Hello! I am back and upgraded our coop!

[Hedgeland Farms]

We have a quite a few posters here who answer straight and to the point, and don't see the need to sugarcoat everything. I think you will find that a lot of them are our most knowledgeable and well respected members.

I think your line of thinking is fair and correct. I know there are several respected members here and l listen (or read) every bit of advice I can find from several ...
@3KillerBs and @rosemarythyme are two that I highly appreciate!

Both have made helpful comments on mine as well as others threads that have helped me.

 

[Hollysaurus]

Oh gosh, I believe it was super expensive!! It looks fabulous! Heck my coop is some roosts and some nesting boxes lol. Nothing fancy, no room for food...its got floor space (8x8) but heck they just don't use it!

I started by looking at the prefabs...my hubby insisted the amount they can hold was correct...I insisted otherwise. We built a 4x8 first, and still yet too small...then added on to make an 8x8 lol...I wanna do one more add on and make it 12x8 but alas he said NO MORE bahahaha...

I am glad locking them in has worked!!! Many suggest that, and without this forum, I wouldn't have known abt that option!

Honest, so much good info here!!! I am addicted to reading and learning abt my chickens, your chickens, everyone chickens bahahaha

Haha! Sounds like my husband. We will end up buying land to build our own house eventually and I will definitely get a much bigger coop built in future. We currently live in city limits, so unfortunately our back garden is not massive so we don't have the room to extend our coop anymore but it will do for now!

100%, A lot of good information here, a few things here helped me but I also get information from my mother in law since she's had chickens for about 17+ years.

She's the one who turned me into a chicken lady!

 

[Ponypoor]

Aww bless, I want horses one day! Owned them before back in the UK. I had a Friesian and Cob mix, called her Ebony.

Thank you so much for sharing your chickies! I really love silkies, I'm tempted to get one myself, but I have a few others in mind I also want, don't want to get too many though and be back to square one. I would love a cochin bantam or a sapphire gem, welsummers are pretty too, so many to choose from!

I have 13 and that’s a full house for me.

 

[Ponypoor]

Haha! Sounds like my husband. We will end up buying land to build our own house eventually and I will definitely get a much bigger coop built in future. We currently live in city limits, so unfortunately our back garden is not massive so we don't have the room to extend our coop anymore but it will do for now!

100%, A lot of good information here, a few things here helped me but I also get information from my mother in law since she's had chickens for about 17+ years.

She's the one who turned me into a chicken lady!

If I had known how much fun chickens where I would have got rid of the horses long ago!

Would have had more money and less injuries!

 

[Ponypoor]

Aww bless, I want horses one day! Owned them before back in the UK. I had a Friesian and Cob mix, called her Ebony.

Thank you so much for sharing your chickies! I really love silkies, I'm tempted to get one myself, but I have a few others in mind I also want, don't want to get too many though and be back to square one. I would love a cochin bantam or a sapphire gem, welsummers are pretty too, so many to choose from!

Friesland are lovely horses, not many around here but we do have Canadians which are a light draft breed all black. Like little Percheron.

 

[Ponypoor]

Aww bless, I want horses one day! Owned them before back in the UK. I had a Friesian and Cob mix, called her Ebony.

Thank you so much for sharing your chickies! I really love silkies, I'm tempted to get one myself, but I have a few others in mind I also want, don't want to get too many though and be back to square one. I would love a cochin bantam or a sapphire gem, welsummers are pretty too, so many to choose from!

You may wish to also check out Fluffy Butt Acres, Bob has great advice also

Thread 'Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock'
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/fluffy-butt-acres-stories-of-our-flock.1286630/

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

This looks great! Might nab this idea when we change things about! Loving your nesting boxes too!

thank you. I tried plastic crates but my birds are large and they sit sideways in the nest, so hubby built these with scrap wood. I took the round hole idea from @aart ( along with a ton of other ideas ) and my birds no longer kick out the straw.
I lined those poop boards with linoleum that was discontinued so it was super super cheap. If it extends the life of the nest box top/poop board base then the $7 I paid was well spent.

 

[jeffdbg]

A lot of hard work, well done. Your chickens will appreciate the new setup.

 

[LittleMamaBigPapa]

.

Ventilation? I have 2 large windows. Also we need a heat lamp here, it gets down to about 5F at night, can’t think everything is a fire risk. If it’s done right you won’t have any issues. My husband has had an emu for 10 years and has had two heat lamps in his shed with no issues.

Well, regarding heat sources, frost bite is a very real threat. I’ve had chickens for 14 years and the very first year, we used heat and our beautiful rooster’s comb got frost bite. It’s a fact that heat raises humidity and humidity with extreme cold causes frost bite. We removed heat and haven’t had any issues since. We’re in Nebraska and it gets extremely cold here. People in Alaska keep chickens without heat.

 

[The loud girls keeper]

Hello!
I previously posted on the New Member Introductions, I was told the coop I had for our 4 chicken was too small, especially when winter creeps in and they'll most likely spend time inside! I had a tractor supply chicken coop, one of those that says it's for 6 chickens when it's clearly for about...2.

Pervious post! https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/hello-excited-to-learn.1540029/

We have a flock of 4 chickens! Maple who is our Ameraucana, Aspen our Silver Wyandotte, Magnolia our Light Brahma and Hazel our Rhode Island Red!

I think the coop we built is a little big for a flock of 4, but just in case in future we decide to get another 2 or 3 we thought we'd go big!

We have two big windows, you can see one in the photo, the other is on the left side, Run isn't that big because they have the run of the garden during the day, we only added a run just incase they need to be locked up, for example we'll be having house renovations happening soon, garden fence being changed and the residing of our house etc so we will need to lock them up when that is happening.

Inside the coop we have 6 nesting boxes, 2 areas to roost from and we have a heat lamp we just put in because Idaho is planning to have a very cold winter, I will also put extra bedding in when that weather creeps in! If you have any tips to help with the cold please let me know! ♥ I don't want my girls getting cold!

Hope I did a good upgrade! Please let me know any feedback! We had a lot of help in knowing what to do from my husbands mother, she's had a coop and 10-15 chickens for about 17 years!

Edit: Thought I would add that it does have a door. I forgot the outside photos were taken when we hadn't finished it!

Hi…. I’m no expert but I have two thoughts to your coop
and run……On the coop,I think you’d love it if you made an
access panel on the back of your nesting boxes, that way you
can get the eggs without going inside…
I have a similar run and I’ve had plexiglass pieces cut for each section…..installed just in the winter, keeps snow out and when
the sun is out, they get a little heat