King Cottage Peeps
We began our chicken adventure this spring when our nine year old brought home two chicks from a school science project. Well, that was just the beginning! Next, we built a duplex coop, ordered 6 more pulets from a hatchery, and now we are full swing in the chicken world.
We currently have 2 White Leghorns, 3 Easter Eggers, and 3 Black Astralorps. Our first egg should arrive any time now.
We modeled our coop after other duplex coops we have seen on various websites. We currently have it split, so that the two sets of chicks have their own side and cannot pick on each other. Soon, we will move them together, as they will need to produce heat to stay warm this winter.
We began by framing the main section with 2 x 4 x 6 posts. Then we continued to use 2x 4's to finish the coop with plywood flooring and aluminium roofing on top. The run is also split, and runs under the coop, creating built-in shade. The chickens free range for several hours a day, so our run is not as big as it would be for those who are in all the time. We made it big enough that they could get out and stretch in the morning, as well as fill up on breakfast, before going out and finding bugs and grass to snack on the rest of the day. The best idea we has had to do with protection. Instead of burying the hardware cloth, we tipped the coop and stapled the hardware cloth along the underside of the run, therefore nothing can dig its way in and they are fully protected, even if the coop door is open.
We began our chicken adventure this spring when our nine year old brought home two chicks from a school science project. Well, that was just the beginning! Next, we built a duplex coop, ordered 6 more pulets from a hatchery, and now we are full swing in the chicken world.
We currently have 2 White Leghorns, 3 Easter Eggers, and 3 Black Astralorps. Our first egg should arrive any time now.
We modeled our coop after other duplex coops we have seen on various websites. We currently have it split, so that the two sets of chicks have their own side and cannot pick on each other. Soon, we will move them together, as they will need to produce heat to stay warm this winter.
We began by framing the main section with 2 x 4 x 6 posts. Then we continued to use 2x 4's to finish the coop with plywood flooring and aluminium roofing on top. The run is also split, and runs under the coop, creating built-in shade. The chickens free range for several hours a day, so our run is not as big as it would be for those who are in all the time. We made it big enough that they could get out and stretch in the morning, as well as fill up on breakfast, before going out and finding bugs and grass to snack on the rest of the day. The best idea we has had to do with protection. Instead of burying the hardware cloth, we tipped the coop and stapled the hardware cloth along the underside of the run, therefore nothing can dig its way in and they are fully protected, even if the coop door is open.