# New coop



## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

My new coop, loving it, especially when it comes to daily clean out.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

No more tarps to keep the birds dry during some of our nastier storms. 

How are you going to control yourself not to add new birds to the new digs? 

I like what you did there with the divider down the middle. Are you now allowed to have roosters again?

LOL I just zoomed in on the sign on the top. How appropriate.


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

I'm using tarps on top of the plywood covered pens. This time I have the plywood sloping a little so that the deluges of rain run off the sides or rear of the pens . It works. no more drop down tarps. I use shade screens on the sides for sideways rains. They are in fixed position.

We moved out of Jacksonville to Glen St Mary in the country on 2.5 acres. We can have any livestock we want. As a matter of fact when we were looking at the house with the realtor, I looked out the kitchen window and saw a cow practically in the front yard. It belongs to the neighbors up the road. When I saw that cow, I said to my wife and the realtor, "SOLD!"
Turns out he's a friendly bull.

I'm in the process of buying materials for another coop and pen. It's gonna take awhile though. I tore a tendon in my left shoulder when I fell off a ladder out in the yard, I was high up on the ladder and something stung me on the back of the neck. I reached around real quick with my hand to swat whatever it was, twisting my body at the same time. The ladder twisted also, and down I came. I fell squarely on my left shoulder.
X-rays revealed no breaks when I went to the ER a few days later. Even with heat and ice, ibuprofen and tramadol it still hurts. An MRI revealed 2 small tears and some fraying of the tendon. Doctors are afraid to prescribe REAL pain killers now, thanks to all the dopers abusing the stuff. 
My ortho appointment is Sept 17th. Dont know if it'll be PT or surgery or both. It hurts, I have my good days and my bad days.
One thing is for sure; I'll be getting a few more birds AND a rooster! LOL


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I couldn't tell they were covered with plywood. So are the tarps just to keep the plywood intact? 

I do the same thing with shade cloth unless it's hurricane then I drop the tarps. They're also great to keep the hottest part of the sun out. 

Which of you is the animal person? Or is it both? Having the acreage and having the neighborly bull might be hard to keep from filling the place up with something other than just chickens. 

Wasps are aggressive this year. I've been stung twice but luckily I wasn't up on a ladder. 

How the heck were you able to do all of that physical labor being wounded. I know what it's like to have a shoulder not being happy with me. I can't imagine doing all of that and being hurt like that.


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

The plywood is there to support the tarps to keep the pens dry. Without the plywood, the tarps would sag with all the rainwater in it, even on the chicken wire. 
Sharon used to be a city slicker. Chickens helped her get "country-fied." She has a favorite hen that she nursed to health as a barely surviving chick. The hen is 2 years old now and comes to my wife when she calls her and lets my wife pick her up. She sings to the hen lol.
Now she wants a goat, I told her no way. I know nothing about goats. I told her that I know all about hogs, but I dont want none. 

As far as the physical labor and my arm, it lets me know when enough is enough. I had a friend come up from Jax and help me for several days, especially with the plywood and a few other things.

You're right about the wasps. I've gotten nailed several times this year. It feels like getting hit hard with a sledge hammer and a red hot steel poker at the same time. It's very painful!


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Goes to show I wasn't thinking about the sag part of the tarps when it rained. Yet I should have because I deal with it even though I've got welded wire and 2X4's up top to prevent it.

Goats aren't hard, ask Maryellen. I had one. The biggest challenge was keeping him where he belonged. I had him as a companion for my old horse. One issue would be, don't plant anything you want to keep. And make sure you chicken feed is secured. And that you keep the doors closed on the vehicles and the house. There, did I succeed in scaring you out any thought for getting one?

Good it wasn't just me. As much as I'm sorry you got stung you told me I wasn't imagining things. I normally leave wasp nests alone. The adults would threaten and then that would be the end of it. This year there was no threatening it was flat out attack. Good description on how it feels. One got me on the end of the nose. I never even saw it.


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

There was a big wasp nest at our other house in Jax, it was in the chicken pen hidden between two 2x4's, I never saw it til after I got stung twice...on the back of the neck and right arm. The next time I went there, I got there early in the morning right at sun up and they got smothered with Hot Shot lol. Killed about 20 of those rascals, then I tore the nest down heheheh.

No goats, I'm sticking with chickens lol.

You got it on the nose? That HURT. I bet you looked like Rudolph the red nosed reindeer after that hahaha!


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

What's just weird is all these years it's never been a problem with the wasps. I left them alone, they left me alone. I was never concerned about them until this year. I did the same thing. Mine were positioned pretty much like yours were, hidden in the 2X4's. Same thing, hit them with wasp killer from as far away as possible. 

I came straight in the house and took a couple of benadryl. Other than a dark dot you'd never know I was stung. Oh, and an ice pack. 

Goats can be a challenge. It's like expecting Guineas to be like chickens, they're not. And goats are wicked smart. Mine followed the dogs into the house once. I was in the kitchen when I heard clippity clop on my wood floor. I knew that wasn't the dogs. I yelled, "Billie, what are you doing in the house?" Really fast clippity clops running back out the way he came in.


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## Hencackle (Apr 30, 2014)

Very nice coop! Let me send you a rooster, lol. 

Ewwww, wasps. On the nose—wow. I’m allergic. When they build a nest in the coop or low enough to reach in an outbuilding I use the shop vac. I don’t want to spray around the birds or get the wasps mad, so it’s shop vac time!


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