post your chicken coop pictures here!

[Sylvester017]

I just ordered some chicks to arrive in October, 2 BR, 2 BA, 2 BO, 2 EE, and 1 mystery free one, do you think they'll be okay raised together? I've heard conflicting things about BRs. Have also never heard the 5 and 6 sq. Ft. Thing, have always heard 4 for inside, 10 for outside (and in commercial, standard is only 2 inside 4 outside which is obviously way too little) but have heard more is better if possible so it's interesting.

You've got pretty big breeds so IMO if they're confined/penned then 6 sq ft/per bird with logs, swings, perches, a dust-bath container, old chairs, tables, whatever, for something to do - but if allowed some foraging in the backyard then 4 sq ft/per bird of coop space is adequate. To start we only had our 2 Silkies for 4 weeks in a 4x6 coop and quickly realized even these littles needed more room to be entertained so we let them out of the coop at 6 a.m. and they foraged around the yard all day and put themselves to roost about 1/2 hour before dark. For daytime protection/hiding/snoozing in the yard we added a popup canopy, a couple low plywood shelters set on cinderblocks, and kept adding large recycled dog houses around the yard for them and they use them ALL! We are up to 4 hens now and their new coop is 4x4 with a run below and an additional 4x4 run added on. My girls love the coop and sometimes hang in the run or just go in it to lay eggs - but they prefer the wide open spaces to dig for bugs, dust-bathe, scratch for seeds and search for budding grass/weed seeds, etc. Your birds will grow up together as a flock and they'll figure out the pecking order. Your BAs and EEs might be closer to the bottom of the pecking order since Ameraucanas and EEs would rather avoid conflict at any cost and prefer to flee than fight. BA's are somewhat gentle giants but should be able to stand up for themselves because of their sheer size to not get bullied much by the BR and BO who usually seem to take over dominant positions. I'm glad to see you don't have bantams in the mix. My personal opinion is that littles not be mixed with LF where they have no chance to hide from assertive larger fowl. You'll get to know your birds so well you'll know in your gut what will work for them - and you! Enjoy!

 

[Miss Peeps]

I would love to see follow up pictures too and I would totally follow your thread, if you started one! Chipper Chicken is spot on with the suggestions for cutting the hardware cloth and with the recommendations for installing ventilation. Best of luck to you.

 

[Refolden]

 

[ShrekDawg]

You've got pretty big breeds so IMO if they're confined/penned then 6 sq ft/per bird with logs, swings, perches, a dust-bath container, old chairs, tables, whatever, for something to do - but if allowed some foraging in the backyard then 4 sq ft/per bird of coop space is adequate.  To start we only had our 2 Silkies for 4 weeks in a 4x6 coop and quickly realized even these littles needed more room to be entertained so we let them out of the coop at 6 a.m. and they foraged around the yard all day and put themselves to roost about 1/2 hour before dark.  For daytime protection/hiding/snoozing in the yard we added a popup canopy, a couple low plywood shelters set on cinderblocks, and kept adding large recycled dog houses around the yard for them and they use them ALL!  We are up to 4 hens now and their new coop is 4x4 with a run below and an additional 4x4 run added on.  My girls love the coop and sometimes hang in the run or just go in it to lay eggs - but they prefer the wide open spaces to dig for bugs, dust-bathe, scratch for seeds and search for budding grass/weed seeds, etc.  Your birds will grow up together as a flock and they'll figure out the pecking order.  Your BAs and EEs might be closer to the bottom of the pecking order since Ameraucanas and EEs would rather avoid conflict at any cost and prefer to flee than fight.  BA's are somewhat gentle giants but should be able to stand up for themselves because of their sheer size to not get bullied much by the BR and BO who usually seem to take over dominant positions.  I'm glad to see you don't have bantams in the mix.  My personal opinion is that littles not be mixed with LF where they have no chance to hide from assertive larger fowl.  You'll get to know your birds so well you'll know in your gut what will work for them - and you!  Enjoy!

Thank you so much for all the help! I think I'll definitely have to make a little bigger coop and/or run then or at least add stuff for them to do. I do plan on letting them free range because we have almost 3 acres, about an acre of which is the yard, so there's definitely plenty of room. I do worry about hawks and such but I'm sure they'll be fine. And I'm not sure my family would be so open to the idea of having plywood and dog houses etc. Strewn around the yard, even if I am (it's all great ideas), but I'm sure I can figure out some way to still do it, like have it more discreet or something. We do have a lot of trees and plants and.stuff to run into so really the only place it would be needed is the middle of the front yard. And oh yeah, I definitely wouldn't mix bantams with them. We wanted eggs anyways although I did think of maybe adding some next year but maybe not, they'd be in a separate pen. Unless free ranging there's room to get away?

 

[Latestarter]

Thanks! Im in Colorado so I still have to make a storm window for it.

Since you're located in my state, you ought to join the Colorado thread. lots of nice folks there!

 

[bigmrg74]

I had that hawk attack the other week and the bugger killed the hen right inside of my walk in tractor. To let the girls out and have access to their nest boxes and food and water, I had just propped the whole door wide open. So I wanted to decrease the opening of the door so that it would be safer for my girls. So I went and converted the door over to a dutch door. I think I had kicked the idea back when I built the door. Anyways, I slapped some new hinges on the door and got to work on cutting the door and I got to work on cutting the door in half.



The new hinges where the cut was going to go at.

Going right in between the two 2x4's, cutting the hardware cloth, mending plates, and the two long 2x4's. The cutting blade on an angle grinder was my friend right here.

Thought I had a shot of where I cut it, didn't exactly come out even, and had a spot where there was bit of a gap. Plus I wasn't liking how the hardwear cloth was looking right there on the door, all with a jaggity edge. I'm a massage therapist so I really don't want to tear my hands up, so I got to thinking about it and went poking around in my dad's stash of stuff that was left over from building the barn. And in there I found a hunk of door frame tin, which I then cut and fitted the tin on the door. had to sort of cut and shave the doors a little to get both pieces on the doors and to get both of the doors to close together.

And to cut off more hawks, and to help keep sparrows out of the coop, I tacked a grain bag to the bottom of the top door.

And I added a few slits in it to make it easier for the girls to go in and out of the coop. Might just cut off one of the strips just to make it a little more easier for them.

 

[Sylvester017]

Thank you so much for all the help! I think I'll definitely have to make a little bigger coop and/or run then or at least add stuff for them to do. I do plan on letting them free range because we have almost 3 acres, about an acre of which is the yard, so there's definitely plenty of room. I do worry about hawks and such but I'm sure they'll be fine. And I'm not sure my family would be so open to the idea of having plywood and dog houses etc. Strewn around the yard, even if I am (it's all great ideas), but I'm sure I can figure out some way to still do it, like have it more discreet or something. We do have a lot of trees and plants and.stuff to run into so really the only place it would be needed is the middle of the front yard. And oh yeah, I definitely wouldn't mix bantams with them. We wanted eggs anyways

although I did think of maybe adding some next year but maybe not, they'd be in a separate pen. Unless free ranging there's room to get away?

If you don't want the clutter of plywood shelters then use wooden partio tables, benches, chairs in little clusters around the yard. It will look nicer. We have cedar furniture, plus the plywood shelter, plus a pop-up canopy, plus the several dog houses. We're setting up a curved bridge in the center of the yard for another hiding place for them. We put up all this stuff to keep from having a wide open lawn area where hawks like to swoop down on running hens. While foraging our girls always have some sort of cover nearby since we have had a resident Cooper's Hawk (chicken hawk) for 4 years now - he can be 5 feet away from a hiding hen and won't go after her - darnedest thing. Tall plants, rose bushes, evergreens as focal point garden decoration are also good hiding/snoozing places. The only thing I can't do is let my hens loose in the raised veggie garden bed because they'll dig up the roots. However, in winter, I sprout seeds a couple times a week and give as treats when there are no greens growing outdoors and little green sprouts provide good plant protein.

It's your choice whether you want to deal with bantams. They're not for everyone because just about every bantam breed is very broody and require special attention during brooding to make sure they eat/drink/dust-bathe/exercise. For ourselves, we started out with two Silkies as pets. Then we made the error of adding Single-comb dual purpose breeds to the flock for eggs and the littles got bullied too much. With all the outdoor hiding places it didn't prevent the LF from mistreating the littles badly. Now we only have 5-lb-&-under docile breeds -- a pea-comb Ameraucana and a gentle (No-comb) Breda as large fowl with our Silkies and it's been peaceful. People want to toss Silkies into their egg flock because they are so cute but my and my friend's experience is that they may get bullied too much plus they can sustain injury easily or death if pecked hard on their crested heads by other bigger breeds. GL with your choices!

 

[BarrettG]

OMG!  Chicken Math has hit you!  LOL!  I don't envy your dilemma of having enough room.  Recommended for penned up birds should have a minimum of 5 sq ft per bird but some experienced BYC breeders will say 6 sq ft and some will say 4 sq ft.   For bossier birds like Legs, RIR, BR, Marans, etc I would give 6 sq ft and for smaller or gentler breeds maybe less per bird.  I introduce new juveniles to an existing flock after they've grown in size at least as big as the adult birds (about 5 or 6 months old) so they have a pecking order chance to not get throttled by the older birds.  GL!

If that's the case then I have room for 16 birds. I don't plan on keeping that many, at least not for now lol if you know anybody in the south Florida area that needs chick's I am selling the babies.

 

[yolksonus]

This is our coop! We have Six Wyandotte's. The dimensions are a little bit bigger than what is needed but I still feel it is too small.

 

[ShrekDawg]

If you don't want the clutter of plywood shelters then use wooden partio tables, benches, chairs in little clusters around the yard.  It will look nicer.  We have cedar furniture, plus the plywood shelter, plus a pop-up canopy, plus the several dog houses.  We're setting up a curved bridge in the center of the yard for another hiding place for them.  We put up all this stuff to keep from having a wide open lawn area where hawks like to swoop down on running hens.  While foraging our girls always have some sort of cover nearby since we have had a resident Cooper's Hawk (chicken hawk) for 4 years now - he can be 5 feet away from a hiding hen and won't go after her - darnedest thing.  Tall plants, rose bushes, evergreens as focal point garden decoration are also good hiding/snoozing places.  The only thing I can't do is let my hens loose in the raised veggie garden bed because they'll dig up the roots.  However, in winter, I sprout seeds a couple times a week and give as treats when there are no greens growing outdoors and little green sprouts provide good plant protein.

It's your choice whether you want to deal with bantams.  They're not for everyone because just about every bantam breed is very broody and require special attention during brooding to make sure they eat/drink/dust-bathe/exercise.  For ourselves, we started out with two Silkies as pets.  Then we made the error of adding Single-comb dual purpose breeds to the flock for eggs and the littles got bullied too much.  With all the outdoor hiding places it didn't prevent the LF from mistreating the littles badly.  Now we only have 5-lb-&-under docile breeds -- a pea-comb Ameraucana and a gentle (No-comb) Breda as large fowl with our Silkies and it's been peaceful.  People want to toss Silkies into their egg flock because they are so cute but my and my friend's experience is that they may get bullied too much plus they can sustain injury easily or death if pecked hard on their crested heads by other bigger breeds.  GL with your choices!

Thanks so much for all the info!!

The furniture idea sounds like a great one

Only issue though is our front yard is huge and a giant bowl so it would look a little weird having furniture in the middle but I'll definitely figure something out!

And yeah, we have resident Red Tailed Hawks. They actually left for a while after we accidentally cut down their tree but came back a few years ago. They had babies this year.

We definitely do have a lot of plants though. the only issue is the middle of the yard. I'll try to get pictures or a video later.

But hmm, maybe I shouldn't get bantams then. The main reason I wanted them was just cause I think Silkies are hilarious but I'm sure there's standard ones that are similar. If I did I'd probably put them in a completely separate pen and keep them in it or let them out at different times. I think I want to add more LF though next year