post your chicken coop pictures here!

[jtbass2756]

wanted to do an A-frame with the playground that my grands have grown out of ..Thought it would be so much more cost effective.,already had the great framework..just needed to "fill it in" and wire it. But,,,,,,,,,working on another coop, probably 3 months late...more expensive....bigger and better but ..."3mo behind the pullets who are passed being ready for their expansion! LOLOL

 

[Jennifer319]

WOW love it!!!!! Will yours hold up to 10 chickens? Is there a reason for the two separate? I think I assumed they would all live together. Jennifer

 

[bruceha2000]

.

My chickens finally moved in today!!! I am so happy with my coop and proud I my husband because this was the first thing he has ever built!! The chicken are happy with it too!!

He did a great job and now has a taste for building. Oh, you are in SO much trouble! I see many new power tools in your husband's future

Actually, that is how I got many of mine. My step-father gave us a table saw as a wedding present 24 years ago since we were going to rehab a house. Wife was fine with that gift - what a woman! We bought cherry cabinets but I made all the door and window trim from rough cherry. Would have cost a bundle to buy it pre-made, doing it myself more than paid for the tools and the wood, in fact LESS than painted pine with any sort of profile. Instead, we have beautiful natural cherry with interior window sills wide enough for cats to sit on

Aluminium coated polyurethane is my favorite. 30mm insulates about as well as 100mm of rock wool. And it's rigid too. Although to my understanding, rock wool is more resistant to the ammonium that the little cluckers produce. Another downside of using Al coated insulation in houses, is that I get no reception further than a foot from the windows. Full bars of LTE network on the outside. Doesn't bother the chickens though, they have not complained about bad cell reception.

If the rock wool you have there is the same stuff they used to use here, ITCH ITCH ITCH. We had that in the attic of the house we redid. Fibrerglass feels like satin compared to it!
The girls aren't complaining about the bad reception because they are embarrassed to tell you they forgot to renew their contract

A question regarding the early mornings... Why do people feel the need to let their livestock out at ungodly hours? I've always found that most animals can be conditioned to living with a rhythm you find more suitable yourself. I open the coop around 9 in the morning and close it around midnight.

In my case, the people in charge are not very predictable time wise. The coop is in a barn and the photo sensor opens the coop at daylight. They have to 'suffer' hanging around in the barn alley and all the other areas (nothing but the 10 chickens in there) until someone opens the door to the barn so they can go outside. They generally choose to hang there when there is snow on the ground anyway and that is at least 3 months of the year. The photosensor closes the chicken door when it is so dark I can barely see (wouldn't mind if it were earlier) but the girls have put themselves on the roosts at least an hour earlier.

We originally got the PulletShut door last May when no one lived at the house because half of it was being totally rebuilt. My wife was having to drive the 25 miles every morning to open the coop and I would come by after (paid) work to work on the part of the house that wasn't totally gutted and close them in before heading to the other house. The auto door more than paid for itself in gas alone. There was no power to the barn during that time so I ran it on two 6V lantern batteries wired in series to get 12V. A pair lasts about 6 months so the door doesn't use much electricity and no question of problems during a power failure.

Do you have a source connection for these?

You can find the solar vents at any boat store/chandlery. They make some that are solar and have a battery so they can run day and night. They can get pretty expensive. I looked on Amazon and they don't have great reviews. Might be better to make something yourself with a vent fan, battery and solar panel.

I have to say, while the chickens are pretty cute, it's not enough for me to let them into the house. I prefer to keep the couch free of fecal matter. Our landraces tend to come stand in front of the back door and stare in through the glass, and they've never even been inside the house. A bit of a hypocritical stance for me to take, since somehow the dogs have managed to weasel themselves into sleeping in the bed. How that happened, I know not. But they are the last ones to get up in the morning usually.

Some of our chickens came up on the deck and looked in the door ONCE. They saw the cat on the inside getting all agitated over them. Never did it again!

Dogs are a LOT easier to house train than a chicken. I think that might be one big reason why you let the dogs in and not the chickens.

Need some advice asap.....here is what I've got so far...I really wanted it raised but since its all free and someone is building it for me....beggers can't be choosy !! Now, My thought at this moment is to put a layer of 1/4" hardware wiring across the floor area, then put down plywood, then a vinyl covering...can someone advise me of the details of what I'm doing? like how high should I bring it up the side, etc. here is what I've gotten so far....

There is no need to put hardware cloth over the joists since you will have a solid wood floor. If a predator is going to chew through a sheet of plywood, it wouldn't be slowed down by hardware cloth. Use 1/2" hardware cloth where it is needed. 1/2" is usually 19 gauge wire, 1/4" is 23 gauge. With wire, the SMALLER the number the thicker the wire. So the 1/2" is stronger and nothing that is going to kill your birds can get through a 1/2" square opening. 1/4" would only be useful for ventilation that excludes larger bugs or sifting garden dirt to get out small rocks.

Indoor pic of the crazy ladies enjoying their digs!

-elesandchickens

Looks like you need to hang the feeder! The chicken eating out of the top is showing you what height the tray should be

In general, a feeder hung with the tray about head high will be easy for them to reach and a lot cleaner since they won't be tossing shavings in as they scratch around on the floor.

Might even close off a couple until all the ladies start laying.

I would suggest you close them all off until the girls start laying. You don't want them to say "Hey, nice place to sleep" before their instincts tell them what is it REALLY for.

When we moved in , all of my surrounding neighbors told me they lost all their chickens within 2 weeks of getting them to fox, and coyote. I went a little nutty on the run. I also buried galvanized 1 x 1 underneath the run. So far, 2 years later, still have not lost one to a predator, but not fooling myself either, I know the day will come as they do free range during the day I have trained my LSGD to run along with the hawks when I tell him to "look up" and I finally saw him do it on his own the other day . We can't always be out with them, but I do leave the dog out if they are out.

Nice setup! It is great when one has enough space that the coop can be in a big run under cover.

 

[vehve]

@bruceha2000 Whow, loads of stuff to reply to.

Yeah, the insulation is a bit annoying when you're sawing a hole in the wall and accidentally have all of the powdered stuff go in through you collar.

I keep strict discipline, and feel that the girls are still too young for their own mobile phones. They can borrow mine when necessary.

I see no problem with a automatic door opening up early, I just don't like getting up at 4 to open the coop.

The girls had a dachshund and two labradors 20 cm from them, barking like crazy on the other side of the glass. They were just giving them the "I am a chicken and totally clueless with my head turned slightly to the side" look that chickens like to make. I wish they would stay off the deck, it's a pain to clean after them.

I agree, puppies are a lot easier. Usually we can have a puppy house trained by the age of ten to twelve weeks.

 

[Melabella]

Nice setup! It is great when one has enough space that the coop can be in a big run under cover.

Thank you! I think if I had to do it over again, I would put the coop outside the run, my neighbors had me convinced that something would be able to get into it. I just think it would be nice to have full use of the entire run. They do go under the coop to dust, I put my fireplace ashes and some PDZ under there every now and then.

MB

 

[kaseythomas86]

He did a great job and now has a taste for building. Oh, you are in SO much trouble! I see many new power tools in your husband's future 

Actually, that is how I got many of mine. My step-father gave us a table saw as a wedding present 24 years ago since we were going to rehab a house. Wife was fine with that gift - what a woman! We bought cherry cabinets but I made all the door and window trim from rough cherry. Would have cost a bundle to buy it pre-made, doing it myself more than paid for the tools and the wood, in fact LESS than painted pine with any sort of profile. Instead, we have beautiful natural cherry with interior window sills wide enough for cats to sit on   


If the rock wool you have there is the same stuff they used to use here, ITCH ITCH ITCH. We had that in the attic of the house we redid. Fibrerglass feels like satin compared to it!
The girls aren't complaining about the bad reception because they are embarrassed to tell you they forgot to renew their contract 



In my case, the people in charge are not very predictable time wise. The coop is in a barn and the photo sensor opens the coop at daylight. They have to 'suffer' hanging around in the barn alley and all the other areas (nothing but the 10 chickens in there) until someone opens the door to the barn so they can go outside. They generally choose to hang there when there is snow on the ground anyway and that is at least 3 months of the year. The photosensor closes the chicken door when it is so dark I can barely see (wouldn't mind if it were earlier) but the girls have put themselves on the roosts at least an hour earlier.

We originally got the PulletShut door last May when no one lived at the house because half of it was being totally rebuilt. My wife was having to drive the 25 miles every morning to open the coop and I would come by after (paid) work to work on the part of the house that wasn't totally gutted and close them in before heading to the other house. The auto door more than paid for itself in gas alone. There was no power to the barn during that time so I ran it on two 6V lantern batteries wired in series to get 12V. A pair lasts about 6 months so the door doesn't use much electricity and no question of problems during a power failure.

You can find the solar vents at any boat store/chandlery. They make some that are solar and have a battery so they can run day and night. They can get pretty expensive. I looked on Amazon and they don't have great reviews. Might be better to make something yourself with a vent fan, battery and solar panel.
Some of our chickens came up on the deck and looked in the door ONCE. They saw the cat on the inside getting all agitated over them. Never did it again!

Dogs are a LOT easier to house train than a chicken. I think that might be one big reason why you let the dogs in and not the chickens.


There is no need to put hardware cloth over the joists since you will have a solid wood floor. If a predator is going to chew through a sheet of plywood, it wouldn't be slowed down by hardware cloth. Use 1/2" hardware cloth where it is needed. 1/2" is usually 19 gauge wire, 1/4" is 23 gauge. With wire, the SMALLER the number the thicker the wire. So the 1/2" is stronger and nothing that is going to kill your birds can get through a 1/2" square opening. 1/4" would only be useful for ventilation that excludes larger bugs or sifting garden dirt to get out small rocks.


Looks like you need to hang the feeder! The chicken eating out of the top is showing you what height the tray should be   
In general, a feeder hung with the tray about head high will be easy for them to reach and a lot cleaner since they won't be tossing shavings in as they scratch around on the floor.


I would suggest you close them all off until the girls start laying. You don't want them to say "Hey, nice place to sleep" before their instincts tell them what is it REALLY for.


Nice setup! It is great when one has enough space that the coop can be in a big run under cover. 

Yes he does have a bug for building now! He already wants to build a tool shed an new steps for the back door to our house!

 

[bruceha2000]

Thank you! I think if I had to do it over again, I would put the coop outside the run, my neighbors had me convinced that something would be able to get into it. I just think it would be nice to have full use of the entire run. They do go under the coop to dust, I put my fireplace ashes and some PDZ under there every now and then.

MB

A chicken is only so tall!

They are already using the space under the coop, no? They couldn't use more of the run even if the coop were outside it. And since it is in the run under a roof, Sylvester won't get on you about making sure you won't get wet when collecting eggs in the rain

 

[ruca3144]

We just finished ours (minus the door handles)

 

[elesandchickens]

We just finished ours (minus the door handles)

Love it!!!

 

[elesandchickens]

Also to those who suggested I make the roosting pole larger, I just put in a nice big plank of wood, wide side up, for them this morning! Thanks for the tip y'all!