Interior Coop Pics - Page 8

Hey!  Hey!  I finally did it!  I spent my day off sawing and picking out old staples and arguing with DH about the cordless drill "WHICH setting is drill, WHICH is screw" and finally our girls have fireguy's hen haven, their nestboxes under the poopshelf and more roost space above, a nice edge to cling to and fly upon to get into the nest boxes:


I almost made classic nestboxes by sliding wooden "walls" sides onto their new nest shelf, but our hens love their red tupperwares.  So we kept their beloved red tupperwares.

Love all the pics...great ideas too.  Need to build a permanent coop and run (using a Chicekn tractor right now and it's not working!).  Plan on building a coop this winter and have no carpentry skills.  Hubby isn't too keen on building a coop but a pre-made one cost too much.  Having trouble with trying to decide what to do under the roosting pole.  Love the idea of trays or bath mats!!  Easy to clean.

6chickens in St. Charles :

Quote:

Originally Posted by fireguy56 

Hi, Here is my roost, poop tray, nest box set up in our 10' x 12' hen house.

http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/69010_coop-new_roost-girls_pics_002.jpg

Hey!  Hey!  I finally did it!  I spent my day off sawing and picking out old staples and arguing with DH about the cordless drill "WHICH setting is drill, WHICH is screw" and finally our girls have fireguy's hen haven, their nestboxes under the poopshelf and more roost space above, a nice edge to cling to and fly upon to get into the nest boxes:
http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/25976_coop_improvements_sept_2011.jpg

I almost made classic nestboxes by sliding wooden "walls" sides onto their new nest shelf, but our hens love their red tupperwares.  So we kept their beloved red tupperwares.

Oh, look what the girls did today.  I imagine the rooster dug out the perfect spot for them in the corner here:


There were 3 eggs in a perfect little nest back there!  I had to use a reacher/grabby tool to get them

I love all the interior pics. Tons of ideas. Its gotten me so anxious to get mine finished so I can show it yall

Great coops and ideas guys, im going to start building mine in a couple weeks, I have an old 3 stall horse paddock i'm going to convert, 1 stall for the chickens, 1 stall for the pygmy goats and 1 stall for the pigeons(wifes). i'll keep track of the progress and update with pics.

I love this thread! So many creative coop ideas and many are beautifully appointed.  Here is my coop. Very simple. The hens spend most of the time in the attached run. Two hens sleep in the small box with the plexi door, two silkies sleep in the nest box in the middle by the ladder, and the rest sleep on the roost in the chicken run.

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All of these sparkling clean, pristine interiors are beautiful.

But, I am done following this thread!!

I don't know how you all do it??  Poopless chickens??  Every other day I take a drywall putty knife and literally scrape off the poo from my roosts and poop boards.  Every week or two I have to scrub poo from the ceilings all down the walls.  Do you re-paint every day?? 

It is just too depressing to admire your impossibly clean coops and then head out to find poopy splatters on the walls that I just scrubbed.

Okay. I'm really stuck on the plastic nest boxes. I really liked the kitty litter box towards the beginning of the thread, but I see those are $20+ each. So now I'm thinking the Sterlite nest boxes shown would probably be about $6 each, and that's cheaper, maybe not quite as pretty as the kitty litter boxes.

I like them because they're moveable, and if they get too ick you can take them outside and hose them out.

Anyone see a negative to using plastic nesting boxes?

Sounds good but I tell ya, 5 of my big girls have been laying every day for about 35 days now in three built in wood boxes.
Nothing but a feather now and then and NEVER a poop in the boxes! Sweet!
The plastic boxes on the floor ... not one egg. They line up and wait for the wood.

I have to wonder about your chickens' poop?  Our chickens had runny sticky poop when we had a bag of Nutrena feed.  Once we switched back to Purina Layena or Purina flock raiser, their poops became firmer and lovely.  (I'm sorry but I'm a nurse and sometimes the truth is that some poops are lovely, compared to the unlovely ones )  (True, I guess I'm wallowing in poop from sun up til sun down, and then some!) ( )

Purina Layena and Flock Starter works for us.  I'm not saying it would work for everybody, but I am saying that your environment and your feed will seem to have a combination that works, vs one that doesn't.  Keep trying to tweak that nutrition until you get lovely poops.  I'm sure you can get what you want.

Our chickens' poops are more like everybody elses' turds, that is, you could pick them up with your hands or a tongs if you wanted to, they're easy to pick up with a pooper scooper, they're not wet or sticky....  the only time I have to scrub is after they've had bananas or certain fruits like grapes.  this week, DS made a cornstarch science project which the birds accidentally ate, BOY oh BOY was that sticky on the driveway!