Reviews by Kat2141

Great idea! I've had frozen eggs and it's a bummer. This could prevent that.

I think you did a wonderful job on the coop. Like you, I'm all for recycle & reuse stuff if at all possible. We have ours in an unused horse stall. I like the way that you have the clean-out under the roosts and the nest box setup. If I were to build a new coop, I would consider both. The picket fence gives it a nice look, too.

I was so glad to see this realistic article. I totally agree that it is best to give them as much space as you can. I have seen so many things that say 2 or 4 square feet per bird or some foolish thing like that and I know MY eight girls would not be happy in that situation. They love having their large pasture. I cringe when I'm on the road and see the little 4'x6' coop/run units from the local farm store and 6 chickens in it. I'm fairly certain that they are NOT happy birds, but the manufacturer decided that coop/run unit is for 8-10 birds and advertises it as such. I saw one online that was an 8x10 unit for up to 18 chickens! Wow!

Thanks for all of the info. A side note on the garden patch... have you tried growing fodder? I have looked at the method, just haven't tried it yet. Last fall, I bagged up a lot of dried grass from the yard and would throw that out into the snow and they loved it. So I guess I need to try the fodder route. Here is a link to check if interested... https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/growing-fodder-for-chickens.713334/

Great article! I have to agree with most of what you wrote. I see the tiny coops they sell at tractor supply and shake my head. I love having lots of room for my girls. It make life much easier. I find that, at first, I added, removed and just moved things around in there based on how they behaved but now they seem pretty happy with the setup. You mentioned that yours like to fly down from their roosts, where all of mine prefer a ramp. I had put it in when one injured her leg and couldn't jump down and found that all of them used it, so left it in.

All in all, I think everyone should read this when they are starting out.

No, you are not going to outsmart them. Mine keep me guessing all of the time. They have a perfectly good set of nest boxes on one wall. They found an unused feed bucket that they liked in an empty horse stall and I finally moved that to their "stall". They used that daily. Then I noticed that they would try to double up in it if one didn't get out quick enough. So I put a cardboard box on the shelf behind it and left the flap up on the outer side for them to "hide". Put a couple of them in, they promptly got out. Next day, 2 eggs in it... day after that all 4 eggs are in it... nobody wants anything to do with the bucket now. Now they wait in line (or double up) for the cardboard box... Go figure.

I did the DLM last winter and I believe it did help with making it warmer. My girls are in an unused, large remodeled horse stall in a barn. The horses are not in the barn much so no heat generated from them and the stall has a wood floor. As such it isn't overly warm and I think this really helped to keep the floor warmer for when they were locked in for a while due to snow. It also made care so much easier. I didn't do the DE but it sounds like a good idea and I think I will do that this year. I did clean it out in the spring and have done weekly cleanings through the summer... lately I've been wondering why I did that. Maybe I won't do that next year, not sure yet.

That is a beautiful coop! He did a great job.