We have a fenced yard, so dogs aren’t an issue. We are using an auto door for the coop, so I can use 1/2in HWC on the coop portion to keep out raccoons. My wife works during the day in an office right next to the coop so I am more worried about nighttime incursions than daylight.
Yeah, I can remove that board if need be.
It’s kind of too late to switch hardware cloth; I’ve used 1/4in all over the rest of the coop and run. I was under the impression the smaller mesh was better, especially as we live in a major city and I am primarily worried about mice and rats!
Sorry all! I typed this in a hurry. We are using this plan:
https://www.thegardencoop.com/product/garden-coop-walk-in-chicken-coop-plans/
Instead of having the roof supports be on cross braces, they’ll be directly attached to the roof of the run.
The entire roof and all exposed walls of the...
Hey y’all! Our chicks are four weeks old now so this coming week we are finishing off the coop. We had to make some modifications to the plan we used because we had to build it around a tree, and as a result there isn’t as much ventilation as it was originally designed with.
Basically, the roof...
I definitely knew about beets. Red bell pepper will do it too - I learned from feeding it to our parrots! The beets especially will give some really slasher movie stools, but it’s just because beet juice is so potent!
We are holding off on treats until they’re bigger. I don’t want them to...
Hey; I think you’re right about intestinal shed. I changed their paper twice today and didn’t see any more blood in their stool. I did however order a bag of corid to keep on hand for the future, since we are not feeding medicated feed.
To be honest I’m looking forward to when they’re ready for...
Hey y’all!
The new chicks that got here Wednesday are eating, drinking, and active. Two of them had a little pasty butt yesterday morning but it’s cleared up as of today (Friday). I have them on Arrive probiotic in their water and scratch and peck starter crumble. I offered them Scratch and...
They mainly get crumble but today I offered them a small, jam jar lid with mash and some chick grit sprinkled around it.
Two of the poor little gals had a bit of pasty butt this morning, and were none too pleased with their human bidet (me, and baby wipes). They seem to be ok otherwise, and...
Our baby silked EEs arrived today and I realized as I was making mash that it’s got a lot of grain in it, unlike the crumble. I guess I didn’t think about that! I don’t have any grit on hand and they’re in a brooder indoors for now as I’m finishing up the coop.
I am assuming I need to hold off...
The eating garbage is so true. I also plan to give them kitchen scraps and parrot chop scraps - my parrots don’t usually finish their breakfast, which is mostly peppers, greens, quinoa, etc.
Our chicks arrive in the first week of September so I’m trying to decide what starter feed we go with.
I saw MPC has an olive oil feed, but it’s absurdly expensive. I tried to research it myself and I dunno what a PUFA is or why I should care, but I did see some claims that the chicks and...
Oh, my mom can definitely refill the food and water if they’re out in the coop. I might even just have our neighbor kids do it; our kids are going to be handling chicken chores when we are in town and I’m sure they’ll tag along for that anyways. I just don’t want her to have to deal with...
Hey y’all!
We are in Seattle and our chicks arrive the week of Sept 2nd.
We just found out my wife’s work is flying her to Copenhagen, Denmark the first week of November, so my mom is coming up to tend to the dogs and cats so that we can tag along. By then our chicks will be about 8 weeks old...
Well, we got caught by rain, but nearly all the run frame is primed, and about half the siding for the coop portion is done too. The plywood is partially cut and under a tarp.
Still debating if I want to do an exterior nest box or just have the nest boxes inside the main coop. The coop...
Why is it always rain in the forecast when I’m painting? Trying to prime the wood for our coop and it started an hour earlier than predicted!
On the upside, we have the bullseye primer on all the run frame done, and half of the siding for the outside of the coop! The interior plywood panels I...
I considered this but the main issue is that it would come up through the roof, which I don’t really understand how to compensate for! We are on the west coast on a migratory pathway so I want the run fully roofed.
I don’t know if we could move this one, it’s pretty tall! I am building right now, haha. This photo is old; the area behind the tree is completely cleared and full of 2x4s!
Hey y’all. I am building a coop from plans I bought online Here.
The problem is the plan wants you to have a fairly large roof overhang, but I can’t do that because the coop/run is going to fit very snugly around our magnolia tree.
The tree leans to the right because our tiny yard used to have...