Built our first coop, how'd we do?

[wonderpup]

This past weekend my husband built our chicken house, our chicks are about 7 weeks old. We have 6 of them but I'm thinking perhaps we need to cut that number down to four? We'll see. So far so good, they like it. They free range all afternoon into the evening when it gets dark and then I put them back in the house. I'm thinking I'd like to have my husband make some external nest boxes when they are old enough to lay but we'll see. If he won't then we'll use something inside, but I'd rather not take up the floor space.

(Hopefully these photo's don't come out to large. If I need to I can make them smaller again. )

So anyway what do you think? The main thing I want to fix is a gap up near the roof, we'll have to play with that to make sure nothing to get in. Thus far it's stood up to the dog's trying to get in the first two days it was up. (they are leaving it alone now) Also it's not in the photos but we put hay on the floor of the house so they aren't walking on the wire.

 

[Tanichca]

looks nice... but i think i see a roo in pic 2?

 

[Baymule]

Haha, after looking at the pics, I had to scroll back up to see where you are from. I used a lot of hardware cloth on my coop too because it is so hot in east Texas. For the winter, I stapled opened plastic feed sacks to cut the wind off. Your coop is cute and you have a right to be proud of it.

 

[wonderpup]

Quote:
Yeah, I've got my eye on that one. I was reading up the other night on looking for saddle feathers starting to grow and so far nothing that I can see. Time well tell. I'm definitely NOT keeping a roo though

I was also looking at photos of other Australorps and noted that sometimes they develop differently so fingers still crossed for pullet. Thus far he/she isn't much different looking than the other two, one has almost no comb development, and one has some, and then this one. *shrugs* We'll see. They are push about 8 wks now I believe. I think they were almost a week old when I brought them home.

 

[wonderpup]

Quote:
Yeah we did a double layer of the wire in some places. Right now we don't have any critters running around the neighborhood that we worry about so we figured we'd built it to keep the dogs out and if something comes knocking that is bigger than the dog and can seriously rip the coop apart..... welll it can have them. Fingers crossed that no such creature exists anywhere around here. I just hope it'll stand up to invasion if a coon or a possum gets any ideas. I don't *think* they could get in there, the heavy wire is nailed in, but I understand they can be determined and surprisingly strong.

 

[mychookschick]

Very cute! i may suggest a tarp or something when it is windy, so that they can get out of the wind. Also, I don't know about there, but here, sometimes the rain comes down at an agle so you might need a tarp or two then too. Good luck and enjoy you chickenkeeping experience!

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

If you have an of yourvroofing material oft you can use bolts & spacers to hold it away from the narrow ends allowing ventilation, but offering wind/rain protection too. Looks great, love my Austrolopes in our flock

 

[arlew0127]

Looks Good!!!

 

[PartridgeRckgal]

Very nice coop. You did a great job!

 

[elmo]

One thing you might think about is building a lip around the base of the unit and using bedding, like shavings. As you see, chicken poo really doesn't all fall through a wire floor, and cleaning chicken droppings off wire isn't a fun or easy job (don't ask me how I know this). The other thing you could do is put a poop board or tray under the roost to make it easy to remove the night's droppings and keep them from mucking up the wire.

A wire floor isn't the easiest surface for a chicken's feet, so do be sure to keep an eye out for any foot abrasions that could lead to a bumblefoot infection.