Coop foundation question

[BigLar368]

I did however pick up four more the morning before I picked up the birds at the post office just in case a couple did not make it during shipping. I was surprised to find all of them were alert and very healthy and have continued to be for since Wednesday.

 

[macbow]

What breed of chickens did you get? What part of the country are you in?

 

[BigLar368]

We are in Southeast Texas. We order a pair of each of these: Golden Comets, Rhode Island Reds, New Hampshire Reds, Buff Orpingtons, Austerlops, and Barred Rocks. At the same time I ordered 4 Welsh Harlequin ducks. I picked up a pair or Golden Sex Links and a pair of White Leghorns the morning I picked up the ordered birds.

 

[macbow]

Oh wow! That's quite the variety. I just researched the best laying and best minded chickens and the ISA Browns seemed to rate up there highly. People seem to be pretty big on the Australorps too for both laying and nature, and since I am originally from Australia I figured I need to support the home country a little, so they are my next lot I am getting.

 

[BigLar368]

I have a fairly small back year and its now even smaller with the coop and run. I think if I am lucky enough for all these birds to mature to egg layers I will not have enough room. I may have a to sell off a few to make room.

I tried to balance the picks I made with good layers and docile nature. Our grand baby is only 8 and she is as skittish as the birds...lol. I wanted to get a good mix of colors as well. I would get bored of seeing the same colored 16 chickens...lol.

I have to say I was very skeptical in ordering online but it worked out very well. Of course we will enjoy the eggs but it really a form over function things for us. If we only harvested 3 eggs a day it would have still been all worth it. The grand baby has taken to this much better than I would have ever thought.

 

[macbow]

We eat a LOT of eggs, so if these chickens only gave us 3 eggs a day after the money we put into them they wouldn't be too popular with me! Lol! I never thought I would have enjoyed chickens so much though. They really are cool little creatures.

 

[FFCB]

My coop is bolted onto cinder blocks. I have the cinder blocks along the entire perimeter and stacked two deep in the ground. I dug down to hard earth and filled the inside of the coop footprint 12 inches deep with riverbed sand. I use a sand shifting shovel to scoop the dried poop out. It seems to cut down on flies. I know I should compost, but I don't garden that much.

 

[macbow]

My coop is bolted onto cinder blocks. I have the cinder blocks along the entire perimeter and stacked two deep in the ground. I dug down to hard earth and filled the inside of the coop footprint 12 inches deep with riverbed sand. I use a sand shifting shovel to scoop the dried poop out. It seems to cut down on flies. I know I should compost, but I don't garden that much.

How did you bolt it to the cinder blocks?

 

[FFCB]

I set some remnant flag stones on top to cap the cinder blocks and then used metal screws. This looks pretty good - https://www.popularmechanics.com/home/tools/reviews/g1314/how-to-fasten-anything-to-concrete/

 

[rosemarythyme]

I saw someone's coop somewhere on here and they had not put their posts in the ground, but rather had set the whole structure on concrete blocks.

So you can't see it very well from my coop photos, but mine is set up like this. I had a shed company build and install mine and the owner said he does all of his sheds like this, to keep them elevated away from ground moisture and to make them moveable (people have moved and taken their sheds with them).

So it goes concrete block, then pressure treated skids, then the floor and the body of the coop goes on top of that. Bottom of coop sits about 5-6" off the ground.

Cheap eggs get expensive pretty quick! Lol!

This is why your very first egg will be a thousand dollar egg... CHickens are cheap. Everything else is expensive.