Roosts - Update!

[Lonesome Dough]

Outside is steel sheeting but inside I painted two tone. Bottom half is brown to hide the smears and upper half is a beige to make it brighter inside. Window trim is white and all windows have predator proof 1/2'' vinyl coated hardware cloth screens. Electric outlets are all in the ceiling for bird proofing. I started with a 20x20 stock barn and divided it in half so I still have storage. interior demolition began January of 2017 so this has been a long term project, our fist flock is 10 weeks old.

 

[Acre4Me]

Outside is steel sheeting but inside I painted two tone. Bottom half is brown to hide the smears and upper half is a beige to make it brighter inside. Window trim is white and all windows have predator proof 1/2'' vinyl coated hardware cloth screens. Electric outlets are all in the ceiling for bird proofing. I started with a 20x20 stock barn and divided it in half so I still have storage. interior demolition began January of 2017 so this has been a long term project, our fist flock is 10 weeks old.

Sounds great! My spouse is willing to change up what doesn’t work or improve where needed. I wanted to paint interior too. We will electrify the coop later, so there will be light! Our flock is almost 11weeks old!

 

[Lonesome Dough]

and we have the smartest flock. I built them a portable training roost with 1 foot and 2 foot high bars, they used it immediately. Auto pop door they mastered in minutes along with returning to roost at dusk. Last Saturday they got introduced to use their permanent roost with ladder board, no problem for these feathered Einsteins, by the second night they all used it and had established their hierarchy.

 

[Acre4Me]

and we have the smartest flock. I built them a portable training roost with 1 foot and 2 foot high bars, they used it immediately. Auto pop door they mastered in minutes along with returning to roost at dusk. Last Saturday they got introduced to use their permanent roost with ladder board, no problem for these feathered Einsteins, by the second night they all used it and had established their hierarchy.

So far, my flock has not voluntarily returned to the coop at night - we end up having to catch them. Hopefully, this improves over time, as they have only been in the coop a few nights, but they are using the roost bars. We plan to install an automatic pop door sometime in the future, when we get electric out to the coop.

 

[Lonesome Dough]

I bought a pop door from Fleming Outdoors, it has batteries as well as plug in.