more coops out of the small trees...Lol, I wonder if I could make little log cabins for them? Hmmm, probably not before winter gets here.
Sitting on a hill has both advantages and disadvantages, our house is up high enough that it will probably never flood, but the chicken pens and coops are much lower although still fairly high on our land. I have never seen the areas flood that I put them on, but some of them are only about 50 feet from a small creek. Even when we had 8 inches of rain in a few days, the creek only left it's banks further down on our land and only as far out of them as about 20 feet. But, when we get a lot of rain very fast and hard water rushes down the hill pretty fast and will build up on the backside of whatever blocks it. Our house for one, all of the chicken coops too...but, being sandy soil the sand washes down and builds up on the uphill sides, even if I dig trenches to divert the water they end up collapsing and I may have to go out several times in extended periods of rain. I am no engineer, but whomever built this house should have built the foundation thicker and higher so that this washing effect might keep the water from the inside of the house better. They planted a lot of bushes on the uphill side also...so it will not be easy to correct the drainage issue or seal the base of the house better. Our house is a steel building sitting on a cement slab and I don't think the slab is very thick...if it is, you can't tell because it is pretty much even with the ground. I don't think that is a good thing. There is a silicone seal at the base of the metal panels, but the bushes are so close to the house I am not sure if I could reapply the silicone if it fails....we may have to remove all of the bushes over there and they are the full length of the house and about six feet tall.
I started this post several days ago, we have had more rain since I started writing...and I have been trying to figure out what I can do to get more housing built for a lot of chickens. I may just get a carport built and then enclose it. I have been trying not to make big purchases on my credit card, but it is the only way I could do it right now. I looked into building something similar and I think it may be the easier route to getting it done in time for winter. I figured up the cost for wood and metal to build something from scratch...it is almost $1000 for the size I need in wood and metal alone, not to mention what I might need for hardware, I construct things with screws...it is easier on me than banging a lot of nails into wood. Our compressor has been having issues, so we may have to get another one of those too. The one I bought several years ago was refurbished, we may need a larger capacity compressor, my husband tried using our current compressor to ratchet off nuts on our lawn tractor and truck and the pressure was not good enough to get them off...the valve would release the pressure before he could use it to get the job done. He finally got them off by timing it just right...but the last time I used it for the staple gun...the pressure gauge maxed out and the adjustment would just not work any more...every few minutes it would release the pressures do then it would come back on and fill it back up! That thing is loud too.
Anyway, I will be busy and may or may not write for awhile...unless it rains a lot. The time changed and it gets dark really early now so I have to do the night feeding around 3:30 or 4:00pm now. I had to catch all of the turkeys yesterday and get them into their house. We are due to get more rain tonight with a cold front that will give us daytime highs in the 50's for a few days. I need to do a lot of work before tonight.
We have had a lot of rain lately, I have hung tarps and plastic on coops trying to keep rain out it doesn't work when you get 5-1/2 inches of rain in two days and it gets worse when you get even more rain a few days after that and it is 1-3/4 inches and it all comes in about 15 minutes. That happened early this morning, my husband baled out tarps and reset t-posts and pounded them back in...but I will have to do something more, we are suppose to get even more rain the next couple of days. I went and raided the trees we cut down trying to clear some around the pond. I am going to try and tent the pens that I have roosters separated in...until I can get something else figured out, you never know I may end up having to go cut down a bunch of trees and make more coops out of the small trees...Lol, I wonder if I could make little log cabins for them? Hmmm, probably not before winter gets here.
Sitting on a hill has both advantages and disadvantages, our house is up high enough that it will probably never flood, but the chicken pens and coops are much lower although still fairly high on our land. I have never seen the areas flood that I put them on, but some of them are only about 50 feet from a small creek. Even when we had 8 inches of rain in a few days, the creek only left it's banks further down on our land and only as far out of them as about 20 feet. But, when we get a lot of rain very fast and hard water rushes down the hill pretty fast and will build up on the backside of whatever blocks it. Our house for one, all of the chicken coops too...but, being sandy soil the sand washes down and builds up on the uphill sides, even if I dig trenches to divert the water they end up collapsing and I may have to go out several times in extended periods of rain. I am no engineer, but whomever built this house should have built the foundation thicker and higher so that this washing effect might keep the water from the inside of the house better. They planted a lot of bushes on the uphill side also...so it will not be easy to correct the drainage issue or seal the base of the house better. Our house is a steel building sitting on a cement slab and I don't think the slab is very thick...if it is, you can't tell because it is pretty much even with the ground. I don't think that is a good thing. There is a silicone seal at the base of the metal panels, but the bushes are so close to the house I am not sure if I could reapply the silicone if it fails....we may have to remove all of the bushes over there and they are the full length of the house and about six feet tall.
I started this post several days ago, we have had more rain since I started writing...and I have been trying to figure out what I can do to get more housing built for a lot of chickens. I may just get a carport built and then enclose it. I have been trying not to make big purchases on my credit card, but it is the only way I could do it right now. I looked into building something similar and I think it may be the easier route to getting it done in time for winter. I figured up the cost for wood and metal to build something from scratch...it is almost $1000 for the size I need in wood and metal alone, not to mention what I might need for hardware, I construct things with screws...it is easier on me than banging a lot of nails into wood. Our compressor has been having issues, so we may have to get another one of those too. The one I bought several years ago was refurbished, we may need a larger capacity compressor, my husband tried using our current compressor to ratchet off nuts on our lawn tractor and truck and the pressure was not good enough to get them off...the valve would release the pressure before he could use it to get the job done. He finally got them off by timing it just right...but the last time I used it for the staple gun...the pressure gauge maxed out and the adjustment would just not work any more...every few minutes it would release the pressures do then it would come back on and fill it back up! That thing is loud too.
Anyway, I will be busy and may or may not write for awhile...unless it rains a lot. The time changed and it gets dark really early now so I have to do the night feeding around 3:30 or 4:00pm now. I had to catch all of the turkeys yesterday and get them into their house. We are due to get more rain tonight with a cold front that will give us daytime highs in the 50's for a few days. I need to do a lot of work before tonight.
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