Have the chickens, now I need a coop. Please help!!!

[FunClucks]

Here in the Steamy Southeast they'd really have to work at it to get frostbite in a well-ventilated coop.

My queens (the SLWs, Victoria and Maria Theresa), are the ones who roost up next to the vent. During the two coldest nights this winter one of them decided to go use a lower roost. The other conceded to move about 3-4 feet up the diagonal brace in order to not be right up *against* the vent.

No frostbite in my open air coop this winter. I *thought* that Rameses might have gotten his comb nipped, but the purple color went away in less than 2 weeks with no sign of any permanent damage.

Those hens are hilarious!

My Production Red rooster Speckle lost three comb points to frostbite when we went from 50F one day to -9F that night. I feel bad about it, but there's only so much I can do. The last time we got negative temperatures where I live was 30+ years ago or something like that. No one lost toes or wattles, and I had less than a day to prepare, so I'm calling it a win. Speckle has/had a 3" tall single comb and 2-3" wattles, and has had periodic purpleness to his comb, so I know his circulation there isn't/wasn't the best to start with. As far as frostbite injuries go, it was pretty minor, all things considered.

 

[FunClucks]

I was thinking of hanging the buckets but you correctly pointed out that the hoop coop is not load bearing. I was going to put the feeder and waterer on cement blocks, but perhaps a slightly taut bungee attached to the hoop could stabilize them a little.

Or you could use the type of wire that folks use to secure chain link fabric to chain link posts. That stuff is easy to bend by hand, pretty durable, and has a load rating. If you're securing from the ceiling, some of that wire tied to your hoop coop with a carabiner on the bottom end to hook your bucket to might be convenient. Since I have vertical 1" steel posts at the sides of my runs (like chain link top rail), I set my buckets next to those, and tie them to the posts with rope or bungies.

 

[Vadard]

I have 8 baby chicks, maybe a week or two old (got them from Rural King right after birth). I had a pre-fab coop with run picked out, and was planning on adding another big run to give me 80 ft of ground space, but reading on here realized that there wouldn't be enough space in the coop area for 8 chickens to roost. I am needing suggestions on what kind of coop to build/modify/cobble together. I'm a totally new chicken owner, and sort of good with building things, but it usually takes much more time than I have available while managing small children, hence the attempt to purchase a pre-fab coop. The rejected coop: https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/precision-xl-superior-construction-annex-coop-37077d

Would you recommend I try to convert a metal shed? Maybe this one?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Arrow-N...yQqEnNl8mMhL1QkcTcxoCL_0QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I am in north Alabama, where it is super humid almost all year, maybe we get a few low humidity months in the spring and fall, land of tornadoes, maybe 3 days of snow a year, but usually a month or two of below freezing temperatures. We barely have enough cold time to grow apples. I have about 1/2 acre semi-wooded fenced back yard (chain link), with a stream about 20 feet outside my fence line and vertically down 6 ft. Almost all the trees are 40-50 yr old sweet gum, with one black walnut right next to where I plan to put the coop and run. Issues with poison ivy, issues with ticks and fleas, red hawks, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, neighborhood cats, opossum, water snakes (water moccasin, cottonmounth, rattlers), king snakes, squirrels, song birds, mosquitoes. The proposed coop area gets moderate to heavy shade most of the year (when the leaves are on the trees), and on the worst months the yard is very hot and humid, and the air doesn't move much. We have mainly weeds, violets, and rye grass in the yard at the moment, due to the shade, and lots of tree roots. Heavy clay soil that dries like concrete, and some type of sad grass that looks sorta like Bermuda. Termites are bad here, and there's lots of rotting wood on the other side of my fence and stumps on my property.

For the coop I'm worried about ventilation, poop smell, and keeping the birds safe from predators, as well as having enough space for them and for me to clean it out. There will probably be a number of days they have to stay in their coop instead of their run, for various reasons (weather, etc), and I expect I won't be around during the day most days to check on them when I let them out - they'll get a morning and an evening check. I plan to possibly free range them with supervision, but may not if the run is large enough due to the constant presence of hawks.

The area I have to build the coop and run in is 24' x 48', but I I'd like to enclose 80-100 square feet, and locate a number of pallet hot compost piles nearby. I was hoping to do the deep bedding method, but not sure how successful that would be at keeping smell down in humid alabama.

For the run, should I attempt to build something with 2"x4" and 1/2" hardware cloth, or purchase one of these the chicken runs on Amazon, etc. and cover it with hardware cloth?

I have access to free pallets, but I haven't found anything else I can repurpose, so would have to buy new. Untreated wood, unsealed wood, and unpainted wood is a very bad idea here, so I'd have to do something to every wood surface, if I go that direction.

Any and all suggestions would be welcome.

Hoop coops are hard to beat in terms of meeting chickens’ basic needs while being secure and relatively human friendly — especially in warm climates. Google for a thousand different variations. Cheap, fast, easy to build, and good enough for most applications.

 

[fuzzi]

Or you could use the type of wire that folks use to secure chain link fabric to chain link posts. That stuff is easy to bend by hand, pretty durable, and has a load rating. If you're securing from the ceiling, some of that wire tied to your hoop coop with a carabiner on the bottom end to hook your bucket to might be convenient. Since I have vertical 1" steel posts at the sides of my runs (like chain link top rail), I set my buckets next to those, and tie them to the posts with rope or bungies.

I don't have any vertical supports, none at all, so I'm not sure hanging from the hoop a bucket weighing 30+ lbs is a good idea.

 

[FunClucks]

I don't have any vertical supports, none at all, so I'm not sure hanging from the hoop a bucket weighing 30+ lbs is a good idea.

Yea, I wouldn't do that. Cinderblocks it is! If you worry about things tipping over, might put in a metal fence post (like the green T-posts - pretty fast and cheap, you just shove it in the ground), and tie the bucket to that.

 

[fuzzi]

Yea, I wouldn't do that. Cinderblocks it is! If you worry about things tipping over, might put in a metal fence post (like the green T-posts - pretty fast and cheap, you just shove it in the ground), and tie the bucket to that.

Sliding the bucket handle over a post might work, too. I have some short T-posts that are about 3'.

 

[3KillerBs]

Those hens are hilarious!

My Production Red rooster Speckle lost three comb points to frostbite when we went from 50F one day to -9F that night. I feel bad about it, but there's only so much I can do. The last time we got negative temperatures where I live was 30+ years ago or something like that. No one lost toes or wattles, and I had less than a day to prepare, so I'm calling it a win. Speckle has/had a 3" tall single comb and 2-3" wattles, and has had periodic purpleness to his comb, so I know his circulation there isn't/wasn't the best to start with. As far as frostbite injuries go, it was pretty minor, all things considered.

The queens are irked with me right now because I've moved all the non-Australorps whose eggs I can't tell from Australorp eggs to Camp Cockerel for a few days so that I can set a pure Australorp hatch tomorrow.

They have to roost on the common roost with everyone else and they're NOT happy about it.

I suppose I shouldn't have named them for queens.

 

[Jackisews]

How would I attach the hardware cloth to the metal? For both the apron and the ventilation I plan to put on the coop sides and eves? All I can think of is metal zip ties, and that could get pricey cause I'd need a lot of them. I was thinking of pine shavings bedding.

We used hog nose rings to attach the hardware cloth to the metal wire of the coop.