Hidden Forest Coop

[ChookRanger]

Congratulations.

 

[m80fierro]

Egg production has doubled today! My Barred Rock has been visiting the nest box about the same time every day for a few days and finally today she left something behind.
It was a very light brown (almost white) but I'm guessing they'll start to darken up as she starts laying more.

As a side node, the pet turf in the nesting boxes is doing great so far. The chickens don't seem opposed to laying on artificial grass, there is no poop in the nests, no straw tracked into the sand area of the coop and the eggs are perfectly clean.

So, how long have you had the artificial grass in the nest boxes? That's amazing that there is no droppings in the nests. I might have to give that a try.
thanks for sharing.

 

[Jetpad]

I've had the nests blocked off until about a month and a half ago (with the turf in them) and my first layer only started two weeks ago. Only thing I've had to do to the nest pads is shake them out a little to get the chicken dust off of them.

 

[lightchick]

Sweet! Maybe I should try it in my nest boxes.....

 

[Jetpad]

I noticed the top right nesting box in my coop wasn't being used. I don't think think that any of the chickens have even gone in the box before. To test that out, I put a couple pieces of corn in it and after weeks, the corn is still there. It's the nest box that someone a while back commented that it probably needed a perch so the they can check out the insides before hopping into it. I mounted it a little lower than their normal roost so hopefully they it won't favor it as a roost. I don't know if this'll fix the problem. It may also be the lower ceiling in this part of the coop that they don't like.

 

[Jetpad]

It's now a year later and this nest has turned out to be their favorite nest now. 90% of the time, the eggs are in this one.

And the astro-turf liners for the nests have been great. I shake out the turf every month or two and have only had one broken egg which I think was because it got laid as the chicken was entering or exiting the nest. Having sand in the area before the nests is doing a good job of keeping their feet clean before getting in the nests and I never have to manage hay or litter for the nesting area. But I'm also keeping the sand-box litter area scooped on just about a daily basis so it isn't totally work-free but that takes less than a minute.

The main thing I was originally worried about is the chickens pecking apart the plastic of the turf and eating it and that has not turned out to be an issue. They've left it alone.

 

[aart]

I was just thinking about this coop the other day......wondered how your water made it thru last winter?

 

[Hamad A A N]

Nice

 

[Jetpad]

The watering system worked perfectly this year. No freezing up. I only had to fill the tank up maybe three times during the cold. They don't seem to drink nearly as much during the winter. The one thing I did have to do was make some changes to protect the insulation on the tank. They were eating it.

 

[Kaylin]

I love it! I used the garden coop plan also but didn't expand it like you did. Now I'm wishing I had. I did put on an external nest box (an old modified kitchen cupboard that fit perfectly). I love what you did with yours but I was worried that you would have it camouflaged so well that when the neighbors did spot it, they would think it was something much worse than a chicken coop, lol.