Coop placement help, please (pics included)

[lurky]

That chicken house is beautiful!!!!! I for one would like to see more pictures of that! Are there any posted here already?

 

[greginshasta]

Kerr - the cover over your pop hole is absolutely precious. Could you post a close-up of that please?

 

[Kerr]

thank u!
Ok let me sort thru my photos and see if I have any closeups of the hatch door....
Kerri

 

[Kerr]

Here a picture of my Leghorn Rooster going into the house for a snack

Sorry bout the mess to the right of the coop - these were taken when we hadn't put the tools away and only had the temporary pond/pool for the ducks..

to the left is a "man" door - all chicken wired safe (well as safe as we could get it) it leads out back to a fully caged run as well (although they are never in it)
There is also another chicken door that leads into the caged area which u don't see from this angle.

 

[lurky]

Do you have pics of the other side, the inside set up? Did you and DH build that yourselves?

 

[KrisRose]

Kerr- Luv the coop. And the rocks.

Biretta- also my humble opinion but would wait till the spot for the house has been decided. Not unless you build a big chicken tractor that could be moved.

 

[Poison Ivy]

Also remember when deciding on a place for your coop is access to water and electric if you want it. I would hate to lug water out to far and I like electric in my coop for lights & heat lamps for winter time. Or if you have a way to have water lines run out there when you get your house built would be great. I don't know if you will have city water or a well. You got a nice lot and I would stake out where you want your chicken coop and then go ahead and plant a few trees so they will be big enough for shade when you start to build it.

 

[Kerr]

I agree about the wiring and water for sure

My well hose runs to the coop no problem but they normally go to the duck pool to drink or the creek
Winter is not as much fun

I don't have any inside photos but I'll take some tomorrow (I'm stuck at work right now)

During the summer I take my hanging solar light out of my garden and hang it in the coop at night...then in the morning I put it back in the garden for sun recharging!
Free night light!

and it looks nice to boot......

Hubby designed and built it - he's a perfectionist which is a good thing for our chickens I guess!
The colours and decorating are my doing - I love country things and figured it had to sorta blend with my house

just for fun - heres a photo of my 135 yr old haunted house!

I'll post under coop designs tomorrow night when I'm back into work.

SORRY BIRETTA - didn't mean to slide off topic
Beautiful land you have there - it will be quite the Utopia!
Kerri

 

[suburbanhomesteader]

Not sure how far you live from your property, but if I was you, I would think about putting in a tractor now. I would make it from horse panels, which are 16' long with 2"x4" mesh. I would wire those to a 1 or 1.5" EMT frame, and cover it with a heavy-duty silver tarp. I'd pull it to a new location every couple of days, and just march it up and down the field. You could do one tractor for meat and one for eggs. Then, you could use the tractors in a more permanent location If you need winter protection, I'd use Tekfoil over the structure and under the tarp (can't tell where you live from your photos; it looks like it might be AR or MO?)

 

[biretta]

Hi everyone. Thanks for all the great suggestions and input, which I just now have read as I've been out of commision for a while. In response to the questions/comments: I'm in Northwestern WA, near Bellingham to be specific. We've also already planned on having the house towards the middle of the property, in relation to the woods and the street which incidentally would be to the South, with the woods on the North side. So it sounds like putting them near the woods would allow for winter protection as well as some necessary shade in the summer. Then yes, I could put windows on the South side of the coop which would conveniently face the house. I've considered getting a dog to guard the chickens but then I'd feel that I should get 2. It'd have to be an outside dog as I wouldn't want it getting lonely. (I still carry significant guilt about our German Shepherd we had when I was a kid; he lived outside by himself and always seemed lonely and bored. ) And 2 dogs would add up--all those vet bills! Believe me, the s.o. would love it if the chickens were moved there right now, but there's no electricity, no water, and it's 20 miles away, all which add up to a major inconvenience. And Kerr, I have yet to see your photos; I cut and pasted the URL but it didn't work. Oh, and the s.o. thinks electricity access for the coop will be an unnecessary additional expense, but I'm standing my ground! Even if I don't provide lighting during the winter, I'll definitely need to keep their water from freezing. As I watch one of my chickens pacing her 7'x13' run nearly constantly, I am dying to move out there so the chooks can run around. An aside: I'm not sure what to do about the pacing. The other one doesn't do it except when it sees me coming. I'm feeling guilty and wondering if I need to give them to someone with more space. Based on what I've read though, this should be plenty of space for 2 chickens and I let them out 2 hours a day. Also I wonder if it's because the pacer gets bullied by the other. I'm kind of stuck too because if I let the bully go, the other chicken would be alone. So much to think about!