Adding a second coop

[sunflour]

I would enlarge the first! We added a second coop onto the first one as you can see by the separate colors (didnt want to buy more yellow paint). We added 13 chickens we hatched to our existing 4. I made a 2x2 foot pass through door inside the walls of the two coops so they could move between coops. It worked great as the little ones had a place to sleep away from the old timers and could range together inside the run with an escape place if needed. The downside now is that the little girls are joining the old 4 chicken flock. We're down to 13 total chickens and 9 of them are sleeping in the 4x4 yellow coop! They've slowly been shifting over there and the giant coop 4 times the size is barely being used! So I may have to take down the whole wall to make it one giant coop... not sure yet...

Hi there in MACON THO! we're not too far from ya



I like it, looks like a great place for your flock. I think with time, they will view it as one big condo!
My address is Macon, but actually our property is south Monroe County, Where Are You?

 

[biteme2134]

Ya they're definitely spoiled! We have 9 hens and got 9 eggs today.. can't beat that! We're in Lagrange - probably and hour or two from you

 

[sunflour]

We have 3 buff orpingtons and 3 barred rocks, they lay 3-6 daily, and too many eggs for us. We give away, cook and feed back to our girls. Never expected too many eggs for the 2 of us from 6 chickens!

Ours are also too spoiled, but that's the fun of it all! Makes life so much more interesting.

 

[Patty914]

That is some complex! Really neat! We are going to remove one wall from the coop and add on that way. Actually, I should say we have someone building it for us and he and his partner should work on it Monday and probably will finish it Mon, too! So, pics coming soon.

 

[biteme2134]

We have 3 buff orpingtons and 3 barred rocks, they lay 3-6 daily, and too many eggs for us. We give away, cook and feed back to our girls. Never expected too many eggs for the 2 of us from 6 chickens!

Ours are also too spoiled, but that's the fun of it all! Makes life so much more interesting.

We started only wanting 4 hens - then we got the fever... we hatched out some...bought some... sold some... Haha! I've got ours eating out of our hands too. They're spoiled rotten. We have a screen porch with a "storm door" that kind of slams when you let it shut. When they hear that door shut anywhere in the yard they come running! and we crack up laughing! One of the younger roosters will do this little hop to grab food from my hand like a little dog. We call it his ninja jump.. they crack me up

 

[biteme2134]

That is some complex! Really neat! We are going to remove one wall from the coop and add on that way. Actually, I should say we have someone building it for us and he and his partner should work on it Monday and probably will finish it Mon, too! So, pics coming soon.

If you look at my profile I think you can see most of the building process start to finish. Here's a video of it after the addition was made.

I like to build stuff and it's fun to make it your own. That's how 4 birds turn into almost 20!

 

[sunflour]

We started only wanting 4 hens - then we got the fever... we hatched out some...bought some... sold some... Haha! I've got ours eating out of our hands too. They're spoiled rotten. We have a screen porch with a "storm door" that kind of slams when you let it shut. When they hear that door shut anywhere in the yard they come running! and we crack up laughing! One of the younger roosters will do this little hop to grab food from my hand like a little dog. We call it his ninja jump.. they crack me up

We wanted 3, read you should expect losses and mis-sexed and get roos….so got 6. The books were wrong, when you love your pets and clean pasty butts and give TLC, they all live….and all were girls….so had to expand their coop when they grew up.

Ours are so spoiled…lunch time get a cool treat …watermelon or cantalope. After all have laid for the day, a tray of eggs or hotdogs with raisins. sometimes cheese on top. later…lettuce or greens in a treat ball hung inside run…and then….treat ball with happy hen treats and some mealy worms.

They pout if we're not on time with the agenda. When it is time for first course, they look like a picket line in front of the run!!

Most BYC posts would think we overindulge them, but they are healthy, happy, not fat and lay regularly.

 

[biteme2134]

We wanted 3, read you should expect losses and mis-sexed and get roos….so got 6. The books were wrong, when you love your pets and clean pasty butts and give TLC, they all live….and all were girls….so had to expand their coop when they grew up.

Ours are so spoiled…lunch time get a cool treat …watermelon or cantalope. After all have laid for the day, a tray of eggs or hotdogs with raisins. sometimes cheese on top. later…lettuce or greens in a treat ball hung inside run…and then….treat ball with happy hen treats and some mealy worms.

They pout if we're not on time with the agenda. When it is time for first course, they look like a picket line in front of the run!!

Most BYC posts would think we overindulge them, but they are healthy, happy, not fat and lay regularly.

You got what we wanted! We hatched out 8 thinking we'd get close to 4 hens on a bad note.. we got 2 hens and six roosters! I ended up selling 4 of them at about 3 months old. You do spoil them more than we do! I have a bucket of things like chips and crackers that go out of date and just grab a few handfuls whenever I go out back. Do you let them free range? We let ours, but we did lose a rooster to a coyote last winter. It really made me tighten our coop defenses (even though it was due to ranging not caging). But since I let them out every day they stand by the door wanting out all day long and I can't keep them locked up So far no more incidents tho

 

[sunflour]

You got what we wanted! We hatched out 8 thinking we'd get close to 4 hens on a bad note.. we got 2 hens and six roosters! I ended up selling 4 of them at about 3 months old. You do spoil them more than we do! I have a bucket of things like chips and crackers that go out of date and just grab a few handfuls whenever I go out back. Do you let them free range? We let ours, but we did lose a rooster to a coyote last winter. It really made me tighten our coop defenses (even though it was due to ranging not caging). But since I let them out every day they stand by the door wanting out all day long and I can't keep them locked up So far no more incidents tho

We don't free range..too many predators - raccoon, possum, hawks, owls, fox, coyote, stray dogs….

We picked breeds that do well in confinement. Had planned to let out under supervision and first attempts a hawk scared me and 2 Barred Rocks ran us around the coop to catch and lock up….tried again and my BIG BUFF kept looking up at the temp fence and I was afraid she would go over and give us another chicken run. They are happy in their home, they only come out human door to get first in line to follow treats back in.

I have plans for a protected adjacent area to let them out under supervision..but put this on hold til the cooler fall weather. Have a chicken friendly compost bin we have started next to their home. Hope they will enjoy it and become compost turners in the fall/winter.

 

[biteme2134]

We don't free range..too many predators - raccoon, possum, hawks, owls, fox, coyote, stray dogs….

We picked breeds that do well in confinement. Had planned to let out under supervision and first attempts a hawk scared me and 2 Barred Rocks ran us around the coop to catch and lock up….tried again and my BIG BUFF kept looking up at the temp fence and I was afraid she would go over and give us another chicken run. They are happy in their home, they only come out human door to get first in line to follow treats back in.

I have plans for a protected adjacent area to let them out under supervision..but put this on hold til the cooler fall weather. Have a chicken friendly compost bin we have started next to their home. Hope they will enjoy it and become compost turners in the fall/winter.

Gotcha - I may go to confinement if we have any more issues - we only have an acre lot and our one neighbor has an acre too. So they have about 2 acres open and woods all around. With all the foot traffic outside we keep most of the animals away. I've never seen any hawks lurking - lots of buzzards tho. I built their run with T-posts and hardware cloth. if you wanted an easy supervision area that's an easy one. I secured ours with 4x4x8 posts on the ground and a buried apron because it's permanent but you may not need all of that.

haha compost turners.. good idea !