# Finally ready to start



## Ranch (May 26, 2014)

It has been three years and some change since we bought our Amish farm. It took two and half years to get my "would be" coop moved to a better spot. And another couple of months to clean it up from where it was a chicken coop for the previous owners. In the process we attached an enclosed run to the building for my polish roo and two silkies. It is a 10 by 12 I think, plus half the under side of the coop. 
The building I am going to use as my coop is 16 by20. I plan on doing two sides. One for each of my flocks, and attach another run on the other side of the coop. This way I can choose who goes out and allow everyone to be warm and safe. 

The clean up process was horrid. It took three eight foot trailer loads of poo to clean it out. Not my favorite thing to do, but hey, it was ready for fertilizer already. Then I had to use a shovel/scraper to get the mounds of dirt and poo that were stuck to the floor. I decided to keep the old floor and go over it with new and this week I am going to go get scrap vinyl flooring to finish it. The walls are strange, black rubber up to a point and then some sort of fiberglass metal. My hb says it is water proof and will be fine. I can spray it all down anyways. I am getting spray foam tomarrow and sealing up where the walls meet the metal roof. The windows are single pane so I will have to build a frame for heavy clear plastic inserts for winter, but since I have to build some for the wire around the windows I don't think it will be a problem. 

I am so excited and I really want to be done way before snow. It is going to be a chore getting my AG's to want to go in a run all at once. Because If I only get a couple the others will never come near it again, I want to just leave the door open for a few days and feed them snacks in there for them to get used to it and want to go in. 

The inside will have a hallway down middle for me to come in and then a wire wall on each side separating from the hallway. I am going to put up a two foot solid wall at the bottom so that the roos don't stand on the ground and get annoyed with each other. Both coop sides will have a door for me to be able to go into and clean and collect. I am debating if I need to enclose the ceiling so that my AG's can't fly up there. I am very happy about all the progress we have made and that I won't have to winter proof a whole barn again this year. There is no way to heat the whole thing and no windows, that makes for grumpy birds when they are snowed in and it stays dark. But, now I will be able to cover the runs and let them play and be happy like the silkies were last year. 

Any suggestions would be welcome, I have researched and taken things I have been told into my list of must haves, so anything that you might think, I didn't think about would be very helpful as I move steam full ahead this week on the inside.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Has it been two years now? I can't remember. The folks here have no clue what you were dealing with when you bought the house and found yourself the proud owner of not only a new place but a whole flock of American Games. And you had no idea what to do with them. Wait, I just reread your first sentence, its really been three years?

You won't need to do the plastic on the window if it closes tightly, so you have one thing off your list of things to do. But the divider? You will most definitely have to put wire up to the roof. My Hamburgs didn't waste any time finding a way in to a part of the coop they wanted to be in more than the part I had them in. 

Do your treats every day at the same time. Eventually they should be there waiting on you to turn up with the handouts. And then all you have to do is close the door to the pen.


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## Ranch (May 26, 2014)

I consider myself very handy. Yet today when I was prepped and ready to foam spray the area between the walls and ceiling, I felt "Unknowledgeable". It would not stick and was going everywhere. I got so frustrated I finally threw the can like a little kid. Which just made another mess for me to clean up. I foamed my entire house when we remodeled and then the addition. I know what I am doing, but today was a tragic fail. Bad part is now I am going to have to ask my hb to help me and I am not so good at admitting I was unable to do something. ARGH.
I guess I will go and fix the walls, some of the nails have come loos from the walls and just needs to be fixed. Then I will cut some metal roofing to fix the holes in the walls. Thank goodness that the building was built in the same metal as the roof to our house. We matched it instead of replacing it. and have scrape left over. I love using the things on the property. It cleans my property and it is free "NOW".


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Uh, the whole coop is metal? I'm about to add to your list of things to do. Not only will it be hot as an oven in Summer but the cold will be intensified in Winter. And if you don't do something with the roof to separate it from the warmer, moister air on the inside the roof will weep down on the birds. The ceiling part can be as heavy and complicated as putting up plywood or as easy as stapling up heavy duty plastic to keep the water from dripping. 

My Guinea coop was all metal. While they are great for keeping critters out they can be a challenge when it comes to the weather.

You made yourself go out and do the foam, didn't you? That's about how those things work out for me when I really, really don't want to do it.


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## Ranch (May 26, 2014)

Back pic of coop







front







Silkie/polish run. Tried to make sure that the under coop part showed. Open run is 10x12. under coop is 8x16.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I think these are the first pics you've ever posted of your place. Wow, I like it a lot. Is that the barn next to the house you've talked so much about? What we see in our mind's eye is so different from reality.

It looks like you're good on the walls. But you might have to think about doing something with those gable ends and roof. Especially since I don't see any trees to provide shade. The silver roof will reflect a lot but it still gets hotter than all get out in the Summer sun. Until I did something with my metal building I ran 200 feet of extension cord out there to be able to use a high volume fan.


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## Ranch (May 26, 2014)

This is a pic of the front of my property. The barn is on the right. Then the coop. and garage, house. I will see if I can find the first day owner pics. 
Not that you missed me, but that took a minute.







This is a few weeks I think after we bought the property, a month or so before we moved in.

We have NO trees anywhere but the back and it is about three or four acres of woods. The nice thing about here is there is always a breeze. We have started planting trees and I put one on the morning sun side of the silkie run. We have extention cords that are long enough to reach the coop. This summer an Amish family rented the field behind the coop and put corn up. Wow did it block the low winds. So I used a fan a lot for them under the coop. It is good for summer but, bad thing is about wind here, the winters are horrible with it.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

You ended up with an amazing spot to call your own. That business of no trees is what kept us from even looking at several places. Not enough years left for trees to do much good for shade. All of the buildings are close enough that it won't take forever to get to them in nasty weather. 

Didn't you say that the AG's went out in to the woods? Or was that just when they were threatened? That's quite a distance for them to travel to wander in trees so its rather unusual. 

When we built the Silkie coop hubs messed up and didn't leave enough room to build soffits. That Winter when the wind hit those little openings it amplified the speed and made it a wind tunnel in the coop. I ended up installing 1x6's between the rafters on the outside to stop it. I can't tell if you can get away with it on your building or not. Might be easier than the foam. Doing plastic to keep it from dripping inside probably won't work with those openings. You could put rigid foam up there. That's what I put in the Silkie coop. And just so you know, it was a pain in the behind but ended up being worth it.


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## Ranch (May 26, 2014)

I did spray foam a lot of the openings. Turns out it was a bad can of foam. The second can went much smoother. lol

My hb has thought of using the silver water proof roll out that we used under our roof for the inside of the ceiling of the coop. It is insulated. I would like to use the scrape I have and put wood up on the ceiling joists and the sides where it all meets. He says we have to eave a little breathing room so that none of it sweats. But, with all the wind, I think you are right and I am going to have to find a way to cover those. There are metal pieces cut and put up in the inside, that I assume were their version of a wind blocker. Plus they used a wood burning stove in there when it was used as a home. So I would assume the openings were used a breathers for the people. 


Yes when I bought the property the AG's lived in the woods. They started coming up for food when the other animals left the property. The still play half the day in the woods. I will find them on the back fields ( 8 acres) beyond the woods all the time. I mow around the property. They love it on the back where I keep it short. There is a long valley between my property and my neighbors. They have fun exploring it all. They have several spots to hide along the way. Yet they always just make a break for it and it is funny to watch the "Chicken Run" as we call it here. We didn't get cows this year so the woods are extra dense in a lot of areas.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I saw the opening for the stove pipe on the one gable. You could see if there is a way to install a vent up there for air movement. That way you have the low side ventilation with the door and the updraft that is called for. 

Relfectix!!! Love that stuff. So easy to cut to size and just staple in to place. And the tape you can get for it holds the seams together tightly. I forgot all about it. 

They must have deserted the home place for quieter places and now that they know the woods are willing to travel that far to explore. I only ever saw two of my free rangers move away from their comfort zone the 200 feet to the Guinea coop and when they did it it was what you're calling the chicken run.


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## TheLazyL (Jun 20, 2012)

Ranch said:


> ..windows are single pane so I will have to build a frame for heavy clear plastic inserts for winter...


Why the clear plastic inserts for winter?


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## Ranch (May 26, 2014)

TheLazyL said:


> Why the clear plastic inserts for winter?


 My thinking was that the clear framed plastic inserts plus the windows would give better insulation from the cold. The windows are what we call storm windows and I am afraid that the wind and cold might find their way through the windows. They would be completely removable for the nicer winter days when the wind isn't rockin. Hope this answered your question.


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