construction of my pen/coop, suggestions welcomed

[tri-5-ron]

Ok, so we've made a little more progress and got the nesting boxes mostly built and mounted.
Still need to do a bit of trim work, make a entry perch, latches, and paint.
I may put the kids to work again with the paint brushes this weekend.

 

[DaiquiriDuck]

One quick question.... could you fly to England and build me one for free?

Love It!

 

[PunkinPeep]

lookin' good.

 

[Tikka]

Our 4 hens started out with 4 boxes before we built the roost, and I guess all 4 of them slept piled up in one, pooping in it. Then they laid all 4 eggs in the nesting box furthest from that. That's how it was in their former home and I tried to make it similar so as to not freak them out too much all at once.

We built them a roost and went with two nesting boxes. They only lay eggs in one, and fortunately don't poop in the nesting boxes anymore. Now and then my husband will try to get them to lay in the second nesting box. We have a couple of plastic eggs and if we put them in the second nesting box, they hens will move them into the first box.

 

[KatieH]

Looks awesome, come build one for me!!!

 

[Harleena]

Those FarmTek waterer nipples - Can they be used under pressure or only for gravity feed? Meaning, can I have them on a water line or only at the bottom of a bucket filled with water?
- edit - - Oh duh - I just found a thread that says low pressure can leak, gravity feed is better.
How high do I position them and how many should I get for 10 hens?

 

[tri-5-ron]

A little more progress,...

The plastic panel walls are up, (what a pita those things are to cut), a circular saw just melts them, so does a skil-saw/saw-zall even at the lowest speed setting, so I had to do each cut with about 50 strokes of a industrial razor knife, then snap the panel like a glass cutter does.
Royal Pain! But hey, I'm saving money buy not buying more plywood, and I'm reuseing materials that I had in the yard right???
Well guess what, I'm heading to Lowes today to pick up a couple sheets of plywood for the front two doors, and the upper Gable pieces!
To heck with trying to get 5 cuts at various angles, on each of 3 more panels, to make the gable pieces fit properly.

I will still be making a removable plastic floor liner, and poop boards under the roost's and the nesting boxes, but after that, I'm DONE with that dang plastic sheeting/panels. What a PAIN that stuff has been !
With the amount of labor it took me to get that stuff cut, I figure it wil be a wash, somewhere between 3000 and 6000, "Poop Board Scrapings" !!!
LOL!

In the picture below, you can see a shiney panel section in the left side of the picture, (above the circular saw), towards the top of the wall.
That section is 4' wide 16" tall, and I will eventually remount it with hinges on the top edge, to make a wide ventalation windo for the summer heat.
I'm even considering using a Greenhouse style automatic cylinder used for the roof vents of a greenhouse. That way the "Window Vent" will be tempurature controlled.
What do you guys think of that Idea ??? Good or Bad ???

 

[chicks4kids]

You have done an amazing job!!

If you wanted to recoop some of your cost, you could run a 4 inch pieice of wood along the front of your nest boxes and return those tubs you bought. They do look nice, don't get me wrong, but I could see them flicking the bedding outside of those tubs in the boxes themselves. Most birds will not poo in their nest boxes...mine don't and I just use aspen/pine chips in there.

But again, it looks fantastic!! And in such a short amount of time!!

 

[tri-5-ron]

Finally the rain has held off a bit and I've made a LITTLE more progress. I've got to two big front doors built and hung, and now I need to decide where to cut in the Pop door, and how big it should be for standard size Chickens. I'm thinking the lower left corner, or the right hand door? Does this sound good? or where would you put it?

How tall, and wide should I cut the opening for the Pop door?
Thanks,
Ron

 

[sianara]

Ron,

I've really enjoyed reading through this thread. Your coop/run is looking good.

As far as space per birds go, personally I wouldn't have more than 12 large hens in that area especially since they won't be able to roam around in the big yard. Your 12' x 21' area is 288 sq foot and since they will be limited to this area the more space you are able to give them the better off they will be has been my experience. It may seem like a ton of space to you right now but once you've got 12 grown hens (and some of your breeds are big girls) you'll be amazed at how "small" it actually is when they're all roaming around.

I have found for health, happiness and good husbandry practice allowing a minimum of 30 sq feet per bird (combination of run and coop area) to be the minimum number to easily live with. If possible I'd do even more. I've learned the hard way through winters of bloody combs, picking on the lowest totem pole hen who has no where to run and hide away from the bullies and so on.

I would put the pop door on the left door closest to the fence assuming you will have a ramp, the ramp won't be smack dab in the middle of the run and you won't be tripping over it every time you go in there

.

Good luck and keep those pictures coming!