Build your coop before chicks arrive

[Sylvie]

I wish I had found this site before I ordered, for one thing. I definitely would have built the coop first before the chicks came. We finally finished the coop enough to get the girls out of our living room. We don't have a garage yet so they were in the house.
16 ten week old chickens should have been out 3-4 weeks ago IMO.
We built a 8 x 8 coop thinking that we would have a few losses and a few roosters to give away/sell. They are all thriving and all pullets. I could be surprised at a late blooming rooster but I don't think so.
Building the coop for my disabled DH and me was no weekend completion like I've read from other posters. Nope, we started the week the chicks arrived just in case none survived the long 2 day transit in hot July heat. We had a plan we designed but boy, the arguing as we plugged along building it. My Dh has no strength so I was swinging the hammer and manning the screw driver, lifting the boards and shingles and not open to criticism. We got past all that and the girls went in last night with the baby monitor. Yaaaay!! no pics yet, I will post later.
Advice to new chick owners is build your coop first!

 

[bluey]

Very good advice!

It took me months to complete my much smaller coop (3x4x5) working on it as much as my life would allow. Of course, I'm no carpenter either....

 

[chickenfever]

A baby monitor??? I'll admit I've stressed and worried about my chicks as much (if not more at times) than I did over my own children. But I draw the line at them keeping me up at night!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Amen to that!

Although we had a coop ready when our chicks arrived, we didn't realize how fast they would grow and actually grow out of it!
Now we have 3 coops and several tractors and still feel we need more built.

Ewww! I couldn't imagine having the chicks in the house till 10 weeks old.
I had to get mine out of the brooder at 5 weeks because the smell was just awful! Of course, when you have about 70 they are hard to clean up after every day. Now I know why people get them in the summer. Easier to get them outside at night!

They had a blast going outside playing every day but we would bring them in every night. That certainly got old after a while!

 

[skyfires]

I feel your pain. We also waited to build AFTER the chicks arrived. Yeah the pressure was on. We had our babies in the second bathroom. You see a oval sunken tub makes a great brooder!!! Just hang a heat light, throw some shavings in, and your ready to go. Of course we had company for two weeks during this time. They had to use the shower in our bedroom. But my brother-in-law got up singing to them every morning!! Yeah,,, these things only happen at my house. But I draw the line at Baby Monitor!!

 

[Sylvie]

Quote:
LOL I wasn't going to use the baby monitor but at the last minute and total darkness I started thinking bout all the raccoons we have and wondering if we secured the hardware cloth over the 4 windows as well as we could have. It just seemed easier to have the monitor than keep worrying and wondering. After I ran it out to the coop at 10:30 pm I slept pretty good.

 

[Sylvie]

Quote:
We put them out in a pen every day too, otherwise my sanity would have been seriously in question! They came inside for each night but, yeah, the smell of barnyard was too much and I was really going through bales of shavings!
I cannot imagine 70 in my house!!! I'm trying to picture that!

 

[Sylvie]

Quote:
Did your singing brother in law help build the coop?
And what was he singing to the chicks?

 

[SarahBeth9394]

Quote:
While I can see that your situation is different than mine. I've been advised to order the chicks and that will motivate my hubby to take me wanting chickens seriously. We do work very well together on projects. But I'm trying to get him to give me some space in the shed so we would just have to put up a separating wall, door, ventilation, and set up the inside. Then put up a run. What is slowing me down is looking for construction left overs as there's not alot of building here.

 

[Sylvie]

Quote:
While I can see that your situation is different than mine. I've been advised to order the chicks and that will motivate my hubby to take me wanting chickens seriously. We do work very well together on projects. But I'm trying to get him to give me some space in the shed so we would just have to put up a separating wall, door, ventilation, and set up the inside. Then put up a run. What is slowing me down is looking for construction left overs as there's not alot of building here.

The leftovers are what we used. I went to yard sales that looked like they had recent building additions done on the house and if I didn't see wood I asked if they had any. I got 23 pieces of 1/2inch plywood for $20, some of it had the beautiful smooth finished side.
We got free shingles from someone who had their house reroofed and over ordered.
I made a list from reading BYC and got the turtle sand box for dust baths for $3 by asking after looking around at a kids stuff yard sale.