I just wanted to show my new coop. My husband built it from garden shed kit, and I built, painted and designed the interior. Since we're Scandinavians living in California, there's some IKEA hacks and nordic style design ideas.
I wanted to make a coop, what's also easy to keep as clean as possible. I'm pretty lazy but when things are well organized and pretty, I feel it's easier to keep everything in order.
So this was my plan, and making of pictures:
I painted shed to protect the wood and made vinyl flooring. On top of that flooring I have also plastic carpet protector in the chicken area. It's thick, striped plastic and I'm using bedding on top of that, so it's not slippery.
I had 2 old Ikea toy chest/bench, where I decided to build nesting boxes, and used them for dividing the coop area. I also wanted to be able to collect eggs without going inside the coop&poop, but not from the outside of the whole shed.
Finished coop interior:
Maintenance area & Nesting boxes.
Inside the chicken area:
My roosting poles are maybe a bit too upright, I should tilt them a bit. Roosting barrs are birch poles, something to remind me from my old homeland.
Trays under the poles and feeder&drinker are 1-2 dollar plastic trays from Ikea. They are my version of dropping boards. I've tried thin layer of sand there, but I realized that thin layer of bedding is better, since I'm throwing poop in the compost tumbler.
And yes, there is 2 tiny mirrors for the chickens, and my chickens like the mirrors. I don't know if all chickens like those, they might be confusing to others, but especially my silkies enjoy looking their reflections. Maybe they are finally happy to see "other chickens" that are under them in the pecking order, or something
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Coop shed is under the trees, but there's also solar powered ventilation system at the roof. It's not much, but since my chickens are at their huge run most of the time and just sleep at the coop, that's enough.
My cat & bunnies might visit at the maintenance side of the coop, but won't bother chickens in their area.
To keep coop free from parasites and smelling nice etc, I'm using couple of handfulls red cedar shavings on top of pine shavings, and then I add some dried herbs, like lavender, rose and fleabane.
Under the feeder I have an IKEA tray full of grits (although my chickies probably don't need that since they are mostly foraging) and on the otherside, under the galvanized drinker is a tray full of oyster shell grit.
So this is my coop (yes, it's still sometimes pretty dusty and messy) and my chickies going to sleep at the evening.
I wanted to make a coop, what's also easy to keep as clean as possible. I'm pretty lazy but when things are well organized and pretty, I feel it's easier to keep everything in order.
So this was my plan, and making of pictures:
I painted shed to protect the wood and made vinyl flooring. On top of that flooring I have also plastic carpet protector in the chicken area. It's thick, striped plastic and I'm using bedding on top of that, so it's not slippery.
I had 2 old Ikea toy chest/bench, where I decided to build nesting boxes, and used them for dividing the coop area. I also wanted to be able to collect eggs without going inside the coop&poop, but not from the outside of the whole shed.
Finished coop interior:
Maintenance area & Nesting boxes.
Inside the chicken area:
My roosting poles are maybe a bit too upright, I should tilt them a bit. Roosting barrs are birch poles, something to remind me from my old homeland.
Trays under the poles and feeder&drinker are 1-2 dollar plastic trays from Ikea. They are my version of dropping boards. I've tried thin layer of sand there, but I realized that thin layer of bedding is better, since I'm throwing poop in the compost tumbler.
And yes, there is 2 tiny mirrors for the chickens, and my chickens like the mirrors. I don't know if all chickens like those, they might be confusing to others, but especially my silkies enjoy looking their reflections. Maybe they are finally happy to see "other chickens" that are under them in the pecking order, or something
. Coop shed is under the trees, but there's also solar powered ventilation system at the roof. It's not much, but since my chickens are at their huge run most of the time and just sleep at the coop, that's enough.
My cat & bunnies might visit at the maintenance side of the coop, but won't bother chickens in their area.
To keep coop free from parasites and smelling nice etc, I'm using couple of handfulls red cedar shavings on top of pine shavings, and then I add some dried herbs, like lavender, rose and fleabane.
Under the feeder I have an IKEA tray full of grits (although my chickies probably don't need that since they are mostly foraging) and on the otherside, under the galvanized drinker is a tray full of oyster shell grit.
So this is my coop (yes, it's still sometimes pretty dusty and messy) and my chickies going to sleep at the evening.
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