Building A Hoop Coop first! a Pallet Coop next!

[MonsterClucker]

Uea really haven't put anything into this yet except for gas. The few pieces of OSB were scrap from my privacy fence project. And the dew little screws so far. Im trying to spend as little as possiblebon housing the birds to have more to spend on real necessities of keeping a lot of chickens. that's my while aim.


This is a structure! when you walk inside it just feels like a warehouse! (Exaggerated!) But no really, its pretty nice and roomy. I might be able to house 30-40 hens depending on how I do my nestboxes. They are gonna be external of course. The windows I haven't figured out yet. But ill put I'm a few windows AMD put hardware cloth in them. just gonna buy some 8' 2x4 for rafters amd put OSB on top with either a tarp or roofing shingles. i might go with tje shingles to try and deflect some od the sun from coop. have any ideas for me?

 

[MonsterClucker]

For protection from winged predators, you can always use fruit tree bird netting over the top of your run.  It is much cheaper than metal netting and is very effective.  You will have to replace it about once a year but you can find it for less than 10 bucks for a size big enough to completely cover a full grown fruit tree.  Depending on the size of your run, you could prolly divide it into a couple years worth.

Are you talking about like trellis netting? They sell them at hydro shops and plant stores? Yea that probably would work. I might have to double them up to make the net holes smaller but that's possible.

 

[Avedderflock]

Nice job so far but beggon my pardon don't you need to have chicken wire on the perimeter as well? I like the idea of the netting but Im looking at those slats and wonder whats the plan for the overall warmth in the off season??

 

[JoshU]

Are you talking about like trellis netting? They sell them at hydro shops and plant stores? Yea that probably would work. I might have to double them up to make the net holes smaller but that's possible.

No. It is like real thick threading in the same design as chicken wire. The birds cant git into it. Allthough it wouldnt stop coons. But if you are just letting them run during the day, it is cheap and would stop hawks and such.

 

[JoshU]

Nice job so far but beggon my pardon don't you need to have chicken wire on the perimeter as well? I like the idea of the netting but Im looking at those slats and wonder whats the plan for the overall warmth in the off season??

Im pretty sure that is just the frame. When done you wont even know its made with pallets.

 

[MonsterClucker]

No.  It is like real thick threading in the same design as chicken wire.  The birds cant git into it.  Allthough it wouldnt stop coons.  But if you are just letting them run during the day, it is cheap and would stop hawks and such.

Nice!! Where do you get it from?

 

[MonsterClucker]

Nice job so far but beggon my pardon don't you need to have chicken wire on the perimeter as well?  I like the idea of the netting but Im looking at those slats and wonder whats the plan for the overall warmth in the off season??

Im not sure if I understand correctly what your talking about? On the pallets the openings? I'm gonna cover the inside with OSB so those openings will be gone.

Thanks for checking out the coops!

 

[ckack76]

I agree, you might want to place some kind of fencing around the bottom to block digging predators. I lost my whole flock to raccoons who found the weekness and dug down just a little underneath the coop wall. 16 chickens and 1 duck lost all in one shot.

Hopefully the changes I made to the coop will work. I have 3 ducks in there for now that I've had for 3 weeks. I ended up digging down under all the walls and pouring cement. figured they couldn't dig through that!!

 

[JoshU]

Nice!! Where do you get it from?

Our tsc has them. Most big box stores lowes menards etc. Have them too. Just ask about bird netting for fruit trees.

 

[chicken pickin]

Yea chicken math is no joke!

I got a incubator the other day too and an egg turner. So it looks like I'm goona be hatching eggs too lol. I found out that there is a rare breed of chicken called Basque hens that come from a region in Spain my father is from so I'm trying to source some of those chicks to! I've sewn them on one hatcheries website for $19 a chick.
Pretty steep, but my dad insisted that I get some of those lol. So yea I have more hoop coops to build!
The meatiea are loving the coop and the run they have now. They are always dust bathing and chasing off the little birds that fly down! They are hilarious! With their big breqts just swinging everywhere when they run around lol. It's crqzy how food driven they are. I'm excited to get this first batch bagged and in the freezer. I'm anxious to see how fresh home grown chicken taste compared to store bought chicken.
I like the hoop coops a lot. But if I could raise meat birds anyway I'd rather do it in a tractor mo ing to fresh pasture everyday. But this works good for now.

I remembered you were looking for some rare chicken called a Basque. I just saw a byc member has Marraduna Basque Cockerels for sale and I believe have Basque hens also you may be able to get chicks. They are also in california I just dont know how close to you.