Chill's Chicken Coop Project

NickChillPhoto

Chirping
Apr 24, 2016
35
27
59
Decorah, IA
My Coop
My Coop
My chicken coop project is done!
O.K., it will never truly be done. However, the coop is up and running and the girls are happy.

You can see the whole project on my coop page, at:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/chills-chicken-coop

Below are some images of the finished product, and some recent updates.


Our little chicken paradise. The 4' deep by 5' wide by 4' tall (at front) coop sits 2' off the ground to give the girls more run space. The surrounding run is a repurposed dog-kennel, stripped of the chain-link and covered in 1/2 inch hardware cloth. I also put almost 2' of hardware cloth along the ground surrounding the run, to discourage burrowing predators.


The pop door is a scrap piece of plywood, traveling vertically between aluminum channels. I attached a cable to the top and ran it up and out of the run for ease of opening and closing. Hopefully it will work with an automatic opener, should we decide to get one in the future.


I made the main access doors large, and all the way to the floor of the coop, for ease of cleaning. The right door holds the left shut, and is secured by the top latch and a magnetic latch at the bottom.


Inside I have a roosting bar, angled from front left to back right walls. It is 4 inches wide to allow the birds to tuck their feet under their feathers in the winter, preventing frostbite. The little booster perch is to (hopefully) help the silkie get up to the main perch.


The other side of the roosting bar, and a view of the nest-boxes from inside.


I recently added a dust-bath beneath the coop. Hopefully the girls like it. I currently have yard dirt, sand, DE, and lots of potting soil in it.


I added security to the pop-door by adding a spare strip of aluminum channel to the bottom, to prevent raccoons from grabbing the door and lifting it up.


The girls also have an extended run, surrounded by chicken wire, for daytime foraging with wildflowers and black-raspberries.

I still have some small details left to finish, but the setup is just about where I want it (for now). The girls are quite happy, and that's what's important.

 
Last chick to hatch 3 days late. When out to feed mom found a beak a foot and ice cold but breathing. Now inside under heat I broke egg open he's now moving quite a bit and peeping real good. Something smelled foul and by his umbilical sight is white. I'm assuming infection. Any thoughts on how to help.
 

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