2 Hours into owning chickens for the first time.

[Stonernextdoor88]

2 ish hours into their new coop. I've never had chicken. These ladies are happy right? I've already gotten 4 eggs!

 

[cece_chickens]

2 ish hours into their new coop. I've never had chicken. These ladies are happy right? I've already gotten 4 eggs!

I love the set up!! It looks very clean! They seem fluffy and happy

 

[sourland]

Chickens do not like change. So don't surprised if they stop laying for a couple of weeks. They sometimes lay the eggs that are 'in process' and then take a break in their laying cycle after a change in environment.

 

[Chookchicken]

They will likely stop laying for 2-4 weeks as they adjust to their new home with new food.

 

[littlecoopnextdoor]

Can the chickens reach the insulation/foam at the ceiling? If so, I would make sure they can't. I've seen on this forum that they love pecking at styrofoam! Love your coop, looks so cute.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Chickens think Styrofoam is popcorn. Mine have eaten their fair share and survived But don't tempt fate. They look happy and your coop looks good! Are you keeping them in there to get used to it for a while-is that why the food is there? If you can raise the food and water up it will be less likely to get wood shavings in it. You'd be surprised how high you can raise a waterer and chickens still reach it-mine is on a shelf about a foot off the ground. There is a pallet beside it they can hop on but I usually see them standing on the ground and dipping into the waterer. Just a side note. Enjoy your chickies!

 

[Stonernextdoor88]

It's just for now. Things will change In a few days

 

[NatJ]

If you can raise the food and water up it will be less likely to get wood shavings in it.

Yes, this is a very good point.

A general guideline: the lip of the feeder and waterer should be about level with the chickens' backs when they stand next to it. Their necks are long enough they can still eat and drink easily at that level, but it stays much cleaner.

It looks like you have a style of feeder and waterer that can be hung from the ceiling if you want, or you can put them up on something. Bricks, pavers, cinder blocks, plastic crates, wood crates, and many other things can be used to raise a feeder or waterer.

 

[TOPChickens14]

Welcome to the world of chicken keeping!

I have a few suggestions for you. As other posters have said, they are going to eat that styrofoam if they can reach it. Last summer I had my flock escaping from the run and they would eat the styrofoam around the base of the house. I really couldn't do anything in that case until I decided to clip their feathers so they couldn't fly over the fence. I can't really tell from the picture but, it looks like there isn't any bedding in those nest boxes? You will want to put pine shavings or straw in there so their eggs don't break.

A few years ago, I used to have just styrofoam on my coop ceiling because it was within a larger shed. One night, a weasel chewed through the styrofoam and killed a lot of my birds. I just wanted to point that out to you. You're going to want a ceiling that nothing can chew through or rip off. What we did was purchase enough particleboard and hardware cloth to cover the ceiling. We stapled the hardware cloth to the particle board and attached that to the ceiling, remember, this solution worked because my coop ceiling is flat and it's within a larger shed. This would not work if the coop was outside on its own, the rain would soak and rot the particleboard.

About the feeder and waterer. They will get those extremely messy if they are on the bedding like that. What I do, is I take a milk crate (like what you used for the nest box) and flip it upside down on the coop floor. Make sure it's not on the bedding but rather you move the bedding out of the way and then place the crate on the bare floor. This gives you a sturdy flat area that you can place the waterer onto. The crate is the perfect height. For the feeder, you should hang this one so that the chickens don't knock it off and spill it everywhere. The waterer won't get knocked off because of its weight. If you have a wooden ceiling, you can screw a sturdy screw eye into the ceiling and then take twine and hang the feeder with the twine attached to the screw eye. If you don't have a wooden ceiling, you could hang it by screwing a 10-inch-long 1X2 into the 2X4 at the very end near the nesting box. Then you can make a large loop with twine and hang it from that 1X2.

From the photo, the ventilation opening in the top corner looks like might not have hardware cloth on it. Is it covered? You're going to have to cover that with hardware cloth if it's not.

Other than that, everything looks great! I love how you reused materials, my coop is almost entirely reused materials. It gives the coop such a rugged and woodsy feel.

Goodluck!

 

[Shadrach]

2 ish hours into their new coop. I've never had chicken. These ladies are happy right? I've already gotten 4 eggs!

I hope you don't mind me butting in.
I just looked at the picture of your hen's coop. There are uncovered polystyrene tiles on the ceiling. It would be wise to board them over, or take them off and fit them on the outside of the coop with a suitable covering.

EDIT. Just read the other posts and this has already been mentioned.