First let me start by saying that the information I found on this site is fantastic and wouldn't have even considered having chickens until I found you. Thanks
So a little about us, we're new at raising chickens, well kind of, my wife is from Costa Rica and has always had chickens, I'm from Canada and the closest thing to farming I ever did was grocery shopping. That said our chicken adventure started a few weeks ago and we will be picking up our 6 week old chickens next Friday, I'll update this post as I get more pictures.
We decided to go with a knockoff of a coop we found here, a Wichata style like this one. I am by no means a skilled carpenter so please don't take a square to the pictures, believe me it is a bit off. lol
We started with a foundation of 8x4x16 cinder blocks from Lowes and made a foundation, I had a sprinkler line and a power line (to my shed) buried underneath that area that needed to come up:
Since I have a full time job there were a couple of late nights and savaging a fair amount of wood from a deck we're replacing helped cut the overall wood cost down.
With the framing almost done we decided to go with a run that had sand in it after reading this article.
We also decided on 1/2" hardware cloth vs. chicken wire to keep some of the possums and other possible predators away.
This is where she sits today 3/7/14.
Decided to have an opening for ventilation and access to the run area in the picture below, you can also see that I lined the coop with FRP as I found it to be a cheaper solution then using linoleum (I looked for used scrap on craigslist to no avail).
To the right of the nest boxes I have a 1 1/2" PVC pipe that we can fill the waterer from outside the coop/run, and to the left is an access to a 2" PVC to fill the food from outside the coop/run.
Still lots of work to do before our new friends get here in a week. You'll have to excuse the pictures, I've been taking them after I finish the days work and it's usually late and I'm tired.
We did the waterer and the feeder from 5 gal buckets, the feeder we specifically made using this article.
Still to do:
- Finish roost and poop hammock.
- Frame in and cover the feeder access.
- Finish the hardware cloth.
- Finish the roof.
- Finish nesting boxes.
- Finish the sliding cover for the window above the nest boxes.
- Finish the main access door & it's window & bedding stop.
- Finish the chicken's door access.
- Install an outside light.
- Start the fodder system using this system.
Lots to do......6 days to go.
3/18 - Update
These are some of our chickens, 2 of the Buff's, 2 RIR's and 2 Barred Rocks. We're just bird sitting the rest for the next few days.
- Finish roost (DONE) and poop hammock.
- Frame in and cover the feeder access. (DONE)
- Finish the hardware cloth. (DONE)
- Finish the roof. (DONE)
- Finish nesting boxes.
- Finish the sliding cover for the window above the nest boxes. (DONE)
- Finish the main access door (DONE) & it's window & bedding stop. (DONE)
- Finish the chicken's door access. (DONE)
- Install an outside light.
- Start the fodder system using this system.
Getting closer. I'll post pictures this weekend if I get a chance.
They're getting bigger!!!
