post your chicken coop pictures here!

[Sylvester017]

Sylvester, thank you so much for the information, advice and words of encouragement. I did not know that about the SLW. My friend that has them has a very large area they free range and they are sweet. She has livestock guard dogs, so she does not have too many losses during the day and the chickens are locked in at night. However I have 2 little lap dogs that are still thinking the chickens are great toys to chase. We are working on it. If I can convince them to co-exist, the chickens can be out while I am out with the dogs. Don't think they would last long at all if they were out all day, too many 4 legged creatures out even during the day.

How nice that you get to free range your chickens all day, I am sure that they love it!

It's difficult to have dogs around chickens. The only breeds I know that are really good around poultry are the guardian dogs - not bird dogs or herding dogs, but guardian breeds. Guardian breeds unfortunately are all giant breeds but they do wonderfully to accept their responsibility in a flock of poultry or other livestock by staying within the flock - unlike the herding or bird dogs that leave the flock unprotected to chase a predator in the vicinity. Guardians have the tendency to stay with their flock to protect it and wait for a predator to approach before pouncing on it. Herding dogs itch to herd bird flocks around the yard instead of just sitting in the middle of the flock to protect them. I've heard some positive feedback about Labs around poultry but the average family pet is almost impossible to trust around chickens. A story posted on BYC of owners who had a family dog and cat accustomed to their chickens for 7 years and then came home one day to find the dog AND the cat had broken into the chicken pen and killed the entire flock - so sad! We had Rotties that were obedience trained on commands but we never could break them of chasing and killing the Mourning Doves unless we were present to issue a halt. Friends we know use Sarplininac, Malinois, and Ovcharka guardians. Maremma guardians are used in the Antarctic in an experiment protecting Penguins of all things! Many ranchers prefer the Pyrennes, Anatolians, or the Caucasian guardians. We have such a small yard that a large guardian breed just wouldn't get enough exercise to be happy so we opted not to get any other dog breed at all. We haven't missed a dog or cat since the chickens have been such fun and entertaining as pets and utility. If we still had our 25 acre farm I'd get a guardian breed in a heartbeat to let the chickens free-range but back in the old days with my folks it was standard to make large poultry pens to house chickens and ducks and using guard dogs was considered a nuisance expense. How things have changed over the decades!

 

[flocking-crazy]

Love this coop design I'm about to build a similar coop. would love more pics.

 

[Elginchickens]

Looks great!, how many chickens will you have in it? looks very spacious.

I did have 25 in there.but 15 of them we're males so they went to the smoker....right now there are 10 five month old hens 1 one and half year old hen and a 5 month old rooster...and they don't even take up a 1/3 of the roosting space...in all we got 39 chickens counting the babies that are at different ages.but yeah it's very spacious it fit 25 five month old birds with still room to spare...no bullying..no feather picking...no diseases...everything perfect...and I just increased the size of it yesterday 2 feet by 4 feet longer and wider..

 

[joed1223]

Love this coop design I'm about to build a similar coop. would love more pics.

 

[crazyhen]

Suggestions on coop. Make the nest big enough to hold lots of eggs for hatching and deep enough for a large long hen plus her chicks. That was a mistake I made on one of my builds too small. If possible make the coop longer to give a longer area to roost. If you want 6 chicks now they will end up being 25 or so later. Sigh! chicken math. The more room a hen has the happier she is. Windows are great they all like to roost in front of one summer and winter. ( like me they need light) . Mine all gang up in front of the two windows. I am planning to cut more holes in the siding and get some used window sashes from Habitat for Humanity. I will hinge them over window areas covered in reg. screening and then hardware cloth( to keep out the varmits here in the mtns. Fresh air is great in the coops. They dry out the poo quicker and you have less odor. Good luck on your coop.

 

[Naz223]

Chicken coop is done for awhile! Still have to stain it before the summer ends. We had to do a lot of reinforcing and modifications as expected with a prefab coop. We installed a higher roost inside so they would stop sleeping in the nesting boxes. They are blocked off until the girls a old enough to lay.

 

[koipond]

I still have some work to do

 

[jasonclem20]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Serena D]

I need advice. Is this coop big enough for 4 adult hens? My girls are still young now.
Is it ok to keep the coop on the north side of the shed year round? Should we move it to a sunny location during the cold months here in CO? They are free range most of the day and every evening. The entire yard is their range and they are still supervised at this age.
Also, we have had so much rain that the areas set aside for dust baths have turned to mud. If this weather continues, do I need to create a dry dust bath for them? Like a kid-sandbox or something?
Hope I posted this in the correct forum.
Any help is appreciated. I'm a first-timer.

 

[Latestarter]

I need advice. Is this coop big enough for 4 adult hens? My girls are still young now.
Is it ok to keep the coop on the north side of the shed year round? Should we move it to a sunny location during the cold months here in CO? They are free range most of the day and every evening. The entire yard is their range and they are still supervised at this age.
Also, we have had so much rain that the areas set aside for dust baths have turned to mud. If this weather continues, do I need to create a dry dust bath for them? Like a kid-sandbox or something?
Hope I posted this in the correct forum.
Any help is appreciated. I'm a first-timer.

First,

@Serena D ! You've come to the right place and the right forum for the answers you seek

You have some beautiful chickies there

I'm no judge of breeds, but it looks like 2 are full sized and 2 are bantams... You've asked a lot of loaded questions and some require more information.

The people who make and sell those coops should be put out of business for false advertising! They state a coop that size will hold 4-6 birds. What utter nonsense! As a rule of thumb, an adult, full sized chicken needs from 3-6 square feet of space inside a coop. The more chickens you have, the less per bird you need because the space is so large that there's room for them to move around and "breath". But in no case should they be packed more than 2 square feet/bird. It appears to me that your coop is maybe 2.5 x 2.5 feet which would be 6.25 square feet inside or enough for 2 full sized birds. at 3' x3' it would be 9 square feet and enough for 3 birds. You also have to consider lost space due to feeders and waterers... Since you said they free range most of the day (so are only in there for roosting and eventually egg laying) you can "probably" get away with it, but you want to watch the birds for signs of stress, bullying, feather picking, etc.

They ideally need a minimum of ~10 square feet of space each in an enclosed run. 4 birds, that would be 4' x 10'. Again, since you free range them and they're not trapped/locked up inside the run for long periods, it "may" be adequate. You'll have to see how they do together when they're locked in there for any long stretch (like winter storms or severe weather).

Where you're located in CO will make a huge difference in the answers. Are you in the SE corner or NW corner or somewhere in between? Based on that lush green lawn and the willow tree, you're obviously not in one of the many drier locations, even taking into account the substantial rains we've had this spring/early summer. Chickens are amazingly hardy birds and can handle temps down to -40F under certain conditions... They can NOT handle extreme cold and any kind of drafts directly on them, and they can not handle even moderate cold and large amounts of moisture/humidity as it will cause frost bite. Your coop appears to have a small sliding vent at the top and that may be fine for 2 birds, but with 4, I expect you need more ventilation. That will also keep the coop cooler in those hot CO summers. That vent should remain open at ALL times when the birds are inside.

You "can" make a separate dust bath area for them, and you can use/build a sand box for that purpose. Most chickens are smart enough to NOT try dust bathing in mud... They'll forgo that luxury until the ground dries out some. even if you do provide them a dust bathing area, some chickens will obstinately create their own at some spot in that nice lawn. Given enough time, they will turn an area into a moon scape. Since you have so few birds and such a large yard for them to use, I doubt you'll need to worry about that too much. However, if they find an opening (exposed dirt) area in that lawn, expect them to expand and use it.

Hope that covers most of your Q's. Feel free to ask more as you need

There's lots of helpful folks here and I'm sure more will comment after me. BTW, you should join us over on the Colorado thread! Good luck and Grats on your birds!