I moved all of the Chicks I had in the old GN Market trailer over to the Container this morning. And then somehow managed to get the old trailer worked into this location. It is a old 1991 lead sled trailer that weighs a little over 4000 pounds. I bought it in 1992 with intention of hauling my horses around in it. And ended up not hauling anything in it until 1998 and then it was to Farmers Markets with a Freezer with meats, a Fridge With Eggs and baked good and produce in the display racks I built in to it. I should have known better than to buy it or the horses while I was still in the service. 1985-1992 Uncle Sam kept me bouncing all over the world. 1992 I thought things would settle and I would be semi stable and in one place but Uncle Sam decided that was not in my cards and went world hopping until again until 1998 when I opted to not reenlist. So the horses were sold and the trailer sat in a fence row until 1998 without ever having a hoof in it. To this day it has not had a hoof in it. I ran it as the Market Trailer until 2014 when a Axle Broke and rather than repair it to just buy a new trailer that was 1500 pounds lighter and there it sat in the woods until last week. Well not there but in a different spot in the woods. I had kicked around the idea of using it a Hog Farrowing shed, A Chicken Coop or a tool shed. The frame is solid and I milled post oak 3x8s and replaced the old floor with them in 2010. The roof has sprung a few leaks but nothing coating it with flex seal can fix. I could have and still could put new spring hangers, springs, axles and some new rubber on it and it would be road worthy again. But that weight and these Diesel prices are not compatible! So Hen House it shall be. It is 7' 4" wide on the inside and 6' 8" high on the inside and 24' long to the over bed. The Slat Counter and produce boxes I built into it will make great layer boxes and I can build roosting perches in on the opposite side easily enough. Will need to level the top boxes to make it a suitable set of layer boxes on the top and build boxes on the lower where the produce crates used to sit.... and replace the weather seal on the back door. A lot of cakes and pies were sold off that slat counter before I retired the trailer I figure it will hold 125 of the new chickens comfortably and it will have a 24x80 chain link Chicken Yard with a chicken wire roof to bounce the haws and eagles off of and keep the coons from coming over the top. Going to build a frame and lift up door over the front and store the chicken feed in it. It will hold a lot of bags of chicken feed up there. For a 32 year old trailer it is actually in pretty good shape. And I am a total cheap ass, if something can still serve a functional purpose, I will make it serve a functional purpose. Easy enough to make it look good again. Just need to remove the old cracking peeling Red Paint hit with a coat of primer and paint it brown or a gray or a whatever Mrs Krap orders me to paint it with Close enough to the house that the Dogs can easily deter predators and far enough away and situated to the prevailing wind out of the SW will blow the Chicken Stinkies into the woods instead of in the living room windows. I am standing about 40 feet from the trailer in the middle of the chicken yard when I took this pic. Can also see why I put the pole house where I did. That all day shade on the house is priceless and the woods totally block the N and W winds. And let the prevailing winds out of the SW come through. Not quite sure what I am going to do with the old farrowing barn in the back drop of the Oliver Tractor. It could be another hen house and would easily house 350-400 hens. But it is only 30 feet from my new Krap Kave windows LOL. It might get pretty ripe there in the summer, in between clean outs of the bedding every 2 weeks. Going to run to town and YEP Rural King and pick up the 7 chain link panels I am short of closing the Chicken Yard in with. I like using the panels because I can shrink, expand or easily take the whole pen apart and relocate it. Anyway one of my other thoughts after the axle broke as to what to do with it was drag it to the scrap yard, really glad I didn't act on that thought
Love the way you repurpose things. Am always shocked at the dump. Every spring there is always all the barbecue, lawn furniture, bikes, etc that wer. e left out all winter and thrown away because of a little rust and the lawn mowers with dead gas etc.
I take a fair amount to the scrap yard when I just can't find a use for it. Lots of good finds at the scrap yard that can be bought for the scrap yards sell price. So far I have resisted bringing treasures home, when I am trying to get rid of junk. Last thing I brought home from the the scrap yard was a almost brand new Craftsman Riding Mower, They had two identical ones sitting off to the side one with less than a hour on it and a seized engine and one with 14 hours and destroyed mower deck. I swapped mower decks out on them right there and brought it home for $49.84 It is this one......... The one with the Seized engine did not have a drop of oil in it and what ever the previous owner hit with the other one broke one of the spindles and put about 4" twist in the deck lol one front corner could be used as a plow and the back corner opposite might catch 10" tall grass. Pretty obvious the Seized engine happened because the person bought it, gassed it up, took off mowing and oops forgot to put oil in it. I dragged it home last April and have been using to mow my little lawn and trim in places the Kubota BX does not fit well in. Oh and Mrs Krap Calls it my Wheel Chair because I pull a wagon around on it and run around all over the farm on it. And the little critter has some git up n Go to it.So a $3200 mower/garden tractor for less than $50 and a little work changing the mower decks out. https://www.lowes.com/pd/CRAFTSMAN-...f-_-c-_-prd-_-mdv-_-gdy-_-all-_-0-_-78091-_-0
So here is what I came up with for the new hen house and yard for my personal flock of layers. Hey and even got my Scrap Yard Special $50 riding mower/wheel Chair in the pic I need to dig out a 4' panel piece to widen it out to 24' but for now its 20'w x40'L Going to run a 10gauge awg cable over to it for a heat lamp in the winter and fan in the summer and T into the water line and put a hydrant by the gate, after I decide if I am going to double the yard size and make it 24x80 instead of 40'/ Stealing the Gate panel and 2 expansion panels off of my old personal hen house. Going to use what left of the old hen house as a shed to park the BX25 and the Riding mower in. LOL the concrete block on the roof has actually proven to be a fairly effective coon trap. Its not set atm but when set it has a simple figure 4 trigger that drops the block on a coons head and does a impressive job of crushing their skulls. It has picked off 9 coons over the last 5 years. Working on getting the mess behind it cleaned up from the tree service dropping that big pecan tree on the Chicken house and crushing half of it, the feed shed behind it and the 3 farrowing sheds behind that. Another pile of steel siding and roofing with a lot of busted wood screwed and nailed to it. LOL I hired tree pro's so I would not crush anything.......... Guess I should have just done it myself LOL. What I started with this morning after unloading the 7 new panels I bought yesterday. Will not be buying anymore panels for $100 per. I can buy rolls of chain link, the tubing and hardware and use the pipe bender to build my own for around $38 per 10' long 6' tall panels. I was in a hurry to get this done, so bit the bullet and paid the $700
