Starting my N. Idaho flock!!

Hey y'all! My name is Dan and I would like to introduce myself.

I've been interested in keeping chickens for over a year or so but living in south Florida did not lend itself to the "lifestyle". So my wife and I decided to move to north Idaho. And shortly thereafter our chicken experience began.

I had a tight budget for the coop, only $100!!! So I decided to build the coop out of reclaimed materials. I started with 6 pallets, non pressure treated, some tin roofing and siding. A few days later the coop was complete for 8 bucks!!!!

Enter the chickens. We ordered red stars from murray mcmurray and couldn't be happier! They are a blast to watch and care for! About 7 weeks old and looking forward to some home grown eggs!

Welcome to BYC!!! I can't believe you built it for 8 bucks! Can you ost a picture of your coop and chicks? If you have any general questions about caring for the chicks or adult chickens, go read up on the learning center if you haven't already. Great to have you on BYC,

SwedishDude99 said:

Welcome to BYC!!! I can't believe you built it for 8 bucks! Can you ost a picture of your coop and chicks? If you have any general questions about caring for the chicks or adult chickens, go read up on the learning center if you haven't already. Great to have you on BYC,

Click to expand...

Thank you! We went from a county in Florida with 1.5 million to an entire state with only 1.5 million!!

So the coop has two nesting boxes and two roosting bars, a cool little ladder and 4 vents. Two facing east/west and two facing north/south. The pop door locks from the inside and has a string pulley system to lift the pop door.
The coop was all free but I had to buy the locks hinges and hardware. Total 8 bucks! The run was only 60 dollars and that was just for wire.

Total for the whole flock and housing is at 118 dollars!!! Crazy! And we plan on adding more red stars.

Alright Dan, great to have you joining the BYC flock




BYC has a very useful learning center





For $8 dollars very well dune



You live in Idaho and I am sure raw wood products are available to you and a chainsaw would help too for down the road you are going to want to re-enforce your run area with sturdy post as it looks like you are out in the wood's and predators are a looking for a meal and as we all know chicken taste good .....



You might want to find out about all the predators in your area before you find out the hard way ,,, I might recommend post for the corners and wire in the ground and some stronger wire down the road as chicken wire is designed to keep chickens in not really keeping predators out but a really great job for $ 8 dollars




The zip ties are great for now but as you know the sun will brake it plastic down this summer do you have any old wire around and years ago bailing wire was used to hold straw bails together but for sometime now they have been using twine and what useless stuff that is for the farm but you can weave some wire between the separate rolls of chicken wire to hold them together longer ...




You could make your own split stuff just need an ax and wedges I know as kids we made hog pens from the materials around the area ...




Keep us updated on your poultry ventures











gander007

Yeah predators are a concern, and the coop itself is like Alcatraz . But my run has some hidden reinforcements, I dug a trench and buried wire.

Predators in the area include raccoons, weasels, coyote, hawks, and some stray cats.

I have motion sensor lights for now and the way I see it is that thieves don't like light and stick to the dark. My motion lights are very sensitive and should work pretty good. I also am investing in some other predator thwarting ideas here pretty soon.

I'm glad to have found BYC! It's been so helpful in getting things going! Some real bad info floating around, but not here!

Welcome to BYC!

Nothing wrong with working with materials you have on hand to build the coop! The only thing I think you need to work on is that chicken wire. Very flimsy wire and can be chewed, climbed or slithered thru very easily by many predators. And it looks like anything can dig right under it too. So I would work on securing the bottoms and edges of the run and use hardware cloth only. You might bury some railroad ties along the perimeter and and use 1/2 inch hardware cloth all around so nothing can dig or enter.

Enjoy your new flock and welcome to ours!

Hello and Welcome To BYC! Nice use of reclaimed material for making your coop!

Yeah, I dug in some wire and made a skirt for the run. Thanks for the advice!