post your chicken coop pictures here!

[chicchic25]

Great job James5855 and Sand blister! Love the blue and barn red colors!!!

 

[Call911]

This is my first go at raising chicks, and building a coop from all reclaimed wood from an old house.
Some pics attached, any advice welcomed. We had an old 10x10' dog pen using for the run, with metal roofing for shade, and the coop will have metal roof reclaimed as well. door on left side facing for easy cleanout access. I need to wrap with chicken wire and make feed and water devices.

 

[James5855]

Added some finishing touches
Thank you everyone!
This cook is one of the nicest one I have seen. I have to take a page from your book and put a bench in front of mine. I found myself staring at them for an hour.

 

[MickeysChicks]

Love seeing all the new coops! Getting some great ideas, my hubby is threatening to pull my internet access, he can't keep up with all the new ideas I'm getting for our coop! lol

Happy building everybody!

 

[Sylvester017]

@Sylvester017

got news for you it never ends.... even now for me I have no chickens but I am ever planning and gathering information and pieces parts and thises and thats for construction on the new one.

planning for the day when I CAN rebuild. Dreaming vicariously through watching others innovate and invent and repupose and create.

LOVE it all. From the Taj Majhal to Bubbas Eggery....

deb

Adding insult to injury my old 'puter was wonky & had to quickly get a new one before the old one quit!

 

[Sylvester017]

Love seeing all the new coops! Getting some great ideas, my hubby is threatening to pull my internet access, he can't keep up with all the new ideas I'm getting for our coop! lol

Happy building everybody!

HaHa! Relax! 5 years from now you STILL won't be done with expansions, additions, repairs, etc! For 4 years now we're still working on the "perfect" flock (we've cycled through 12 chickens to get down to the 4 we like now) and after 4 years of an old small coop we are workng on our bigger 2nd coop. We've changed feeding/watering systems, changed feed, added shelters and doghouses for the hens to hide/snooze, replacing a chainlink with block wall for better yard security, built raised garden beds to raise fresh veggies for the hens, etc etc etc. Our whole back yard revolves around those girls but we don't mind spoiling them! Made a lot of helpful online BYC friends as well as face-to-face chicken loving friends. Last year I was in line at a Walmart and happened to run into a chicken keeper and we talked for 10 minutes about our hens while waiting in line and we didn't even know each other!

 

[Sylvester017]

This is my first go at raising chicks, and building a coop from all reclaimed wood from an old house.
Some pics attached, any advice welcomed. We had an old 10x10' dog pen using for the run, with metal roofing for shade, and the coop will have metal roof reclaimed as well. door on left side facing for easy cleanout access. I need to wrap with chicken wire and make feed and water devices.

Whoa! Advice? In good faith you'll get it on this thread but first

LUV the repurposed look. If the chainlink wasn't in the photo it is cute enough for those nostalgic art prints!

If you use a metal roof put some plywood first so there will be insulation to cut down on rain noise on the tin roof - someone said the loud rain noise can really startle hens inside. The rain runoff from the roof is angled to go into the chicken's pen so put a roof gutter to redirect rain from flooding the pen.

Dog kennel panels are great runs when well secured. Stack some paver stones all around the perimeter to deter digging predators. Before weasels, feral cats, raccoons and oppossums know you have chickens you'll need a very secure roof end to end. Raccoons have collapsible spines and manipulative fingers and will get inside an open top pen or by digging under the chainlink - whichever is faster/easier for them to do. In our case stray mutts broke our gate to attack our coop and mangled the cheap flimsy chicken poultry wire but they couldn't dig under the little coop because of the paver stone patio around it. Our yard gets nocturnal visits from feral cats. We also have city raccoons and 'possums so we have a coop model now that will deter them squeezing into small openings to get inside the coop house. In the hills behind us there are a lot of skunks but so far they haven't migrated to our city streets yet.

For the moment your setup is good for keeping chickens inside but not for keeping clever predators outside.

Always think security for housing chickens. If there is an opening small enough for a child's hand to fit through the fence anywhere on the sides or the top, then it's a big enough opening for a climbing raccoon or possum to squeeze through. Don't use cheap flimsy chicken poultry wire for covering gaps as that stuff is only twisted around itself and easily comes apart from predator teeth and paws.

 

[The BlanchRanch]

I really enjoyed building this.

 

[Sylvester017]

I really enjoyed building this. -- AND IT SHOWS! ENJOY YOUR HENS!

 

[shorttimer]

Well I'm finally getting near the end of the project. I knew I was going to get chick this spring after mulling it over, in my head, 1000 times. I had several objectives, all of which were mostly the comfort of my chicks and the ease of regular maintenance. I live in town, at least for now, so I can't have roosters & a limit of 12 poultry. I also am concerned with the food they eat, so having a diet of non GMO feed was on the list. I've had more than a year to study, build, grow & experiment before I got the chicks and I think it's paying off now. In Feb 2014 I started a mealworm farm so I would have enough to keep up with their treats. Also, just before I got the chicks I put down a 17 seed cover crop package that I saw on one of Gabe Brown's no till/permaculture videos & it came up very nicely, especially since I don't think I have green thumbs. I wanted it to be full on lush before the chicks got in there, cause I know they will tear it up pretty quick, but still have as much good nutrition they need as possible. I built the coop & run with no plans & had only a few mistakes which were easy to fix. The coop is 5X8 & the run is 12 X 14 and almost 6 1/2 feet tall. I'm actually not quite done with the inside but I'm going to build a poop tray & use Sweet PDZ. Nest boxes will be easy to clean rectangular plastic dish pans with straw. Right now they are in the brooder which is inside the coop. I think they will be grown up enough to go out of the brooder by the end of next week. When I first got the chicks they were all supposed to be the same age, but when they were delivered, 3 of them were obviously 4-5 weeks older than the rest. So I got 3 Buff Orpingtons, 3 Barred Rocks and 3 Black Australorps (the big ones). Wasn't really a problem. Today makes it 3 weeks & 4 days since I got them and how the time has just flown by. I make a point to handle each one several times a day to make the best bond. They get 3 mealworms each, each day, so I don't over do it. I also dangle a 1/2 raw corn ear with a screw down the middle & wire, maybe an apple, the same way, and some cooked oat meal. Everything except the apple make them go crazy! We were having fairly good weather and within the first week I made a 3' X 6' X 18" pen covered with chicken wire so they could enjoy the sunny days. I could tell they really enjoyed the pen instead of the brooder. The brooder itself used the Mama heating pad method, for heat, rather than a light bulb. They slept like babies. Not a peep. Thanks Blooie. And after 2 weeks I have been fermenting part of their food & they like it a lot. It's everything they said it would be as this wonderful site has so much great info. I also plan on doing fodder for them, too. I didn't get too crazy on the coop for the exception of an automatic, solar charged door opener with an auto engaging raccoon attachment I copied from a youtube video. Was a snap to build and cost less than $40 for all the parts. So I want to give a HUGE THANKS to all the people who spent their time posting ideas on this site to make this experience really great. .

The small outside pen used during the day

Some pix of the coop & run before they used it.







Grand opening Day. That was this morning. They had no idea what was coming when the door opened & saw their new space for the first time. I hope they were as happy as I was.