Tracy, I am trying to find the link but can't locate it. I think it was a chapter from a very old book, when everyone had chickens. I just followed the instructions and built one like it said but modified the height of the opening a little by shortening the leg length. If you want measurements, I will have to get those tomorrow, but roughly 2x3 feet and maybe a foot and a half tall. The article called it a chicken hover as I recall. You could use it in any small pen. We just used it in a cage which had a wire bottom, but we put a piece of thin plywood on the wire so air didn't come up through into the area we had the hover. The plywood we laid in the cage was five or six inches larger than the box on all sides, which looked like it had a wrap-around porch. The hover is basicly a plywood box turned upside down. I used 1x2 in the corners and left them longer than the plywood sides. This created legs (on the open side of the box) for the birds to come and go as they pleased. We bought two of the cheapest kind of light sockets for a couple of bucks and mounted them on the ends of the box a few inches from the solid top as not to be a fire hazard. We wired in one light, then ran the cord across the top of the box on the outside and over to the other end. I don't even think we bought new wiring and a plug to run from the box, but instead used one from a lamp or something we were discarding. The lights created an amazing amount of heat in that box but since the sides were open all around they could move in or out as they wanted to. Some would be just under the edge so part of their body was under, but not all which is why we used a bigger piece under the cage. Almost all of the time, one bulb was plenty and we just unscrewed the other one. If we had a lot of wind, then we just placed a board on the side with the wind and left the other three sides open. They quickly learned to move in and out based on how much heat they wanted. Since I had scraps of plywood and 1x2 (or maybe 2x2) and screws, the only thing I had to buy were the cheap light sockets and Al wired it. I bought the plain ones, but you could use the one with a pull chain and not have to unscrew the bulb. The most critical measurements were the height of the legs so the chicks could walk under, and the height of the box so the bulb wasn't too close to the top but high enough that a chick couldn't touch it. You want the bulbs mounted on the end pieces, not the top. I made mine with legs shorter for the tiny quail, but I could use the same box for chickens, by lengthing the legs. I was going to make a drop down side or curtain to block wind, but my DH thought I was complicating it to much. Actually a piece of 1x4 on it's edge worked just fine. I just left it in the cage and moved it back and forth as needed. I know it probably sounds really redneck but it didn't look bad at all. A little paint would have made it look even better. I am probably a little off on the measurements but it had to be narrow enough that we could move it through the cage door. We didn't lose birds after we built it even when the weather didn't cooperate. It was one of those simple things that worked great. Since you are starting yours in the summer in Arizona your problem is probably too much heat instead of not enough. Spring and Fall are so unpredictable here but with the hover they could go inside when they wanted heat and go out into the wire bottom cage when they didn't. The quail would just stretch out flat under the heat and look like they were dead. Then they would jump up and move around, eat and drink, and go back under the light.

and doesn't get commission or bumps for promoting one line over the other - we asked Unless said salesman is a relative or long time friend I would not trust him farther than I could throw him. The Thermador columns are very good. I would rank them in a class just below Sub-Zero. They are made by Bosch in Turkey. All thermador ovens are made in LaFollette Tennessee. They get consisently bad reviews in their class. Even if you can't find a review on a particular model I think the smart move is skip this one. Wall Ovens- Take a serious look at Gaggenau and Wolf. The Gaggs are really top notch,have side swing doors so you don't have to reach over a hot oven door,and hold temp amazingly well. They can reach 350 in about 6 minutes or so. Rangetop- I think the T'dors are just mediocre. Take a serious look at Capital Culinarian and Bluestar RNB. Enter Capital Culinarian in the Youtube searchbox and look at the vids. T'dor has at least two suppliers for hoods. My guess is the Masterpiece line is made by Broan and is ok but nothing great.

This is an odd combination of high end and low end appliances. You state that you are not adamant chefs but are spending a massive premium for a dual fuel range to get an electric oven, which makes up almost half your budget. For 99% of people a good gas oven works just as well, much cheaper ,and much cheaper to operate. If getting an American Range the Performer Series is the one to get. And you can upgrade your game room beverage center to Liebherr and get a much quieter fridge as a result. Plus upgrade your dishwashers. If the purpose of the dual fuel is because a self-clean oven is an absolute must I would look at Capital Culinarian. Save over $1k for that Liebherr beverage center or upgraded dishwashers. Plus get a motorized rotisserie in your oven. I love my Liebherr All-Refrigerator. I love my Sharp MW drawer. I would absolutely go to your local VAH dealer and see how you clean the hood. Some people like the newer design and some think it is a major PITA to clean. If looking at low end VAH I would get Best or Kobe. If looking at high end VAH I would get Prestige. There is a laundry forum with experts on those appliances. I don't like LG because of how their customer service deals with recalls and defective machines that should be recalled but are not and their habit of telling customers with problem machines to pound sand. I would look into the new GE RightHeight laundry. Made in the USA and benchmarked to all the currently USA available laundry machines. If you are not comfortable buying first generation appliances and want something more tried and true I would get the equivalent Samsungs.

You can get a whole kitchen full of perfectly good appliances in your range, especially if you're careful about getting whatever deals and discounts are out there. The problem is that the response Antss gave to Bob is about the same for any maker, though the details differ. If you want all appliances from the same line you're getting an average across the kitchen of good function, rather than across all lines. A lot of appliances nowadays have complicated electronics whether you want them or not. They need them to meet conservation goals. That makes them a lot trickier to design and build and some companies do better on one thing than another, and others have higher failure rates than others. For instance, you want your oven to get hot, and might adore to have self cleaning, but did they do a good enough job shielding the electronics from the heat? Or will using the self-cleaning wreck the enamel that's supposed to protect the interior? I have no first hand knowledge, but names that get the least overall disapproval seem to be KitchenAid, GE, LG, and Bosch (no particular order), though they all have knocks against particular pieces. Like the others, I'd suggest you'll be happier if you go to the store and choose the appliances that suit you best, instead of settling for something inferior just because it matches.