We finally finished our cute little coop. It will be home for our 1 EE Rooster "Chiefaroo", 2 EE Hens (Pullets) "Ms. Priss" and "LuLu", 1 Blk. Cochin Bantam Rooster "Whodat"and 1 Blk. Cochin Bantam Hen "Fancy Feet" Right now a EE Rooster "Scratch" and a Blk. Cochin Bantam "Tinyroo". But it's time for them to be rehomed. read more
Well - this is what I ended up with..... And this is how I got there: Originally, I wanted to build my own brooder for out in the barn so that I wouldn’t have to borrow a neighbor’s anymore. Three cats & three dogs at home - and me at work all day made the idea of brooding in the house a no-go. Last year I borrowed one that was essentially a big, long box on legs. Easy-peasy ….. I thought. Gonna need: Crate (with legs and door added) A way to hang a lamp Room for feed & water I salvaged a big shipping crate from... read more
So here goes... My wife is a 4K teacher, and hatches eggs in her class every year. I've been threatening for years to keep the chicks. This year, we only had 1 hatch, so I decided to keep her around long term. I built a brooding box out of an old dresser, the post is in the Brooder section. From there, we started making a coop. I have a pergola next to the garden in my back yard, and one over the deck as well, so I figured, why not keep with the theme. The "Mattersville" name is an old joke between some friends of mine and I. There is a song from NOFX called... read more
I'm new to the chicken world so i figured i'd make a little thread on how i got started. I eat eggs a lot so i figured i'd try to get some free eggs and have some new pets. I did a lot of research on coop designs and almost spent a lot of money on a coop but then i realized i could make one for free out of pallets. Luckily I have a place near my house where i can get pallets for free. I began tearing them apart and constructing a coop. It's not the prettiest looking coop but it will do the job and I like the look of a old beat up coop. And it was... read more
I used a combination of new, used, and scrap materials to build the coop. The coop was also built in more of a rush than I wanted. We had bought four pullet-sized birds and they were living in a dog-crate in our garage. I did not have schematics drawn up prior to building this coop. I had an idea in my head and designed the coop as I went. Some aspects may have been better if I implemented them better, but I was building the coop by myself so I constructed it in a manner that made it easy for me to assemble myself. Other than those areas in my narrative that... read more
I created this little pen as a brooder for when they are young or for quarantining a chicken when they are older. I'd love some feedback. It is 31" wide so that it fits through doors. It is 48" long and about 30" high.I have attached hardware cloth with screws and washer to stop predators when I use it outside. It has a shelf beside the door on top to place stuff that I'm taking in and out of the pen. It has a solid floor of 3/4" pressure treated plywood.The back and sides have a 12" boards to stop drafts. The front has a 6" board to stop scattering of... read more
I looked on BYC and never really found what I had in mind so, we designed it on our own. The Palace here at G&B Farms; Home of The Fabulous Chicks is a 12x24 building with 3 individual pens inside. Our coop has an A-Frame roof, with 7 windows each are trimmed. A 2 1/2 foot hallway/storage area. T1-11 siding which will be painted barn red, as soon as the weather permits. Each pen has a run of 8x24x6' Each run will have a gate for accessing and allow for free ranging time. We dug our trench and added Hardware cloth to deter predators. Each pop door has a ramp that... read more
Yes, baseball fans should have chickens! The plan was to build a coop that looked like this: Many of you will notice that this is a very similar design to that of the infamous Wichita Cabin Coop. I owe the owner of that coop many thanks for providing me the Google SketchUp plan. If anyone would like my slightly modified version, please contact me and I'll send it along. I really recommend playing with that software if you're serious about designing a chicken coop. This is the spot in the yard where we decided to build our... read more
