2014 April coop challenge

[slingshotandLAR]

Easter egg hunt everyday!

Hey gang, it's not a BIG prize...but I will gladly hand paint a coop "NAME" sign for the winner to tack onto their coop or some chicken jokes...LOL!

That's a pretty cool prize Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[lisa7780]

Easter egg hunt everyday!

Hey gang, it's not a BIG prize...but I will gladly hand paint a coop "NAME" sign for the winner to tack onto their coop or some chicken jokes...LOL!

That is an awesome prize to win!!

 

[pfrosty]

My coop is finally ready...birds are in and enjoying the run. It has power, 14' of roosts with 24" wide poop boards underneath, sand inside the coop, 4 windows that open for ventilation. I have 10 chickens, 2 each of Barred Rock, Buff Orpington, Rhode Island Red, Ameracauna, Black Sex Link. The coop is 6' X 8' and the run is approx 18' x 10'. I will build nest boxes this summer and a better watering system next week.

 

[luckyclucky]

Not completely done.. But closer each day!

 

[JayDubYa]

Oh, I didn't realize there was an April challenge. I thought I was going to finish in March, so I posted there, so for some of you, this is probably a repeat.

But here is our coop. DH helped me some (mostly the roof part!) But generally, I worked on it when we weren't working on horse stuff. . .I modified the Daisy plan with some of the great ideas I found here on BYC.
--the automatic door opener

--my hubby finishing the roof

--the front

--the back

--the water bucket and one roosting tray

--the feed bucket and the other roosting tray

The current residents...



Future residents!




thanks for looking!

 

[lisa7780]

Your coop is amazing!!!! You are going to have some happy chickens!!

 

[schnellmann]

Just completed Cluckingham Palace today. Pics are from 2 days ago, though. Of course, the dog helped with the construction start to finish, supervising mostly, and making sure I didn't forget anything while at Home Depot. As you can tell, she is really proud of her work.

The chickens are my wife's, I'm just the facilities guy. The coop is 6' x 8', the run is 16'x8'. We are using zeolite (Sweet PDZ) inside the coop, medium sand outside in half the run and a concrete slab in the other half of the run under the coop. The run sand "system" is 4 layers: construction sand; plastic hardware cloth (protects the landscape fabric); landscape fabric (keeps the sand out of the gravel below) ; 5/8" washed gravel to assure drainage. Probably will be shavings in the nest boxes. They will free range most days.

In our wet pacific northwest climate, hay makes no sense in the run in my view. It'll just be a sloppy muddy mess too much of the time. So the aim of the run floor "system" is to keep things as dry and clean as possible. And we already have an embarrassment of compost riches for the garden, etc, so there's no point making more with deep bedding.

In any case, we have 6 chicks in the brooder now. Still a few weeks away from move-in.

 

[Tumbleweed Farm]

Just completed Cluckingham Palace today. Pics are from 2 days ago, though. Of course, the dog helped with the construction start to finish, supervising mostly, and making sure I didn't forget anything while at Home Depot. As you can tell, she is really proud of her work.

The chickens are my wife's, I'm just the facilities guy. The coop is 6' x 8', the run is 16'x8'. We are using zeolite (Sweet PDZ) inside the coop, medium sand outside in half the run and a concrete slab in the other half of the run under the coop. The run sand "system" is 4 layers: construction sand; plastic hardware cloth (protects the landscape fabric); landscape fabric (keeps the sand out of the gravel below) ; 5/8" washed gravel to assure drainage. Probably will be shavings in the nest boxes. They will free range most days.

In our wet pacific northwest climate, hay makes no sense in the run in my view. It'll just be a sloppy muddy mess too much of the time. So the aim of the run floor "system" is to keep things as dry and clean as possible. And we already have an embarrassment of compost riches for the garden, etc, so there's no point making more with deep bedding.

In any case, we have 6 chicks in the brooder now. Still a few weeks away from move-in.

Absolutely stunning--you did a beautiful job!

 

[schnellmann]

@Tumbleweed Farm - thanks very much. It was a fun build. We can see it from the house and it's in the middle of our barnyard, so we wanted it to look good as well as be functional. One of the primary features is that it had to be really beefy because it's a wild place here... coyotes, bobcats, black bear, racoons, etc are all daily visitors to our property during the summer.

 

[Tumbleweed Farm]

@Tumbleweed Farm - thanks very much. It was a fun build. We can see it from the house and it's in the middle of our barnyard, so we wanted it to look good as well as be functional. One of the primary features is that it had to be really beefy because it's a wild place here... coyotes, bobcats, black bear, racoons, etc are all daily visitors to our property during the summer.

It looks good--and secure. Where do you live that you have so many predators?