Chronicles of a New Coop

[bwebster]

Roof and windows all set. The door I built was from what wood I had left over, which was warped. That's sitting under wet towels and cinder blocks for a few days to see if it'll get back into shape. Back to regular house duties and work for the week. Hope to put vinyl floor down, install door and nesting boxes and roosts next weekend.

Now, leaf time.

 

[bwebster]

Alright. Finally done. Chickens in and ready to lay a few more thousand dollar eggs.

I'll have to see how things go because there are a few things I may have to adjust. For instance roost and nest box heights. When they first went in they went up on the storage shelf and on top of the nesting boxes. May have to adjust. I may want to add a poop tray under the roosts, which I planned on initially. But I put down vinyl flooring so if not, it'll be easy to sweep out.

Very hard time connecting the old run to the new coop but I figured it out. And the hardest part of all was dealing with Home Depot lumber. Lots of splits, warps, twists and such. This thing is solid as hell, but a few times I cursed the world about things not lining up or being square.

If anyone has suggestions on what to do differently, or criticisms on what I did wrong please tell me!! Scroll through the photos and let me know!! Thanks everyone.

(Wall art courtesy of my little humans.)

 

[aart]

WooHoo!! Congrats!

When they first went in they went up on the storage shelf and on top of the nesting boxes.

You could put a sharply angled board on top of nests.
Not sure about the shelf, that is going to be a very attractive place for them to roost,
might have to cover it with a mesh 'door' to keep them off of it.

How did putting HC on the soffits turn out?

 

[bwebster]

How did putting HC on the soffits turn out?

It went haha. Forgot to take a pic and it's dark out now, but it worked. Instead of getting cut by the HC my drill skipped and stabbed my thumb with a Phillips bit lol. That is one thing I'm going to need to adjust. I actually went inside and told my wife I was done, until I realized I had forgotten to put the HC up.

I just cut 8'x9" (9" overhang) strips and screwed them up with a washer. It worked but it's not as neat as I'd like it to be.

 

[deidreg]

Very impressive work! I especially like the art gallery--not every chicken can claim to have art in their coop! Congratulations!

 

[Melky]

Nice job. My inside is like yours but I left the tops of my nest boxes so no roosting pooping on top. I also used natural perches one in front of the nest boxes and one across the hen house. I needed nothing else and they took right to it.

 

[bwebster]

@Melky that's a good idea about the top of the nest boxes.

 

[Melky]

@Melky that's a good idea about the top of the nest boxes.

I may have to use your upper storage idea. Need a shelf high.

 

[bwebster]

UPDATE***

Chickens have been in for over a month and all is well. I haven't noticed any pecking (though a couple still have bare spots above their tails, but some pin feathers coming in). Space was the main reason for building a larger coop.

I removed the roof of the nesting boxes to deter perching and they still use them just fine. Eggs have slowed due to winter, but I put a battery motion light on the ceiling and it seemed to help for a little while. 5 a day for a week or so but back to just 3 a day. We have 5 BRs.

Also no roosting on the storage shelf. All are roosting where they should. Not even on the bar on the nesting boxes.

Now I wait until expansion happens again. Hopefully far from now and preferably never. Thank everyone.

 

[aart]

I removed the roof of the nesting boxes to deter perching and they still use them just fine.

They don't try to perch on the tops of dividers?

Eggs have slowed due to winter, but I put a battery motion light on the ceiling and it seemed to help for a little while.

Supplemental lighting needs to be consistently timed for the same time each day.
Motion light is not going to do that...who know how long the lights are on with that set up.