post your chicken coop pictures here!

[plfreitag]

David you don't have to replace your hens every year unless you are eating them of course. Most will lay for several years before they stop

I thought that too until I got some Salmon Faverolles. We had 14 birds and by the middle of the second laying year we were only getting 2 to 4 eggs a day. Fortunately we found someone who wanted them as pets. Otherwise, I'd have given them to someone who wanted them for people food or for dog food. I can't keep every chicken - we don't have that kind of room, or money. As long as the people getting them aren't going to use them as fighting bird bait or something gross like that it's okay if they use them for food.

 

[plfreitag]

Hubby converted an unused corner of the carport to a coop for me. This is the front. In the winter he puts plexiglass over the screen for warmth since the wind comes up the hill we live on and right into the carport area.


This is the "overhang" section of the carport being converted to a chicken-safe outdoor area.


The overhang area, finished and populated with our first flock in 2007.


Looking in from the front door of the coop - second year...those are Turkens....very smart birds but a little too aggressive for my taste. At the very end you can see the door leading out to the "overhang" area. It's opened by a rope on the outside that goes outside the overhang door and latches onto a hook.


Bedtime! Yeah, the roo up there really liked the Silver Laced Wyandotte with the bare back. This was before I made chicken saddles for the girls. You can see the door that goes out to the run in the corner. That one is operated by a rope that is managed from just inside the coop door.


A long view of the run - 10 by 49 feet - it's all covered with a fine mesh screen now.




This is the screened in "overhang" area. It has a roof so they can be out in inclement weather. There is one more sliding door that goes from the overhang area to the run. It is operated from outside the end run door just to the left of the edge of the picture. The water pools made from the bottom of plastic barrels are just the right size for the chickens to use as wading pools in hot weather. It's a blast to watch them cooling off in the water!!!

Total area....including the run...just short of 800 sq. ft. of space.

All I asked for was a simple coop. Um....not happening with my husband!!!!

This was almost all scrap stuff from hubby's work. The screen was woven the wrong size so they let him bring it home instead of throwing it away. The wood came from packing crates (it's an international company so some of the crates are BIG.) The only thing we really paid for was the concrete for the floor of the coop and then, once the birds dug huge holes in the overhang, we put concrete in that too. It just got too dangerous in there and I kept falling in the holes. They still have the run that is dirt and they get outside when I'm home to supervise and make sure they don't get eaten by a random dog in the mood for a walking snack.

 

[Sylvester017]

Repurposed dog kennel. From this.....






To this.....

Gorgeous use of wood and colors!

We also used a 4 x 8 covered dog kennel to add more run space to the 4 x 6 coop. The 4 girls free-range the yard all day but there are times we are gone all day and don't want the hawks to get them. The kennel space will give them more coop space in lockup til we get home. We have several low-to-the-ground lean-to's for them to dive under during the day but just feel better knowing they're locked up when we're away.

 

[Sylvester017]

Lovely!! How do you like your EE? We're contemplating adding one to our flock along with a silkie.

Don't get just one Silkie if it's the only bantam. Get at least 2 so the LF don't peck on just one bantam. I have 2 Silkie hens that toodle together, and 2 LF (a calm Buff Leghorn, and a kooky sweet APA Blue Wheaten Ameraucana (somewhat related to EEs). Ameraucanas will adjust to any temperament in a flock but since they are wonderful prolific egg layers, I would keep them in a gentle tempered group of lighter weight LF. Very heavy foul (like Buff Orps, 'Lorps, Marans, RIRs, BRs etc) can get tempted to be pushy towards gentler birds like Silkies and EEs and good EE egg layers shouldn't be stressed by pushy LF. Because I have 2 gentle Silkies, I don't get any LF over 5 lbs. The 5-lb Ameraucana is as large as I dare go because she is a kooky yet gentle bird around the Silkies. The Buff Leghorn at 4.5 lbs is much calmer in temperament than the White or Brown Leghorn varieties. I understand the Red Leghorns are calmer as well (per Sandhill Preservation).

Be prepared for kooky jumpy skittish personalities in EEs or Ameraucanas yet they are the sweetest talkative pettable girls in the flock - especially if handled from chicks. They purr when you hold them, eat out of your hand, and are beautiful with muff cheeks. They love food, especially a crustaceous diet of shrimp, fish, etc, with cooked sweet potatoes and/or yams, quinoa grain, rolled oats cooked or raw, craisins, turmeric, and corn in addition to produce, fruits, and non-soy layer feed. We call our Ameraucana our "Latina from South America" because that is where her breed history originated.

Decide on dual purpose or egg-layers and then don't mix them. Egg layers are easily stressed and stress affects their egg production and dual purpose birds can get pushy toward smaller or gentler egg-laying breeds. I speak from experience of a small 5-bird flock. Took a lot of hit and miss to come up with good breeds to mix in our small yard and huge dual purpose are useless egg layers unless you are using them for meat eventually - otherwise they cause a high feed bill regardless of how much they forage. I don't mind feeding the egg layers because you get up to 6 eggs per week from them - that's what I get w/ the Buff Leg and Ameraucana plus they don't go broody. The Silkies are good sized egg producers from 5-6 eggs each per week but they go broody so often that it cuts into their output production. But they are darn cute to have around and real attention-getters!

Sexlinks with high egg production are spent by age 2 and often have reproductive issues like very huge eggs, prolapse, eggbound, etc. My egg seller friend stopped using them. She lost 2 out of 3 Sexlinks pullets to laying reproductive issues.

Just sharing what we've gone through. Hope the info helps - Smiles

 

[Sylvester017]

My ultra-tiny tractor. Just one hennie in here. We have a TINY front yard, and it's all WEEDS, so we're letting her rip the crap out of one section at a time, moving her, then seeding behind her. Clucker Landscaping! (1-800-BUK-BAWK) Waffles On Duty. The lamps on top do light.

She's still getting used to her new roost -
she likes instead to sit on the edge of the nest box








This just cracks us up. Clucker Landscaping has its own security.
Big Black (a neighborhood tom) just comes by and hangs out with Waffles.
Doesn't bother her at all, he just keeps an eye on her.
​

Have you ever considered a flockmate for Hennie? Chickens are flock birds and 2 girls will really clean up your grass LOL

 

[Sylvester017]

Thanks for your response, ChickenFever. I'm surprised to hear that foxes can get into open-top runs. Clearly, I still have a lot to learn. We don't have coyotes where I live, but we have plenty of foxes, so I do want to be prepared for them. The hardware cloth is almost 4 ft high, with about 6-8 inches buried under ground and a brick ring around the bottom.. so I doubt anything will be able to dig underneath.. I was honestly only concerned about keeping chickens in and hawks out of the top, but maybe that was naive of me..

A lot of people have lost their birds to naiveness or moreso not enough knowledge about the cunningness of predators. That's why I love BYC for the education.

We have chainlink fencing but that's because we are in a city neighborhood. In about a year we're saving up to put in block wall fencing with some privacy top boards. That will keep the hens from spooking at the sight of unexpected wind flapping and stray neighborhood cats in the neighboring yards.

My daughter has to have iron bar fencing around her forested property because she gets Bobcats, Mountain Lions, occasionally a bear, Coyotes, Opossums, Raccoons, stray neighbor dogs, Hawks, Rattlesnakes, and I'm sure some predators I've forgotten. Chickens aren't fussy about their digs but they will love you for protecting them. My daughter has a guard dog but has resorted to penning her up away from the field snakes. She's been bitten twice already and the vet visits are expensive. So much for protection when there are snakes to battle.

I agree that bird-netting is less of an eyesore but it barely keeps the Sparrows out of my garden. I have to use hard-cloth wiring if I want something sturdy that doesn't fall apart in the wind. The Hummingbirds are angry at me for cutting them off from the vegetable garden blossoms but they can just go use the Hummie feeder in the yard LOL

 

[Sylvester017]

Wow there are some luxurious COUPS on here!!! Mine is boring, but it works. It is a 12 x 12 cottage divided into duck and chicken coups. The chickens have two thirds of the space.

I just recycled some old shelves and made some nest boxes today. And I boxed up the high nesting area, so eggs don't roll. My girls like hay to nest in, so I filled them up.

I recycled a shovel handle and a 2x4 and made roosts running perpendicular to the lower nest boxes.

Then I made the separate access door with a ramp.

Lastly I put a vintage door on the outside, which I didn't get a picture of.

I'm *expecting* young-uns in a few weeks, but they won't be ready for the coup for a long time. Still I feel better knowing the space is there.

Hi - appreciate your great use of materials. Our coop had a skinny ramp leading up to the nestboxes and the chickens kept knocking it down. We have a heavier and wider one we made. We are thinking to just lean it up against the nestbox ledge without hingeing it or nailing it. Is your ramp just loosely leaning on the entrance door or do you have it nailed, screwed, or hinged on? We were thinking of putting a cinder-block at the bottom of the ramp on the ground to anchor the ramp from sliding off the nestbox ledge. We bought hinges and screws to hinge it to the nestbox platform but then we won't be able to remove the ramp at cleaning time and it would be in the way if we can't remove it from the small coop. We're hoping the cinder-block idea will work since it is so heavy. Any ideas appreciated - Smiles

 

[Sylvester017]

Yep. We coax them with a fist full of meal worms. They are very easy to round up. We only let them free range when were home. Trying to keep the hawks from getting our girls. We let the free range in the am and pm unless were off and then it's almost all day.

Letting chickens free-range only when you're home doesn't keep the hawks away. We have a Cooper's Hawk that isn't afraid of anything. We'll be in the yard and he/she has the gall to sit on my fence 5 feet away and eye my girls and me! We have a sliding back door to watch the girls but we wouldn't be quick enough to run out to stop a swooping hawk. What we had to do to give the free-ranging girls protection and cover (chickens aren't dumb - they see the Hawk too) so we built 2 lean-to's low to the ground for the girls to dive under. We're setting up a 3rd this weekend. The girls like to be close to buildings or fences so all the lean-to's are up against the fences and one wall of a building. Sometimes they use my garden wheelbarrow to snooze underneath for protection. I had an Adirondack Rocker in the middle of the yard for them but they prefer the outlying perimeters for security. My wheelbarrow is against the fence so they use that - will have to move the old Adirondack next to the fence and I bet they'll start using the old Rocker. My chickens liked sitting under a climbing rose bush against the fence so we will be planting a couple of those again as the old bush finally died after 25 years! We have a popup canopy with its legs anchored down into the soil about a foot deep and the chickens like to graze under its shade but for security they prefer the low lean-to's.

 

[Sylvester017]

To get our chickens into the coop we wave our arms and say "shoo, shoo" softly and they meander into the coop with us behind them herding them. They know the arm and voice signals very well now. We give them a raisin treat each once they all get into the coop. They know the sound of the gardener's mower and instantly start heading for the coop on their own. Chickens are creatures of habit and soon learn the "rules" of the house. After a while they can learn simple hand signals from you. When we feed a Silkie, and to keep the LF from crowding in, we lift a pinky finger and the LF know to wait until they hear their name to get THEIR hand-fed treat. It's not instantly learned but if they want their treat they will learn the rules and their names real fast.

 

[Sylvester017]

Here is an update on my Chicken Palace.

Got some used metal from a friend for the roof.


After getting the roofing done I started on the baton strips and window trim. All the rough lumber was obtained from a local lumber yard.


Time for some stain and what a difference it made. I hade 11 gallons left from the last time we refinished the house and man did it fit.


Got an old nesting box from my sister. It needed some work but for free and a couple cans of spray paint I think it's a beauty. You can also see part of the roosting bars, I used some saplings from around the coop for a natural feel.


All I have left is to cover their run and put a couple steps in.

Good luck getting the eggs and nesting broodies out from under the coop when it comes time LOL