Henny Penny's House

Welcome to my BYC page!  I am a mom of two grown daughters and an 11 year old son. 

I wait tables three nights a weeks and occasionally decorate cakes for friends and family. 

I have been buying eggs from a neighbor who had about 30 Isa Browns for the last several years. 

This year I got to take care of her chickens when her family went on vacation and I actually

enjoyed the chickens!   When they sold their farm and moved, I decided to get 6 chickens

for the eggs and fertilizer. My husband and I have spent the last month building our coop and run. 

I wanted the  coop/run to be movable as we have over an acre and a half.  My husband is an engineer

so after I designed the basic 4 x 6 footprint of the coop, he took on the task of building

it to his exacting specifications.  I had to remind him, "it's just a coop!"

Here are the floor plan and elevations.  My DH built the frame on pressure treated 4x4's

so we could pull the coop around the yard.  As he built, I painted and looked forward to

completion and picking up my 6 pullets.

The flooring is a fiberglass sheathing we found at an RV salvage place,  The rounded off 2x4's for

the roosting bars are above a "cage" that the poo goes into so that I can just scrape

it out the little door on that wall.

The external nesting box, pop door and windows.  We finally got it out of the garage and around

the back for the finishing touches,  The ends are designed the same so that we can flip the

run to either end of the coop.  My FIL made my 16x16 windows as I couldn't find that

size retail.  Beans, the kitten, was an orphan that my neighbor found and adopted.  She fell asleep in

the coop after close inspection of every nook and cranny.  My DH designed the metal rod mechanism 

that push/pulls the pop door open/shut.  He made sure the wood (lines) for the doors lined up with the wood

on the coop.  That's an engineer for ya!

My DH and FIL getting the coop in place and attaching the run.  The run is made of PVC and

half inch hardware cloth.  My DH can move it around by himself.  The run snuggles up to the end of the coop

and is 10 feet long by 4 feet wide and 3 feet tall.  There is hardware cloth on the 6 foot sides under the

coop and an end-cap that is interchangable when we flip the run to the other side.

My FIL and my ISA Brown pullets checking out the coop's run and dust bath tub.  All 6 of them tried to get

into the dust bath at the same time.  Silly girls!  I mixed some dirt from my garden with DE for their bathing.

                                         
                                The eaves on either side are open for now.  I put a fake egg in each nest box and it's

                                 so much fun to collect the eggs.  The neighbor kids are taking turns gathering eggs.

Such a thrill to gather my first 2 eggs.  Today (7/18) there was 6 eggs in the nesting boxes!

I painted the interior with semi-gloss latex; white inside the coop to keep it bright and green in

the nest boxes so that they stay somewhat dark for the girl's privacy!  I got the water nipples

at FarmTek and put 3 of them on the bottom of a bucket that holds a gallon of water mixed

with 1 TBS. of ACV.  They took to the nipple sytem with no problems and appear

healthy and happy in their new home.  They are spoiled rotten and even the neighbors buy them

meal worms and crickets.  We have the space to change the coop/run once a week so the

grass can recover.  In the winter we will put it in the garden and till up the coop/run plot and plant

some sort of rye grass mix for next summers rotation.

I am pretty pleased at how it turned out and the only thing I'd change is to not have the

roosting cage.  I'd probably just put one roosting bar across the back as they all crowd on the back

bar next to the wall anyway.  The deep litter system is working so well that I could do without it. 

With the removal of a few screws the cage could come out but the DH worked so hard on it that

I hate to ask him to take it out.  I figure we have about $500 wrapped up into the coop and run. 

The girls have a lot of eggs to lay to pay for their new digs! 

Thanks for looking at my coop and lovely ISA Browns!  They sure are fun!