...or do I mean Three Stooges: The Lost Episodes?
It all started in March when Aaron decided to get 5 chicks from tractor supply--two barred rock and three golden comets. The golden comets were the type of chicken we already had. The idea was to replace some layers that got killed one night when they were left out in the cold. We had since built a covered chicken run to prevent predators. The main question about getting these chicks is where we'd actually keep them once they became stinky, ugly pullets instead of cute little chicks. That question, however was never really answered. So the chicks grew bigger and bigger, were transferred to the garage and became very, very stinky. We finally decided that maybe it was time to try to integrate the pullets into the new flock. We put them out in the coop and separated the pullets in the coop and the big chickens in the yard for several days. Things seemed to be going well so we left the coop open and the new chickens mostly stayed in the coop and the old chickens outside...or so we thought. We came home one day to find that they had severely pecked the two barred rock chickens. One died of it's injuries after a few days and the other is going to recover but I am very concerned about her going back into the other flock of chickens. Anyhow, I came up with a plan to build a second enclosure so we could keep the new chickens outside but separate them from the old chickens. I had wanted to build another anyway to enlarge the first chicken run. So this morning, Dad and I began to work on the new chicken run. After nailing the base and roof together with Dad's nail gun, the gauge on his compressor suddenly blew out. So that was the end of using nails. We decided to use screws. When we moved the base to nail in the wall studs the entire base basically just fell to pieces. Probably nails were wrong length. So Dad had a box that had a few screws with him. He began to use the screw gun but the screws didn't have the type of head that he wanted so we made a trip to the hardware store. We bought new screws, gate hinges, nails ( just in case) and headed back to my house. When we got back we started screwing the base together. Then Dad discovered that the screws we had were actually the exact same screws we had just bought and the problem was that he didn't have the right bit in his screw gun. No worries. We would have needed more than we had anyway. So we put the base back together, did the studs along one wall. Then came the task of turning this huge base on it's side and figuring out how to hold it while we put the studs on the other side. After turning it every which way, trying to prop it up by screwing a board into the base at an angle, lot's of "dadburnit"'s, "shoot"'s, "something's not right here"'s, we took everything apart and three hours later had one 2x4x12 with three studs in it to show for all our work. Oh and I didn't mention that somehow (I am going to blame it on hot sun, low blood pressure, and too little breakfast) I had read the measurements and the plans wrong and none of the the three studs were in the right place anyway. We hauled our project in the shade and stopped for lunch. Mom came to help after lunch and having another person to hold stuff really helped the project along. In the next three hours, we managed to get the structure together and start to put some chicken wire on while Dad built the door. I had to make one run to get chicken wire because we were just short, but that was really the only big setback for the afternoon. We finally got the thing finished and the new chickens moved in a little before 6. Right now they have to sleep in a dog crate. I am hoping they will be able to integrate after a few weeks and use the coop as well. For now they are very happy to roam in the chicken run and be outside I think.
It all started in March when Aaron decided to get 5 chicks from tractor supply--two barred rock and three golden comets. The golden comets were the type of chicken we already had. The idea was to replace some layers that got killed one night when they were left out in the cold. We had since built a covered chicken run to prevent predators. The main question about getting these chicks is where we'd actually keep them once they became stinky, ugly pullets instead of cute little chicks. That question, however was never really answered. So the chicks grew bigger and bigger, were transferred to the garage and became very, very stinky. We finally decided that maybe it was time to try to integrate the pullets into the new flock. We put them out in the coop and separated the pullets in the coop and the big chickens in the yard for several days. Things seemed to be going well so we left the coop open and the new chickens mostly stayed in the coop and the old chickens outside...or so we thought. We came home one day to find that they had severely pecked the two barred rock chickens. One died of it's injuries after a few days and the other is going to recover but I am very concerned about her going back into the other flock of chickens. Anyhow, I came up with a plan to build a second enclosure so we could keep the new chickens outside but separate them from the old chickens. I had wanted to build another anyway to enlarge the first chicken run. So this morning, Dad and I began to work on the new chicken run. After nailing the base and roof together with Dad's nail gun, the gauge on his compressor suddenly blew out. So that was the end of using nails. We decided to use screws. When we moved the base to nail in the wall studs the entire base basically just fell to pieces. Probably nails were wrong length. So Dad had a box that had a few screws with him. He began to use the screw gun but the screws didn't have the type of head that he wanted so we made a trip to the hardware store. We bought new screws, gate hinges, nails ( just in case) and headed back to my house. When we got back we started screwing the base together. Then Dad discovered that the screws we had were actually the exact same screws we had just bought and the problem was that he didn't have the right bit in his screw gun. No worries. We would have needed more than we had anyway. So we put the base back together, did the studs along one wall. Then came the task of turning this huge base on it's side and figuring out how to hold it while we put the studs on the other side. After turning it every which way, trying to prop it up by screwing a board into the base at an angle, lot's of "dadburnit"'s, "shoot"'s, "something's not right here"'s, we took everything apart and three hours later had one 2x4x12 with three studs in it to show for all our work. Oh and I didn't mention that somehow (I am going to blame it on hot sun, low blood pressure, and too little breakfast) I had read the measurements and the plans wrong and none of the the three studs were in the right place anyway. We hauled our project in the shade and stopped for lunch. Mom came to help after lunch and having another person to hold stuff really helped the project along. In the next three hours, we managed to get the structure together and start to put some chicken wire on while Dad built the door. I had to make one run to get chicken wire because we were just short, but that was really the only big setback for the afternoon. We finally got the thing finished and the new chickens moved in a little before 6. Right now they have to sleep in a dog crate. I am hoping they will be able to integrate after a few weeks and use the coop as well. For now they are very happy to roam in the chicken run and be outside I think.
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