Hello! I am back and upgraded our coop!

[Amalthea666]

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!

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!

Just wanna say, I love what you've done!! It is a Castle!!
I have 2 Ducks (a female Muscovy and a male Mallard x Saxony). Their place I have named Hotel De Ducko. It's Unique.
my neighbours have chickens and all they have is some dirt, some food, drink and a tiny little chicken coop. Each to their own!

 

[Chickenlove99]

Dowels are fine to use, my mother in law has had chickens for 17 years with no issues lol, and they’re the perfect height off the ground for them to jump onto.

Not to be rude, but most forums like these you can have the most perfect coop but someone will still try to say something is wrong.

I don’t mind feedback but I mean, dowels are never an issue, wild chickens nest on tree branches. Keeping them out of nests? Why would I keep them out the nests? My chickens have always slept in their nests, they haven’t been able to roost until now since the tiny coop I had before.

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.

We get snow but we also take care of our chickens, I wouldn’t mind getting up to shovel snow if it got into their run.

I think this new coop we’ve made is a castle compare to the store bought coop and I think our chickens are going to love it.

Then why do you ask feedback if you reject it all?

 

[The Tiny Homestead]

I would like to hear about your heated stand for the water. That's my task for this winter--keeping the water thawed. Thanks!

For a while I just kept bringing the water in at night, but it finally got too cold, so I bought one of the heated bases for the metal water fount I use, then made a small wooden base to put that on to get it all a little higher off the ground. It has a thermostat so it only comes on when the temperature approaches freezing. Worked well all last winter, and I plugged it in again a few weeks ago, since we started getting so nights in low 30s and even a few in high 20s.8

 

[aynesidea]

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!

There is no such thing as a coop that is too big, remember chicken math!

 

[soccrmum]

Can someone let me know how I can get a chicken coop window that has hard wire already?