Here's what our coop looked like when we bought it off of the Craigslist:
I think I paid 60 for it and we used the slide on my son's playhouse. Most of the wood we used for our coop. As you can see we are pretty urban--that is my neighbor's awning in the background. We thought a lot about where to put the coop as I have a fairly significant bird garden at the back of the yard and would've like to put it in there. However, I liked the idea of having it close to the house to take the food and water out to. We have windows on all sides and the doors on the front. The problem is that our neighbors have two windows to their side and actually a better view than we do since we have the doors on our side. When I saw the original playhouse, I thought it looked like a bird house so we just kind of went with that. We aren't finished yet but I have some questions so I thought I'd get started on our coop page. When I read about how much daylight the poor chicken needed to lay, I went with a translucent roof to give them as much as possible. However, the temperature in the coop varies by as much as 42 degrees--today the high in the coop was 99 and the low 57. I jump outta bed everyday to get them out of there. Has anyone else used a clear roof? If so, how did you adjust for the temperature changes. I read about open coops (a little bit) and wanted them to have a basic structure but this temperature issue needs to be fixed before winter. Secondly, has anyone done a round door before? These don't close properly so we'll have to do something else before winter--any ideas? Our egg boxes will go where the flower box is but we don't need them yet since our oldest chickens hatched in early April. Our roosts are up in the ceiling with a sort of middle floor in there that is mostly poop from the night. If you look in the coop, all you can see if that floor of poop. It doesn't smell or anything but it looks disgusting. I guess I just need to get in there every morning and clean it up or put grass or Sweet PDZ or whatever that stuff is so you don't see the poop? Finally, any suggestions? I have way too many chickens for this little coop--two little flocks of 9 each live in there right now and I have more chickens inside. However they free range from 6am on but that won't happen in winter so much as we'll have snow. I may have to abandon this coop for a larger more practical one farther down in the yard for winter. I've also go about two more feet out the back I could capture which I'm considering. Anyway, there is another BYC er with a translucent roof and she wanted to see mine so I thought I'd start our coop page. I'll work on it some more as we get the coop more complete.
I think I paid 60 for it and we used the slide on my son's playhouse. Most of the wood we used for our coop. As you can see we are pretty urban--that is my neighbor's awning in the background. We thought a lot about where to put the coop as I have a fairly significant bird garden at the back of the yard and would've like to put it in there. However, I liked the idea of having it close to the house to take the food and water out to. We have windows on all sides and the doors on the front. The problem is that our neighbors have two windows to their side and actually a better view than we do since we have the doors on our side. When I saw the original playhouse, I thought it looked like a bird house so we just kind of went with that. We aren't finished yet but I have some questions so I thought I'd get started on our coop page. When I read about how much daylight the poor chicken needed to lay, I went with a translucent roof to give them as much as possible. However, the temperature in the coop varies by as much as 42 degrees--today the high in the coop was 99 and the low 57. I jump outta bed everyday to get them out of there. Has anyone else used a clear roof? If so, how did you adjust for the temperature changes. I read about open coops (a little bit) and wanted them to have a basic structure but this temperature issue needs to be fixed before winter. Secondly, has anyone done a round door before? These don't close properly so we'll have to do something else before winter--any ideas? Our egg boxes will go where the flower box is but we don't need them yet since our oldest chickens hatched in early April. Our roosts are up in the ceiling with a sort of middle floor in there that is mostly poop from the night. If you look in the coop, all you can see if that floor of poop. It doesn't smell or anything but it looks disgusting. I guess I just need to get in there every morning and clean it up or put grass or Sweet PDZ or whatever that stuff is so you don't see the poop? Finally, any suggestions? I have way too many chickens for this little coop--two little flocks of 9 each live in there right now and I have more chickens inside. However they free range from 6am on but that won't happen in winter so much as we'll have snow. I may have to abandon this coop for a larger more practical one farther down in the yard for winter. I've also go about two more feet out the back I could capture which I'm considering. Anyway, there is another BYC er with a translucent roof and she wanted to see mine so I thought I'd start our coop page. I'll work on it some more as we get the coop more complete.
