kelli....FO (fragrance oils) won't "ruin" soap if that is what you like to use. Personally I use essential oils ONLY because I am highly sensetive to FO's (they make me sick). SOme FO's are difficult and will seize the hotsoap and make it hard to work with. Actually spicey and floral EO's will do the same thing. Typically you should use .5 oz. FO per pound of oils. If you're using essential oils you will need to use more in order for them to sstay - as much as 1 oz. per pound of oils. Sandalwood essential oil isn't in my budget - I don't know about yours...last I looked it was over $85 per ounce. I buy my eo's by the litre or gallon so my concept of pricing is affected by that. I wouldn't pay more than $9 an ounce though. FO's can be less expensive. Please be sure to learn the difference between essential oils and fragrance oils if you don't already know (FO's are synthetic and eo's are plant derived). Nothing irritates me more when I see someone labeling or selling a "Blueberry Soap made with Essential Oils"...D'oh! There is no such thing as a blueberry essential oil. And if you buy on eBay be weary of the sellers who don't even know the difference. You can learn so much at the soapdish...I hope you're reading up over there.

Most coops have slant roof, and be sure to have a bank of windows facing south for maximum light. You're going to love having the concrete pad when it comes time to muck it out. I have a twenty by forty coop on a concrete pad, and I appreciate how much easier it makes to do the scraping and also it's easily hosed off afterward. The structure was built as a chicken shed so I didn't have much modifying to do when started our flock up. We have working windows and two sides with wire mesh to them when the windows are open. Ventilation is very important to poultry so all windows are operable. We have a small drop door to their exercise yard and that is completely enclosed with fencing, even overhead, for protection from predators. And also a human sized door for us. LOL. It should be large enough so you can easily move feed bags in and out and also wheel barrows for when you muck poop. All the walls where windows are located have roosts to them, and the other two walls have metal laying boxes twelve per unit. I had a hundred hens at one time and twenty four boxes were sufficient, so twelve should be for thirty hens. You may want to fence off a small section for quarantining injured fowl because there will be times when that happens and the other birds will attack an injured bird and peck at it until it dies. This could also be used as a safe spot for brooding hens.

My carpenter skills aren't all that great, so I looked around for some kind of do-it-yourself kit. The closest thing was a chain link dog kennel - ordered through the Internet. It comes in sections of 4 x 6 metal frames (4 pieces), and the chain link to wrap around, plus the hardware to clamp it all together. While it has a door, I would have preferred that the door had been a rectangle instead of oval, as it leaves openings at the corners (rats, mice, etc.). So I fashioned a piece of plywood to cover the door for added security, held with a bungee cord - works ok. I laid 2 sections of galvanized wire on the ground, placed the cage on top and secured all around the sides of the frame. Then wrapped the entire cage in galvanized 1/2 inch wired all around the outside, leaving top open. For the top, I found 3 pieces of corrugated paneling that was placed across the top. I just held these down with blocks - so that if necessary, they could be removed for easier access. After the frame work, I installed one of my cedar raised bed planter boxes, filled with nice compost (lucky hens), where they can scratch in the dirt, dust feathers, etc., and covered with straw (changing from time to time). For added night time protection and egg laying, I happened to have an unused rabbit cage, with a hinged top. It is about 3 x 3 x 2 ft. deep, filled with straw where they can get extra weather protection and for nesting. They immediately began using the top of the rabbit cage for their "porta-potty" area, making it easy to scrape clean every day, keeping the rest of the area clean of most droppings. I have a hose connection nearby - where most of the composting is done anyway, so filling waterers are easy. Also keep feed and tools handy nearby in a plastic garbage can that has wheels on it. All-in-all, this has proved to be a fairly decent set-up, though I would have liked the cage to be "person-high" - as it is only 4 ft., I felt I could make the sacrifice, as that gave the hens a bit more inside room, having the 6 ft. wide sections for their needs. So - for what it's worth, that is how I made mine, in the "burbs" but I, too, am limited to hens - don't want to disrupt the neighborhood peace and quiet. Cuz, if I do, they might notice my bee hive - yikes! Bejay

If the person who should pay for this is the building owners (all the tenant/shareholders): You contact the board president. The board is elected by the building's owners (you and all the other apartment owners) to represent your interests. one of your interests is to get repairs done promptly. So I'd vote for sending a registered letter to the board president alerting him or her to the problem, and to the response of the building's managing agent (if that's who you've been contacting), or lack thereof. Probably the easiest thing to do is to fix it yourself, and present the board--or the upstairs neighbor--with the bill--so you might tell the board's president that if you don't hear anything from them, that's what you'll be doing. Then everyone who owns an apartment (including you) will have to cover their share of that repair cost. but it's also possible that your upstairs neighbor is the one who should pay for this. We soaked out downstairs neighbor several years ago, and we paid for the damages, not the building. Of course, it wasn't the pipe within the walls that caused the problem.