Wife wanted laying boxes inside coop instead of the outside of the coop because she said the boxes need to be inside the main coop to stay warm if they are sticking out of the coop they will be cold. I didn't want to go inside the coop each time to collect eggs so I added doors just like a kitchen cupboard and put them in the main coop. Then I added the porch to keep the snow off me. (3 nest boxes just under the window)
- Trevor Taylor
- Oct 4, 2014
- 0
- 0
I installed a screen under the roost then used a piece of plexiglass as the poop board under the screen. I found out two things when fooling around. First is that the poop washes of the plexiglass better then anything I have tried hands down. The second thing was by total accident. I didn't have the right size of holes in the screen in the yard at the time so I temporary installed a screen with 1/4" x 1/4" holes. The poo just stayed on top of the screen and didn't fall through the screen. What I learned is that when the poo is on the screen it dries right away because it gets air all around it and there is no smell but when the poo hits the floor it stays wet and sticks to the floor. Now this is where the wet poo smell comes from. So I sized my screen so that the poo hits the screen, dries then shrinks and falls to the poop board as a dry powder. No smell and the poop board doesn't have any poo stuck to it. :) If there is any poo that doesn't fall through the screen the chickens push it though when walking on the screen. For the most part there is no poo inside the coop it is all contained on the other side of the screen.
- Trevor Taylor
- Oct 4, 2014
- 0
- 0
Close Call :0 I went outside this am and found what looks like to me as muddy bear paw prints. Good thing he never climbed through the window. There is hardware cloth over the window but I'm pretty sure if he wanted to get in hardware cloth was not going to stop him. Very close call.
- Trevor Taylor
- Sep 25, 2014
- 0
- 0
An early snowstorm the first week of Sept. dumped 24" of snow on our coop project. The snow is melted but put construction behind schedule and now we are full steam ahead to finish up the last 10% before winter hits us. We did get all the automatic features completed so the girls should be happy. I installed auto door, 400 watt flat wall panel heater c/w thermostat to keep coop at 4 deg C. (for those of you that don't think chickens need heat, it gets to - 45 deg C here.) auto water system c/w heat and added a wireless web cam that senses motion and sends a notification to my phone to tell me an egg has been laid and ready for pick-up.
- Trevor Taylor
- Sep 25, 2014
- 1
- 0
