Finally Finished

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Horus
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Finally Finished

Post by Horus »

Well I have finally finished the chicken coop for my daughter, it must have taken me over a month, but I did have to make everything from scratch even sawing all the timber down to size from old pallet wood and anything I could scrounge. It was a fairly big job doing it all on my own, but now its finished and it doesn’t look too bad. I had to do a lot of digging in her garden and lay a load of flags so that the coop and runs could be raised off the grass otherwise they would rip the lawn to shreds, although they will be allowed out for a roam around once they are settled in.

It has been red hot for the last few days while I was re-building it after my son came with a van and we moved everything to her house, I am burnt to a crisp, but Annie loved being in the garden with (her cousin) Marley and they get on great together and have all his toys outside and then playing chase on what is left of the lawn after I had finished digging it up and tramping sand all over it. Anyway she is delighted with it as her Birthday present and keeps telling me of all the people who asked who made it for her, but like I told her “they have more chance of stuffing a pound of butter up a porcupines backside with a red hot needle than me making another one for someone else.

I have a couple of minor things to tidy up and then its time to get some chickens!!!!

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Re: Finally Finished

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Cluckingham looks absolutely 100% TERRIFIC H! Gorgeous :up :up :up :up Your daughter is, for sure going to have one huge lots of happy ladies and she will be getting some super wonderful eggs too :) Top notch job well done!!!

How many chickens is she looking to get to put in there?

I only have one comment re: style. I see that you've made lots of roosts which in my experience isn't going to matter as they're ALL going to crowd together in one tiny spot! :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: Finally Finished

Post by Ruby Slippers »

When I come back in the next life, I'm coming back as a chicken! :lol: Great job, Horus! :up
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Re: Finally Finished

Post by Mad Dilys »

Super job, what do you expect when Annie is supervisor? :lol:
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Re: Finally Finished

Post by Mad Dilys »

LovelyLadyLux wrote:Cluckingham looks absolutely 100% TERRIFIC H! Gorgeous :up :up :up :up Your daughter is, for sure going to have one huge lots of happy ladies and she will be getting some super wonderful eggs too :) Top notch job well done!!!

How many chickens is she looking to get to put in there?

I only have one comment re: style. I see that you've made lots of roosts which in my experience isn't going to matter as they're ALL going to crowd together in one tiny spot! :lol: :lol: :lol:
True, but today's spot might not suit them tomorrow. ;)
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Re: Finally Finished

Post by Grandad »

I think the TV program 'Grand Designs' will be knocking on your door H. Great job. :up
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Re: Finally Finished

Post by Kiya »

Fantastic job you have done Horus, it looks great & I'm sure your daughter must be really chuffed with it :)

I agree with Grandad & his comment & I bet if you were to build another one you make a tidy sum on it :) :)
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Re: Finally Finished

Post by Horus »

Thanks folks for all your nice comments :up
When she originally mentioned having some chickens it was about 4, so on an animal welfare basis I wanted them to have plenty of space, so based it on accomodating 6 large hens, but in reality it could easily hold 8 to 10 birds in comfort, she will probably finish up with 8. As for the perches, well as you keepers of chickens know, even though they often bunch together for warmth they do have a 'pecking order' and the highest perches are the most sought after, hence they are all on the same level. The lowest perch is only to allow easy access to the nest boxes as I wanted to restrict the opening size to keep them dark, so it is not very comfortable sizewise (hopefully ;) ) so they don't roost in the nest boxes and prefer the higher and much wider top perches to sleep on.

As for making and selling them, well my daughter in law said I should advertise them on ebay, but I said that they would have to sell for about £2000 each to make it worth my while, but she pointed out that as we live so close to all the rich footballers and their wives in Altringham Cheshire, that they would be falling over themselves to have a unique one in their garden. :lol:
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Re: Finally Finished

Post by Grandad »

Horus, beach huts down here can fetch up to £50,000 and they are not that much bigger than Cluckingham Palace. At a couple of grand you would be under selling mate, five grand at least :lol:
And don't let us have comments about the Affluent South East ;) Your DiL is correct, there's plenty of wealth up your way :lol: :lol:
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Re: Finally Finished

Post by Horus »

At £5000 each I may even consider taking orders Grandad :lol: one every 2 months would be just the ticket :lol: :lol:
I agree there is a lot of wealth in my neck of the woods, but there is also a lot of poverty in some of the inner cities up North, generally we get less of everything compared to the South and South East although we do excell in being good natured and friendly and we have some lovely countryside. ;)
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Re: Finally Finished

Post by Kiya »

I agree £5,000 and upwards would easily sell, all hand made and the buyers name of choice on it too, easy peasy :) :)
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Re: Finally Finished

Post by Horus »

That's it then, if I go missing for a few days I will be setting up my new company, Custom Coops Ltd. "for pampered chickens" :lol: :lol:
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Re: Finally Finished

Post by Grandad »

If you blag about your age H and say you are 25 the Government will give you £10,000 to set up the business :lol: :lol:

Can I be your wood cutter, I've got a chop saw ;) :lol:
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Re: Finally Finished

Post by Horus »

You can be Grandad, but you need to get your finger out, chop! chop! :lol:
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Re: Finally Finished

Post by Horus »

So yesterday was chicken day and it was a busy day for me. I was up and about quite early and set up the rear of my vehicle with three cages for transportation, well actually it was a cat carrier, a puppy carrier and a pet cage. The idea was a 1,3, & 4 arrangement for transporting the birds which actually worked out quite well, plus a couple of dark covers to keep them calm. I had made a small spring loaded wicket gate that could be used to isolate the main run by pulling on a cord and tying it off to keep it closed, otherwise it would gently spring back into the fully open position so I had to fit this prior to collecting the chickens.

The place we visited was a pleasant 30 minute drive into the open countryside and easy to find and another couple were also there buying some chickens. We were all greeted on arrival and in a very informal manner were given an interesting talk by the lady on general feeding, hygiene, vaccinations etc. plus a printed crib sheet, all very handy if you were new to the game. It was all very relaxed and we crated up our chosen birds with the husband expertly grabbing the chosen chicken from the various pens and asking for approval or maybe suggesting another bird that may be a better choice before handing them over. He happily gave my daughter a lesson on wing clipping and allowed her to do one for herself under his supervision which was good as it gave her confidence in handling them.

On our return I placed each one into the coop while my daughter operated the sliding door. This gave me a chance to see how each bird reacted to being handled and it was pretty much as I expected with some being very calm and unconcerned while others squawked their heads off. We sat on the lawn with a cup of tea to wait about half an hour before releasing them and looking in the side windows they were all mingling together quit happily, some exploring nest boxes and others on the perches. The amusing part was when I allowed them out, we must have sat there for three hours watching the coop, but never had a full compliment come out at the same time, it was three out two go back, five out three go back in again, my daughter was getting really frustrated by the lack of chickens in the run. :lol: :lol: After about 7pm I left for home after telling her that they would almost certainly come out for a feed prior to going to roost and to close the door at dusk once they were all in the coop. I had to laugh because as I arrived home my daughter text me to to say “they are all out now”. So I did not get any pictures yesterday and instead have used some stock images to show the varieties we bought yesterday. In keeping with my daughters nature they all have a name. :D

We had 8 chickens in total comprising of 7 different varieties, they are as follows:

Two Araucanas, a bird that originated in Chile and they lay blue eggs (about 85% chance). They look a bit unusual with tufted ear feathers and no real tail or rump and are mainly white with the odd bluish splash on the body feathers. Names = Molly & Polly
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One Welsommer, this breed originate in Holland and in my opinion are a lovely bird, the cockerels are stunning to see. The hens are not so flamboyant but still look very nice, the one we have is a good example and was the most expensive bird we bought. Name = Nelly
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One Blue Ranger (or Bluebell) These are a hybrid cross between a Rhode Island & a Maran chicken. They are a very well feathered bird with a lovely bluish/lavender colour. Name = Rosemary.
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One Speckledy, this is another Rhode Island & Maran cross hybrid with the speckling of the Morans feathers being more dominant. Name = Parsley
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One Silver Sussex, the Sussex breed is reckoned to be one of the oldest and was maybe introduced by the Romans. There are quite a few variations on the Sussex breed and they range through white to red, the Silver is quite a dark bird with silvery neck feathers. Name = Sage
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One Rhode/Rock, these are a very dark feathered bird with a golden coloured neck and bluish/black iridescent feathers on the back. Name = Thyme
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One Calder Ranger, a fairly common chicken, light brown in colour and a good egg layer that is very often kept in large flocks. Name = Sally
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Apart from the ones that lay blue eggs all the others should lay different variations of brown eggs from light brown to very dark brown with speckles in the case of the Welsommer. Apart from the Welsommer which is 28 weeks old all the rest are 18 weeks old and are what is described as ‘Point of Lay’ which as the name implies they are ready to start laying very soon. I think that once it is settled in the Welsommer will be laying eggs as it is showing all the right signs in wattle and ear lobe size and colour. A couple of the others like the Silver Sussex are coming close to laying, but the others will be about 4 weeks away IMO and some a little longer.
I will try to get some pictures later if they are out and about in the run. :up

I am awaiting the first frantic phone call to say “I’ve got an egg! I’ve got an egg!” she will probably get so excited she will drop it. :lol: :lol:
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Re: Finally Finished

Post by Mad Dilys »

Lovely, lovely, lovely thank you for the pictures, they took me back about 40 years to a very good time of my life.

The Welsummer hens are so sweet, gentle and ladylike and they lay the darkest brown eggs I've ever seen. The cockerels in addition to being beautiful are also gentle and pretty quiet. My favourite breed.

A Cuckoo Maran cockerel we had was the most aggressive beast. Whe I was selling some lambs once the farmer said "Gosh that big chap would look good in the pot!" I told him "You catch him you can have him, no charge," It took him about half an hour as all my poultry was free range, before Fiercy as my girls called him was secured. The captor was bearing several bloody wounds, but peace was restored to the farmyard.

Before you ask why we didn't grab him when he was roosting, He always perched in an inacessable
spot. On the ground he would attack any thing that came near him, of course over the first year his spurs grew to an impressive length. We all breathed a sigh of relief when he went. Good times. :lol:
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Re: Finally Finished

Post by Horus »

:lol: :lol: Reminds me of Leghorn cockerel my dad had, big vicious thing that ruled the big shed.
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Re: Finally Finished

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

The Cluckingham Contingent all looks lovely! These girls will amuse for a long time and each one will develop their own personalities too. In very short order everybody will know who rules the roost.

I had an blue egg layer but she was so super high strung and flighty I traded her away but the eggs were a lovely shade of blue. Wow she could/would jump.

I always fed back my ladies their own egg shells but I ground them up super tiny so they never recognized them as an egg and whenever I'd start out with new ladies I'd put a couple golf balls into their nest to give them the hint of where an egg needed to be deposited. I only ever found the odd egg here or there but then I only ever had 1 nest box to be shared by 3 so I always put it down to the box being occupied.

My ladies too were the best recyclers of garbage I've ever had. I fed them almost everything I ate (not onions/potatoes) but they got all my meat scraps, all old bread and any veggie scraps my kitchen generated. They loved to see me coming with the scrap bucket - brought them all running.

Wait 'til your daughter hears some of them laying an egg. Some will give full throat screeches whilst others will more quietly lay.

I love seeing the Roosters. Some of them are truly gorgeous. There are all sorts of laws here forbidding them from being in the city so I haven't had a Rooster since I was a kid when I had "Fred" a golden Banty Rooster. He was in every sense full of himself and his ladies and guarded them all very well even including the ducks.

Going to be good times and I'm sure your cholesterol will jump up a point from all the delicious eggs you'll be getting with the lovely orange yolks.
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Re: Finally Finished

Post by Horus »

Guess what we got today, it would be from the Welsommer chicken, my daughter could not contain herself when she peeped into the nest box, dad is having that for his breakfast ;)
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Re: Finally Finished

Post by Mad Dilys »

Are you sure it was the Welsummer? I'd be surprised if it is as her comb is very discrete, so my money would be on the Blue Ranger ;)
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