Making it a Little Easier On Myself

[Smart Red]

Yes, Dear. It is perfect, Dear. You are perfect, Dear.
Er. . might I suggest a tiny little change, Dear?


Why ever would you not utilize all the available space? The big expense would be not planning well and needing to add an addition to the treehouse.

 

[so lucky]

so lucky, I like your proactive approach, especially the snow removeal from your driveway. But I have a few questions. Won't the pop door mechanism freeze anyway regardless if it's covered in plastic. Seems to me the temperature will be below freezing even with a cover. Won't the cardboard in front of the gate get covered with lots of snow and make it heavy to drag/remove? I hope that I'm wrong and that they work for you. Those snow storms sure do cause a lot of work for you.

Mary

Mary, the "opener" is on the north side, but the door itself faces east. It slides up and down with a pulley and rope, which comes through a little hole in the wall high up on the north side. As long as it stays dry, it should continue to work. Hard to explain; I think I saw something like it on BYC, and modified it for my purposes. The cardboard on the ground may be hard to move--I was kind of weighing the pros and cons on that. It looks like most of the snow/ice has already blown through. If that's the case, we won't have accumulated more than 3 inches, but, man, is it ever cold and windy out there!

 

[so lucky]

Red, your coop is really cute. I kept looking at the first picture of it, then the pic with the barn/shed in the background. Still can't figure out how those pics were taken, one with the barn showing, one without. Unless you were standing in the barn when you took the first one? Nah. Oh well. Not the first unsolved mystery for me.
I wish now I had made my coop bigger, of course. It has no electricity and no insulation. The south end is screen, but I have covered it up with plastic to keep the snow from blowing in too bad. I will take half of it off when the weather breaks. If I leave all the plastic up, it gets too damp and ammonia smelling in the coop. I do worry about the cold, but at least they are dry and not in a draft.

 

[897tgigvib]

Wow Smart! That coop looks like it'd make a nice place to live in!

It sure is nice when Wimin say things like "That's just the right size dear". It makes the heart beat a little better. Know what I mean?

 

[Just-Moxie]

Would food grade silicone spray be of any help on those frozen pop door mechanisms?

 

[Smart Red]

Red, I kept looking at the first picture of it, then the pic with the barn/shed in the background. Still can't figure out how those pics were taken, one with the barn showing, one without. Unless you were standing in the barn when you took the first one? Nah. Oh well. Not the first unsolved mystery for me.

I do worry about the cold, but at least they are dry and not in a draft.

So lucky, dry and draft-free are the two best safety features needed for a coop in cold weather.
Here's another look at my coop and garden shed. They stand about 15 feet apart. And I just might have been in the shed when I took that photo of the coop. It has a garage door at that end. It looks to me like I was standing at the edge of the garden, though.

 

[so lucky]

So lucky, dry and draft-free are the two best safety features needed for a coop in cold weather.
Here's another look at my coop and garden shed. They stand about 15 feet apart. And I just might have been in the shed when I took that photo of the coop. It has a garage door at that end. It looks to me like I was standing at the edge of the garden, though.
View attachment 426

Could have been sort of an optical illusion making the garden shed look closer than it really was. Now I can see the distance.

 

[bj taylor]

red, I love your coop. what about the rabbit? that's what I want to know about. what keeps the little guy from digging out? I want rabbits for meat -but I want to be able to give them a little out of the cage time during the day, if possible. the local feed store is selling 4' long wire cages for $45.00. is that a good price?

 

[so lucky]

That price doesn't sound too bad, depending on the quality and features of the cage.
If you are planning to have several rabbits, you may find it more cost effective to make your own cages. You can buy cage clips to fasten the edges together, and a plier-like tool to crimp them on. I knew a man who made cages to sell, and they were pretty cheap, but he left raw edges that hurt dainty fragile hands like mine. :/ I bet Hoodat would have some advice about making rabbit cages.

 

[so lucky]

Oh, by the way, the cold weather precautions I took at the chicken coop worked pretty well. The plastic over the pop door opener worked "mostly" but I did have to kind of beat on some parts of the mechanism to get it loose. Not too bad. The cardboard on the ground helped a lot. Still, few of the chickens wanted to get out in the extreme cold. With no heat in the coop, I covered the screened area with plastic. I have since opened it up some, to avoid moisture and ammonia build-up. No one seemed to have comb frostbite, thankfully. By yesterday, with 33 degree temps, they were all out and about as usual.
Oh, one other thing I did: I saved a big bucket of straw/poop cleaned out of the coop, and tossed it on top of the snow in the fenced area. It helped keep the chickens' feet out of the snow, and made them more willing to come out of the coop, I think. I could have used fresh straw, but figured used was just as good.