TWEAK MY COOP~Tweaks on the Cheap

[joannefiddler]

Thanks to all who posted feed bag ideas! They were great. So glad to re-use rather than toss.

 

[Beekissed]

Well.....stripped my coop today and forgot to take pics of the bones....it looked pretty naked. Oh, my! Not bragging but I put that plastic and the tarp on GOOD.....and I mean GOOD. I finally got it all off but have some flesh missing from both hands now. The tarp and plastic were on their last legs but those zip ties were like iron still.

Put new plastic on the roof cap and a temporary tarp for shade until I can make all the changes that need to be made and I can finally finish out the covering. I WILL try to post pics of all those changes as they come about....today I was just too frazzled to remember to get the camera up there and take pics.

I took the lip off the back of the coop, added it to the lip in the front to form a longer lip on the front...like a front porch. This will shelter where I come and go and collect eggs, as the new nest boxes will be in the front of the coop.

On the back I am removing the old nest boxes and will use them in my all purpose pen, mounted close to the floor so the nest can be used for broodies and chicks and also for ducks.

That back will be changed quite a bit before I add the extra hoop. The extra hoop will be the sleeping area, while the main coop will be the lounging, feeding and laying area. I'll be making the roosts easily removable for ease in getting to the areas beneath them if need be. And, for the first time ever, I'm going to add juvenile roosting as I will be producing more chicks than before.

I'll take befores and afters so you can see what it was and what it became. I'm even going to try to incorporate the dog's house into my new addition if possible so he can be housed with the chooks in the winter months, with his own entrance to his house but no entrance into the actual coop from his house....he's an egg sucker so he can't be trusted in the coop.

 

[Beekissed]

For the past 3 years I have used a silver tarp on this hoop coop, thinking the color would reflect the light and keep the coop cooler. I was wrong. I removed that old tarp and placed a bluish-green tarp on it as a temporary measure until I could get the coop construction done. Meanwhile I had removed the back "porch" shelter, combined it with the front porch shelter and made a longer, more hooped around porch on the front and covered it with a green tarp as well.

My coop is several degrees cooler just with these two changes!!!

I can actually FEEL the difference in there. That grey/silver tarp was letting in too much light, apparently, because the coop feels shady and cool compared to. I was thinking the darker colored tarp would absorb more heat from the sun and just bake it in there but it is not....am loving this simple and accidental tweaking lesson.

It just so happened we cleaned out the shed recently and found a bag with a brand, spankin' new tarp in it and no one could remember from whence it had come....so read FREE, because we would have remembered buying such a thing. Sometimes people give us stuff they pick up at yard sales and such that they think we can use and we both feel like this is one of those things. Hence the lovely sea-colored, heavy duty tarp now on the coop....a FREE accidental improvement. Not only that, it was the exact size needed for this coop when I place the additional hoop on the back. Win/win!

I know folks don't feel like God involves Himself in our lives to such a degree that He sorts out things like tarps on a chicken coop, but I have seen over and over where little things that benefited us that could not have been mere coincidence(I no longer believe in coincidences) were on hand and fit a certain project or need in our lives like it was tailor-made for the purpose. I call that God given. For this I praise His name!!!

 

[joannefiddler]

I join you in that! So glad your project is coming together

 

[MargaretYakoda]

http://www.amazon.com/Whitmor-6070-...1402521544&sr=8-1&keywords=Wire+Cube+Shelving

I got some panels from this cube shelf system off freecycle. Ziptied them all together in a row and now they're a chick corral! Good thing, too, since out second broody is hatching her chicks right now.

 

[Beekissed]

Great score!!! I'm currently finding the weaknesses in my all purpose pen when it comes to broodies and chicks......I had to remove a whole trash bag of bedding from that pen because the broody keeps scratching it up to "find food" for the biddies....which means each morning and evening she has buried the water bucket, the feeder and everything else in the pen with the deep litter~and that nipple bucket is hanging chest high to her from the ceiling, the feeder is up on 2x6s, etc....that's how high she is piling this bedding. She's the busiest, most industrious broody I've ever had in that regard and is a good mama.

So, the deep litter cannot be used for broody and babies in an enclosed pen...check.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Great score!!!  I'm currently finding the weaknesses in my all purpose pen when it comes to broodies and chicks......I had to remove a whole trash bag of bedding from that pen because the broody keeps scratching it up to "find food" for the biddies....which means each morning and evening she has buried the water bucket, the feeder and everything else in the pen with the deep litter~and that nipple bucket is hanging chest high to her from the ceiling, the feeder is up on 2x6s, etc....that's how high she is piling this bedding.  She's the busiest, most industrious broody I've ever had in that regard and is a good mama. 

So, the deep litter cannot be used for broody and babies in an enclosed pen...check. 

I keep complaining about broody business in the FF thread. If only the chicks hatched out bigger and better jumpers we could put everything way up ... but they start out so tiny!!!

I just moved my FF outdoors to an area with nothing to fling. But I'm about to get another batch of babies, I hope ... got two clutches going, but he eggs were kinda iffy.

Meanwhile, I don't think the Freedom Mutts eat any poultry rations at all and those chicks are monsters. They've foraged all their food except for that week we had them in a little cage so they'd learn where to sleep every night. They do come home at bedtime ... All they need is for is to open doors.

 

[Beekissed]

I keep complaining about broody business in the FF thread. If only the chicks hatched out bigger and better jumpers we could put everything way up ... but they start out so tiny!!!

I just moved my FF outdoors to an area with nothing to fling. But I'm about to get another batch of babies, I hope ... got two clutches going, but he eggs were kinda iffy.

Meanwhile, I don't think the Freedom Mutts eat any poultry rations at all and those chicks are monsters. They've foraged all their food except for that week we had them in a little cage so they'd learn where to sleep every night. They do come home at bedtime ... All they need is for is to open doors.

They ARE huge!! So much for folks saying that poultry feed has better nutrition than does foraged foods......

Last spring I had a whole mess of Del chicks from Kathy and they rarely came in for food past the age of 4 wks, spent all their time in the Honeysuckle Hideout, foraging in the small meadow and woods right close to it. They were just as big~or bigger~than most of the pics of the ones of the same age on the DEL thread. Now I still have two of the Dels and one of the WRs and they are huge, healthy birds.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

They ARE huge!!  So much for folks saying that poultry feed has better nutrition than does foraged foods......     Last spring I had a whole mess of Del chicks from Kathy and they rarely came in for food past the age of 4 wks, spent all their time in the Honeysuckle Hideout, foraging in the small meadow and woods right close to it.  They were just as big~or bigger~than most of the pics of the ones of the same age on the DEL thread.  Now I still have two of the Dels and one of the WRs and they are huge, healthy birds. 

Raise birds in Tupperware containers and you think they're helpless & fragile as snowflakes. Or at least I think that's my problem.

Now I'm going to see if we can put a whole bunch of the path shavings on the bare spots of the run ... it seems to provide them some preferred nom noms underneath.

I should say "bare spot" as the run is one big bare spot.

 

[Beekissed]

Raise birds in Tupperware containers and you think they're helpless & fragile as snowflakes. Or at least I think that's my problem.

Now I'm going to see if we can put a whole bunch of the path shavings on the bare spots of the run ... it seems to provide them some preferred nom noms underneath.

I should say "bare spot" as the run is one big bare spot.

Yep...that's one of the great advantages to DL in the coop and run...what comes up from the earth to consume the feces. They keep the soil loose for good water absorption, they digest the fecal matter and they provide extra food for the flock. One article I read said that a flock on DL could provide a good percentage of their protein needs.