Sunday, July 10, 2011

Chicken Coop . . Part 2

Here's the girls, they ran out of the coop to greet me when I went to take these pics.
Today's pic of the coop. We now have a perch inside but I've rarely ever seen them on it. Note at the back left there's a black square. That's a door that Jerry cut out of the hog panel. It's tied on with cable ties and we "lock" it up in the daytime with a caribener so the guineas can come and go. Even though they fly out of the pen area they can never figure out how to get back in and they go running around and around the outside of the pen wondering how to get back in. Now with their front and back "trap doors" they come and go. These chickens have not have that privilege until this week. We wanted them to get used to the farm and their area. Most of them seem quite content to stay in their yard but last night a few wandered out to the back area, not too far.

The back of the coop is where the back fence is for them so they have a good sized area to roam.
There are a good amount of trees that provide both perches and shade.
I painted this chicken years ago, not knowing I'd be owning some real ones! We just screwed it onto the front of the coop. It's kinda rustic version of a chicken.

The Chicken Coop

Well it's been a year actually since we constructed and purchased chicks to raise for eggs. We have certainly gone through our trials and tribulations on the ownership of fowl. Suffice to say that after our neighbor's dog got through the fence and killed and took off with two of our Buff Orpington's, then our 3rd and final buffy drowned in the horse trough we learned a lot and was lucky enough to purchase 8 fully grown laying hens from a friend. They are all doing very well and enjoying life with more space and less chickens to deal with as they came from a flock of around 50.

This post is to tell you, and show you, how we built our coop. We are quite proud of it and it's well-built and standing up to the weather very well and accomplishing what we set out to do with it.

We have built shelters for the alpacas, put up hay barns, all with the use of the portable garages that can be purchased at places like Tractor Supply. We were very lucky in the fact that we were able to buy these kits at the "end" of the season (a season for garages???) for a mere $100 each. We took total advantage of this good find!

Before I knew about these large 12 X 20' structures I was sent to the store for a tarp and thought that the $79 tent structure would work well for a small hay barn. Well Jerry didn't think so and we didn't use it. This is a smaller, lighter version of the garage and I believe it measures something like 10 X 12', quite a generous size.

So then we decided to buy peacock chicks from our neighbor and needed a home for them especially until they were fully grown. I happened to remember the tent structure and asked why not build our coop around that? This was approved and we started. I knew I wanted to place it in an area not too far from the house, protected by trees and safe from too much alpaca nosy-ness!

Pic 1: This is the first stage, putting the poles together. I think this is the worst part of the construction because as you add one pole, another falls off. We actually screw the poles together on two sides with metal self-tapping screws to make them more stable. Every pole, every junction, anywhere there is a join you place screws. These poles were all concreted into the ground about 10-12" for security.

Pic 2: We screwed on 2X4's for purloins to make the framework more stable. Chicken wire went over the whole roof and down the sides. That is a 6' ladder in the pic.

Pic 3 (below): We went to a metal building supplier and bought their 2nds for $10 per panel. They are white on the inside so it looks quite consistent on the inside that shows. Because I wanted the coop to look like the alpaca shelters we did purchase sand colored panels for the sides and front.
We added shade cloth on the front half of the roof for extra protection from our hot Texas sun. Side panels are now in place, screwed on to the poles & purloins, again with the metal screws.




Pic 4: Another view of the sun shade. It wasn't wide enough for one run & we had enough for two runs which was just enough as we covered the end third of the roof with metal for shelter from the elements.










Pic 5: The peaks were cut to match the frame in front and back and now all we have to do is build the door. Oh, and we placed a cage inside that was here on the farm when we moved in. Thought they could use it to perch on top and the inside to cuddle together in the cold nights. One thing we didn't take into consideration. . . the cage is larger than the door opening!! Oh well, they do roost on it and lay their eggs inside it.

Door is built and we're pretty much finished. We did add some metal screen on the base around the front and sides to protect from predators which we put on with cable ties.

Pic 7 (left): Here's the colorful back side of the coop. These are the $10 panels that we purchased, no choice of color you get what you get. At least it the Texas flag colors. I have toyed with the idea of painting a star on the red but no-one sees it as it faces the back of our property.

NOTE: We did lay concrete pavers all around the outside of the coop to prevent predators from digging their way in.

Update: We currently have four guinea fowl (lost 4 to predators when we were out of town for a week) an assortment of 8 chickens. They all live together quite well. The male guineas are a little territorial but the chickens deal with it. Our lone peacock who loved his "flock" disappeared a month ago during mating season. We suspect that he is penned up over at our neighbors with theirs. Since they are new owners they probably thought he was one of theirs that came back! Maybe he'll return one day, we "lost" him for 2 months before.

We did pen in an area for the chickens and guineas just so the alpacas did not encroach on their area. The guineas will fly over the fence but come back in the evenings to roost. The male guineas roost in the tree by the coop but the girls go in with the chickens.

We get 8-9 eggs per day from all. They all lay in the same nest within the cage. Oh and we purchased wood shavings and laid about 3 inches on the floor of the coop. It's really good as far as not having the chickens walking in their poop, plus cleanup is only needed about every 6-9 months. It is funny when we rake out the dirty shavings and replace it as the chickens are afraid to walk on the clean new stuff. It doesn't take them long to figure it out!

Chickens are wonderful birds and very nice to have around. I think some of the breeds are just as nice as cats. . . and we really love cats!

I'm having a heck of a time trying to upload more pics so I'll post the current view of the coop tomorrow.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Kid 'N Ewe 2010





Well I participated in the Kid 'N Ewe Fiber Festival this past weekend in Boerne (pronounced Bernie) Texas and what fun it was. Do you know how many people are as addicted to fiber as I am??? Well let me tell you that it's LOTS!



Here's a pic of my "wall of color" that caught a lot of people's eye.

Can you imagine what it's like to talk fiber to other fiberholics for 48 hours straight? Well I must say it is fun but very tiring. All that talking is way more work that doing all that dyeing!!

I was amazed that people and groups would come to my booth to have pictures taken in front of this color wall. What an impression that made on me.



Here's my booth, the other side with the "other stuff" like chicken and mouse pin cushions, hand painted yarns, knitting and embroidery "emergency" bottles (I'll show those in a future blog).

This was a lot of fun, although I wish I had been able to participate in some of the wonderful classes that were being offered. This is THE festival for the West Texas residents as nothing else much happens for us. We're so spread out that it's hard for people to decide what, where and when to have happenings for fiber people. We are hoping to get something started in the San Angelo area in the next year or so. We have a lot of wonderful people that are willing to share their experience with others both in arranging and preparing for an influx of people that need to be housed, taught and sold to!

Hopefully this will materialize into something real for 2011.


Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Where's the beer???

You couldn't make this up even if you tried!

I tell you, I don't think he took the last one, look again!

I think he was kidding me, I think he drank the last one!

Oh no, now what, I'm going to be stuck in here!



I'm getting hungry, hmm, maybe I'll eat myself out of here



























Sunday, February 14, 2010

Happy Valentines Day!

Some Valentine hearts.
Happy Valentines day, I thought I'd share these heart pics with you, just something a little different.


A heart shaped potato, don't see these too often!


This is, of course, a prickly pear cactus. Naturally heart shaped but what I'd call a dangerous heart, beware when touching!!!

My dog Gracie dug this heart-shaped hole for me!
























































Sunday, November 15, 2009

This is my new company logo for my knitted and crocheted finished goods. I decided to separate it from the yarn processing and the alpaca business as I knit from fibers other than alpaca. Since my email address is Brit Knits I thought it was only fitting to keep the name. Brit Knits was not available for my url so I added the "the" in front. I have posted a lot of new hats on the hats2 page of the website. Of course I also offer a lot of other finished items, shawls, scarves and clothing. I am really into the lace knitting right now so there are a lot of shawls.


Since I'm getting prepared for a 3-day holiday show at Fort Concho in San Angelo I am busy knitting hats so I have a good selection of sizes and colors. I do make hats in all different fibers but right now I am concentrating on using alpaca. I have made some in my handspun that has been dyed and some in natural colored alpaca. Our boy Donncha gives us such a selection off his fiber as he's shaded from a medium fawn all the way to a soft off-white.

This is one of the hats, obviously, hand dyed fiber then hand spun. After spinning up a single ply I then took some rayon that I dyed in the turquoise and plied it together. It's nice how the rayon sparkles in the fiber. You have the softness of the alpaca paired with the soft shimmer of the rayon, making a fun hat.



I am having a lot of fun designing hats. I have a lot of knitting books and have now found that most of them are simple plain hats made with chunky yarn. First, I don't like knitting with chunky yarn, I think the finer yarns have a much softer look to them. Secondly, I don't like knitting plain old stitches with lots of decreasing.



Consequently I have decided to select nice pattern stitches and choose ones that are easy to decrease with. Cables are one style that is easy to decrease automatically and now I'm researching some rib patterns that will work too. I'm currently working on a hat in the Harley Davidson colors, black and orange. I'll post a pic of it when I get finished.



The other thing I am doing with a lot of these hats is instead of making a pompom to put on top I am knitting up a long tail at the top of the head which I then knot. I am calling this style of hat Brit Knots. Just like a play on words. Here's an example. This is a man's size so it's a little loose on the "mannequin"

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

An open letter

To: Waco Animal Humane Associate
From: Gracie
Dear Everyone at the Waco AHA,
I have had quite a time in my life since leaving you last Saturday. I was placed into a vehicle with those two nice people and we drove off. Wow, what a lot to see, I was kinda scared not knowing why I was no longer in my home with all those other barking dogs!
I took a long time for us to get finished with the drive. It was almost dark before they stopped the vehicle and let me get out. What a wonderful place they bought me to. I don't have to sit tied to a tree, or even in a cage, they let me run all over the place! This first pic is me after I had

been on a "tour" of my new home. It was so nice just to be with people that like me as much I as think I am going to like them. They gave me tummy rubs, let me run after their cats and I see these long necked big animals out in the big yard but I am not at all understanding what they are and why there are also here on this great big yard? I got my own room that night and I slept so well, what with the excitement of going for a long ride, then getting to run around, plus they let me into the inside of their home to let me be with them! Wow, it's a dogs life alright!


The next morning I ran, and ran, and ran, and chased cats, and ran but no-one tied me up! The people, whose names are Jerry and Vanessa, were outside putting together something called a Coop. It looked like a cage to me, wonder if it's for me? What's a coop?
They were making loud noises with machinery cutting wood and metal and going back and forth to their other buildings to get things. And all this time, they let me run around, get petted and explore! I love to explore. Then I sat down and just watched. I was getting tired with so much running around.


I don't know why they have those long necked animals on their place with me, I guess I'll find out eventually but for right now I'm pretending I haven't seen them as they look scary. But, I did find piles of poop. Wow, this poop isn't smelly, so I rolled in it. I think I'm supposed to do that so that I smell like the other animals on this farm.
Oh look, I'm no longer that pretty white dog you remember, this was after I rolled in the poop.

I think I see a cat! And look, grass for me too!



I am finding out that a farm dog's life is very tiring. I don't know how I'm going to keep this up, it's a tough job!
Thank you everyone for giving me to Jerry & Vanessa, I already know that I am the happiest dog in the whole wide world. And I'm going to do everything they tell me to do so that I don't have to come back and live in a cage. Not that I minded some of it, everyone was so nice to me.
Thank you, thank you,
Love,
Gracie
P.S. I'll write to you again soon