Beginning coop construction...

Hmm, I've been reading up on it and have read people have been successful after having them in the coop for only a week or two and others who've left them in the coop for 3 or 4 weeks and still had to chase them down to carry them into the coop. lol And that would be just my luck!!

With babies I think it's just learning how things work. Ramps can be a huge learning curve for some of them.

With adults, well I think it's personality. All but 2 of mine always go back to the coop before dark. My 2 polish, who we call the Derps, will either try and roost in my rhododendron which is right in front of my bedroom window and then smash their faces against my window to sleep. I have to go out and scoop em up and put in the coop when I go out to shut things down. If they can get into the mud room, they head for the dog crate and try and roost on my poor 19 year old aussie, maybe lay an egg on him while they are at it. (he doesn't mind that though, and will happily gobble up the egg) Sadly one of them is getting rather arthritic so she is going back to the coop more often now instead of trying to jump in the bush. Who knew I'd be sad to not see her face smashed up against my bedroom window at night.

Your coop design is really cute and it looks like you really did your research and planned well for it.

Very nice coop!

I keep my birds restricted to the coop for a couple of weeks and are using the roost. I then allowed them in the run for month. I do have a roost in the run, it is away from the run walls and out of reach of predators. The run roost is also small enough to discourage roosting in the run at night. When everything is going well I free-range in the yard. I start free-ranging a hour before dark, to make sure they are close by and return to their roost. I then extend the time out gradually... it has worked well for me.

Just a few high points about the run...

We put their trigger feeder into it. I think we still need to adjust a couple things about this but I will likely make another post about it later after we've worked out the kinks. The feeder hangs from an eyescrew in a rafter overhead. We will likely eventually hang their waterer from the opposite side of the same rafter.




Here is the door hardware.

We put a couple of blocks for he oldest to climb onto so she can toss treats in through the bigger openings in the upper fencing. She loves tossinghandfuls of grass in for tthem.



We'd like to either build some steps here for the two year old or cut out a small opening in the 1/2" hwc and tie in some of the 2"*3" fencing down low with 16 ga wire so that the younger neighborhood kids and oour two year old can come visit and toss in treats if they like.

We also made a small wet feed station. Its just some scraps of 2*4 screwed together. On one side we added a cheap plastic dollar store bowl. We drilled a pilot hole into it and used deck screws and rubber washers to secure it to the wood block base. It gets scraps of soggy cereal, milk, yogurt and the likes. The other side currently holds their tiny waterer (not secured down to the blocks). We'll build a water station soon but we will add a larger fermented feed tub to this side later.



We fastened all the hwc to the framing with deck screws and washers, every 6" or so. The upper fencing is stapled in. It overlaps in some places.



The ramp is two pieces of thin plywood glued together. It measures 12" by 72". The cleats are made up of 1*2 furring strips every 6". The cleats are attached via deck screws and the whole thing was caulked well and painted to match the pop door.



The chickens seem quite content. We only have six birds and about 74 square foot of run space.

beautifulpirate said:

Here is the door hardware.

Click to expand...

Isn't it fun to watch them in the run??
That's one heck of a nice run...good job!

That latch, good that it can be locked with padlock... or a carabineer......
BUT.....it can TRAP you in the run!!
I'd suggest changing it out to something that doesn't automatically latch and put a screen door spring on it to automatically close it.
Even if you put a string or wire to go inside....shm..... had fits with one of those and wouldn't ever use one on and enclosed area.

aart said:

Isn't it fun to watch them in the run??
That's one heck of a nice run...good job!

That latch, good that it can be locked with padlock... or a carabineer......
BUT.....it can TRAP you in the run!!
I'd suggest changing it out to something that doesn't automatically latch and put a screen door spring on it to automatically close it.
Even if you put a string or wire to go inside....shm..... had fits with one of those and wouldn't ever use one on and enclosed area.

Click to expand...

I'm actually changing out that hardware @beautifulpirate on mine so I can avoid accidental incarceration. I can open the window by the coop door and operate the latch but I'm opting for a regular barrel bolt style latch anyway.

aart said:

Raccoons can undo barrel bolts.....better something with place for a carabineer or a padlock.

Click to expand...

Already have large barrel bolts with keyed alike locks for the run and the coop.