Pix of my chicken house and their run

[RoseMarie1]

This used to be for my ducks and it actually started out to be a dog house and then found out the poor dog had to be a house dog since he couldn't stand the heat in the summer. So after that I got ducks and we added on and we added on and well you get the point.

This is the south side of the pen. This side is where their roosting area is. Then the run is toward the back where the door is there. That opens up into the run. Part of the run is covered in tin hubby got from work. They tore something down and they give several of them the tin. MEGA nice thick tin to. We just caulked the holes that was in it. I put the flashing down this side when I had the ducks. When I got baby ducks they could get through the poultry wire and plus I was worried about snakes getting the babies. The bluish thing on the roof is something I was watering the chicks in. I just put it up there with one of those roach motels under it.




the little white things stuck in the wire are dryer sheets to help (hopefully) keep away flies and skeeters. ;-)




close up of the south side. I have a table sitting inside with things I use on it. They can't stay off the thing!

Hubby made the gates for me. He's a welder.


This is the front side of the pen. I wanted part of it closed in for it to be warmer for them in the winter. So we put tin up on this side as well as the north side. The wire looking part on the front is the door. Yeah it's very wide. lol hubby made that one to. I put the little table there with the window box on it because I want to put that window box on the tin there where it's sitting but a little higher up. Want to doll it up some to make it look a little nicer.

So the table will be moved when I can get my window box put up there.

Our land goes down hill toward the pen so when it would rain it would drain through the pen. Hubby dug a ditch there right in the doorway for draining water away from the pen. I WAS going to put some gravel in it but I am always having to rake out the pine straw that keeps falling in it.


This is the two areas I have that are separate little areas. One of them is suppose to be the nesting area with an external nesting box. It will be toward the corner where the tin is, but will be in the wired area.
One of the areas is covered in tin, where the nesting area will be but the other just has a tarp over it. There is poultry wire on top of it but it was sagging so the tarp would fill up with water, so therefore the 2x4 to push it up so it wouldn't sag and fill up with water. lol I fixed them some little play areas with the PVC pipe. They LOVE sitting on the pvc pipes during the day when they are in the pen.

This is at the very end of their run on the north side. It's all covered on the top in poultry wire. You can see my stick on the back side there holding the wire from rolling back up. lol We are putting welded wire over their run to make it more secure. We ran out of 1x4's so we had to fix the stick there to hold the wire so it wouldn't try to roll back up until we can get started back on it to get it finished. There's SO MUCH to be done still. I NEED to get some wire around the bottom of it on the outside so nothing can dig into the pen.



Bee gave me the idea for the stumps in there. I still have one more I need to get put in there. Those came from us helping clean up Hattiesburg,Ms. from their tornado a few months back. Those are cedar stumps.

Another shot of the run. All the pines around it keeps the wire on the top filled with pine straw or pine needles whichever one you want to call it.



I set me up a little picnic table with chairs out here to sit with the chicks. Going to also make me a frame for a porch swing I have for out here to. I have several 4x4 posts hubby got from work on that redo they did a few years ago. All this stuff has came in SOOOOO handy! All those metal pipes I/we have on the roof of the run, came from there as well. That's what holds the wire up there from post to post.

OK that should give you an idea what my 38 chickens have to play in.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Rose, your birds are simply lovely...shiny and healthy looking! I love the new roosts too...I think you'll have more floor space and an easier time getting to that area to turn in any excess poop deposits. I can't tell about your BA because it's lying down, but it certainly looks more boy than your other BAs right now, so could be. Such a shine on all those feathers!!!

Now..I'm going to make your life a little easier and tell you that they don't need that ramp. My birds have never had a ramp up to the roosts...they just fly up! No ramp, no sleeping on the ramp. Problem solved.

Another thing...now that you have some nice flat roosting there, it would be a preventative thing to spread some sulfur powder on those roosts and some in the bottom of your nests boxes. That may help you prevent any mites that would like to crawl out and feast on your birds in the night and also place sulfur right on their tootsies, which might also keep scale mites at bay.

So fun to remodel and fluff up a coop, isn't it? It never gets old to me! I'll be doing some more things to mine soon..just little tweaks here and there. I just added an extra roost also so my juvies would stop sleeping in the nest box because of fear of the oldsters. It worked and now everyone is roosting with plenty of room to avoid one another. One of my roosts is getting worn too smooth for good balancing, so I'm placing some strips of nonskid on the roost for good gripping. My chickens have got it so good and yours are starting to look pretty pampered too!

Your deep litter in the run is looking amazing! Do you find it's less muddy now when it rains? As it builds deeper and deeper, you'll start to see the moisture wicked into the bottom layers and see some dryer, less dirty, footing underneath for rainy and snowy days. It's all pretty neat and I wish I had known about all of it many years ago when I was young and growing up with the chickens.

Adding tree limb roosts out in the run and more stumps, even some logs stacked up here and there can give them different places of being and also make for places for bugs and worms to hide out, to be exposed later when you roll the logs and stumps to one side. Much fun to watch! Your birds are so very lucky with that big run...I wish everyone who had to keep birds in runs had huge runs with different places of being in them so the birds have more diverse habitat. I think you are doing an excellent job!!!

Thank you Bee! Yes it is very fun to get it all fluffed up for them. Yep spoiled birds here indeed. I think some days when I am out there working my hinney off they're sitting over there looking at me saying, man have we got her trained or what?

I think they are molting or trying to start or something because there are loads of feathers in their roosting area every morning and you should see that run. It looks like someone has skinned a chicken in it. I scoop them up about every 2-3 days just to keep them from piling up. That way I can see really well at night time to to make sure no snakes around.

that is ......when I have to be out there shutting their back gate to the roosting area etc. Alright, will do on the sulfur dust on those boards. I don't have any nests boxes yet because none of them are laying. But got to get on that really soon to.

Oh man that WOULD be nice if I didn't have to have a ramp! It's pretty high up there, over waist high so that's why I was thinking they needed one. They're not really flying yet and wouldn't jump from the front board to the back board for some reason. I'm going to just put some cross pieces in there so they can get to the other board for now. We did one in the middle like that because the boards were only 8' long and we needed it 12' for all these chicks. Now they have PLENTY of space and will have much more when I get rid of some of these cockerels.

oh yes indeed on the less muddy. NO mud in fact at all. I have been wetting it just a little to draw more critters in there for them. Now it's VERY dry here and so mega hot so I figured that would also help to cool it for them. Not soaking it just dampening it some. We don't hardly ever have snow here. Once in a great while it might snow but not often. Oh I am so very blessed to have you teaching me how it needs to be for my chicks. Sure wish you had a Bee when you were young! But I so much appreciate all your help more than I could possibly say!
Hubby and I got the swing and it's frame moved into place under the pines this evening and I just plain out forgot to get a pic of that! I sit in it for a little while watching the chicks and then wanted to pull out all the tomato stakes so they could get in there and have at all those crickets in that pine straw around all those mator plants. I had a netting around them so they could not get in there. I moved that and before I could even get done they were in there. lol They were rooting around like lil pigs. I just love to see them scratch and root. lol They can sling some dirt. I was tossing out bad tomatoes to them and they were having a field day. The tomatoes are playing out now in this heat so they're about gone their last mile. I/we sure did enjoy them while they lasted though!

and the chicks did to. They got their share and then some.

Oh me to on wishing everyone had a run like mine. I am very blessed indeed and do wish everyone could have one this size because they just NEED their space.
Thank you again Bee for all your help. I still have that one stump in the wheel barrow I need to get out there. lol just been kind of spread thin here lately with all the canning and stuff.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Trust me on this one...those birds can fly! They can fly better right now while they are slim and young than they will be able to when they get to be fat ol' hens like me!

My roosts are always about chest height on me and I'm 5'4"...so they are about 4.5 ft and I've had some that were much higher that they fly to when they reach the regular roosts. I have had birds fly up to tree limbs that were high as my head and higher, even the fat ol' hens. They don't need ramps, especially with all that soft footing on the floor of their coops for a soft landing. If my old geriatric birds can fly up to the roosts, your young whipper snappers can!

I can't get over how pretty your birds are..all those rich colors. Right now most of mine are molting and looking about as bad as they will look for the rest of the year except the very young ones. They look snow white and soft as doves compared to the oldsters.

I really love your setup and I can't wait to see what you and the hubby have planned for nest boxes. You'll have to put the pics up when you get done.

I'm so glad you have no mud and I think you are on the right track with wetting down the bedding. Not only will it cool the birds but the bugs will be more attracted to the moist soil. As you get more litter pack in there, the thickness of the litter will hold moisture in that soil and encourage bugs and worms there, but until that happens, moistening the run is an excellent idea. My birds will lay in the damp mulch around the back porch on hot days where it's shady...it stays pretty moist there most of the time and they will camp out there to keep cool.

Wish I could send you some rain...we've had buckets of it all day!

OK will post pix of the nesting boxes.
I wound up picking a couple of them up and sitting them on the roost tonight. They had went to the corner under the others, that were on the roost and it was already dark. So they intended on staying on the ground under the others for the night. I was like no this is not going to work you will have poop all over you in the morning. lol So I got my stick and got them out of the corner because I didn't want to get pooped on crawling under there after them.

yep I saw several of them fly up there tonight but when it starts getting a little full the others act like they get a little nervous and they start pacing around trying to figure out how to get up there. There was one cockerel that tried to get up by trying to climb the fence toward the end. I mean he rammed the thing and I was like you silly bird you gonna break your neck! That's the one I finally picked up and put up there. I'm going to let him be tomorrow night though and let him figure it out on his own because I can't do that every night. One of the hens just flew right up there and I was like, see, let the girl show you how it's done.

yep no mud and it's soooo nice!
Thank you about my birds but it's all thanx to you for all your wonderful help and details on what I need to do. Yeah they love laying in that when I wet it down. Oh me to on wishing you could send us some of your rain.

It sprinkled yesterday but not enough to even get wet if you were standing out in it.

 

[Beekissed]

You ought to train those cats like you did your dog! They seem to catch on even quicker than the dogs as to what is considered prey and what is not.

 

[Beekissed]

Nah! Thank God...always thank God, my friend. He is the One from whom all blessings flow..I'm just a conduit with all this chicken stuff. In the broad scheme of the world and good things done, helping with chickens is a very small, small thing indeed.

I think if you wanted to drill some tiny holes for ventilation in your boxes it would be okay, as the conventional metal nesting units seem to have small holes for ventilation also. If the holes are small enough, there won't be any big enough for snakes.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Nah! Thank God...always thank God, my friend. He is the One from whom all blessings flow..I'm just a conduit with all this chicken stuff. In the broad scheme of the world and good things done, helping with chickens is a very small, small thing indeed.

I think if you wanted to drill some tiny holes for ventilation in your boxes it would be okay, as the conventional metal nesting units seem to have small holes for ventilation also. If the holes are small enough, there won't be any big enough for snakes.

oh yes you are SOOOOO right there on the blessing flow and believe me I DO know that. Even when I find bargains at the thrift stores that I need I always thank Him for them because I KNOW where they come from. He's just sooooo good to us when we don't even deserve it.

BUT He is ALSO using YOU to help me learn what I need to learn here to and I count that IN on my blessing. He ALWAYS provides for us especially when I am so ignorant on this subject!

 

[RoseMarie1]

That's a great idea. Some of my orps are really large and getting older. When they jump from the roost to the floor they sound like a lead balloon hitting it. I think thats a keeper. A stump or large cut from a tree would work.

Yep that Bee is a keeper for sure. She's always filled with such good ideas! Don't know WHAT I would do without her help! She's been a blessing to me and my chickens.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Rosemarie...first I want you to give your husband a big ol' hug and kiss for me because he is a GEM! What a sweetheart to do all that moving and groovin' for your chickens and for you! I simply LOVE what you all are doing here and it should be shown to the whole forum because this is what keeping chickens should be like~ instead of merely having chickens. Grow frames, a ginormous run, deep litter of the best kind, a perfect feeder...the list goes on and on, but those chickens show the results of all the excellent care they are getting. I'd be proud to have any one of those birds in my flocks for they look so vibrant, healthy and contented!

I can really see the difference in those soils...I wish others could experience this in their runs and see how well better soils resist disease, absorb water, cleanse the runs, etc.

I wish I lived next door and could help you because this is my favorite kind of projects..those that make something better, more useable, a better life for the animals or humans involved. I can't say enough good about your coop and run and the methods you are using for this new flock. You are going to be so flooded with eggs soon and chicks next spring that you won't know what to do with all that bounty! I hope you teach others around you about how to do chickens, because this is what it's all about...growing, making it better, doing it right and not waiting until you have sick and dying birds on your hands before you get around to good flock keeping.

I'm so very proud of you!

Remember...give hubby a smooch from ol' Bee!!!

LOL will do Bee. He'll love that!

Me and you are a lot alike on this making stuff better projects. I truly enjoy it to. We came to town today to get some more supplies we needed to finish the pen hopefully tomorrow. I told him I needed a 2x4 ten foot long to go on the roof inside to put their feeder on because there's no enough space between the post and the wire inside for them to go around it on one end. They'll be wanting to hop over the feeder filling it fill of DL. So I just got a board so I could have something to hang it from in there on that end. We put metal pipe on the top to hold the wire up there so you can't nail to that.
Thank you Bee for your sweet comments and

right back at cha.
So glad you are teaching us how to do all this to! It's with your help that we are and have accomplished this that's for sure!

Oh me to on you living close by! Man we'd have a blast doing all this kind of stuff. I could help you and you could help me and then we'd figure out something else we can do.

Yes me to on others learning how all this works and wish they would also do this because it really works PLUS I LOVE the fact that instead of tossing it out when a year comes, I can toss it into my garden and REALLY work that soil in that POOR garden!

It's sooooo sandy until all the nutrients and water just go right through it. I'll have to relearn how to grow something in it once the soil gets better. I wont be having to water the garden every other day and adding more fertilizer every time I turn around with this good stuff in there. I can't wait to see how well it does!

 

[RoseMarie1]

It's a good thing to just sit still and know He is God. I've been cultivating that seems like all my life as it's hard to get some time alone when you are the youngest of nine kids. Then Dad had us working every spare moment when we were homesteading, so getting time to just BE was difficult, but I knew it needed to happen for me to maintain any sanity in life. Time to think, look, take a deep breath and talk to the Lord.

When I was working my most stressful nursing jobs I'd take a moment out of the day to just shut it all out, even if it was only to go to the bathroom and stay there for awhile. I think a person can get caught up in the whirlwind of life and forget that nothing of what goes on in our regular day is as important as quiet time doing one on one with God. Ya miss that, you've missed the whole point in life!

I've tried to teach it to the boys also, so we'd often have camp fires in the yard on the weekends to just sit out and stare into the fire, talk a little, laugh a lot and just BE together without any distractions. Sometimes we'd go out in the colder months when the meteors are really falling, bundle up in down comforters, lay out in the yard and see how many we could count, talk about things, talk to God, etc.

This old world is an amazing place and I don't want to miss any of it if I can help it...and then I can compare it to when it's all made anew. Can't wait!!!

HOW did I KNOW you were going to say that?

I knew it! That's JUST what I thought about to. Several years ago we did an Experiencing God class and every week that's what I was getting out my each weeks lesson but still wasn't being still. He was TRYING to tell me something and I didn't get it. THEN a little while later I ruptured the disk in my back, guess what I was then after months of going and going and going and getting it nice and inflamed? YUP still flat on my back in bed couldn't walk for 3 months in mega mega pain. I still have fits being still if I am not doing something with my hands. When I am doing I am always praying and I go all day with a prayer on my lips but to be still, man it's hard but I still am trying to do it. I guess I'm getting better than I used to be but still not enough.
Me to on can't wait!

life will be soooo much easier and so much less stress and strife. Singing and praising oh man what a day that will be!

 

[RoseMarie1]

that's very nice!