- Jun 12, 2014
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Hello BYC,
Thought I’d post photos and information describing the home I built for my wife’s pampered hens, Dot’s Delightful Debutantes!
I posted photos of the early stages of building our chicken home last June. This is the link to that initial build: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/910496/our-first-coop-building-the-coop-in-progress-part-1
My wife and I studied the different chicken breeds and had certain criteria we were looking for . . . friendly, good egg layers, accept confinement well, and most importantly could tolerate cold weather (we live in Northern Maine). We actually put together a notebook filled with all the necessary data regarding raising chickens. When it came time to buy our chicks, I took the breed names of the chickens we were most interested in buying to our local feed shop - Aroostook Milling in Houlton, Maine.
My wife and I settled on Buckeye Chickens and we purchased 4 hens. Since we were only interested in egg layers, we did not buy a rooster. We kept the chicks in their brooder for about 10 weeks and when the weather was warm enough, we released them into their new home.
Here the updated photos of our Buckeye hens.
Both the run and the coop floor have been covered with washed sand and a good amount of PDZ to eliminate odor. So far the combination of washed sand and PDZ has worked quite well, and our Buckeye hens seem very comfortable in their environment.
I guess I went overboard with my coop and added an electrical outlet and off and on switch. The outlet provides juice to the Pullet-Shut Automatic Chicken Door Battery, and to the Premier1 Prima Heat Lamp. We looked at all of the automatic door options available for coops and decided on the Pullet-Shut door, because my wife wasn’t comfortable with the "guillotine" style closing of the other coop doors on the market.
This the inside of the coop. The hens have not used the perch yet. And below the perch is the Poopa Board covered with pdz that is still clean!
Now, we own three Staffordshire Bull Terriers. When ducks fly onto our lawn and go to our bird feeders, the dogs pretty much ignore them. So we thought they would act the same way towards our Buckeye hens. Nope! My Staffy Bulls tried to get to the Buckeyes and began harassing them. So I had to build a makeshift temporary fence, and since then my dogs pretty much ignore them now.
I’ve added hooks to the inside studs of the run to hang items on and added a shelf to hold their treats.
I also added a swinging perch in the run but the hens have not used it yet!
We’re not done yet. We look over what we have and try to improve our Buckeyes' living conditions.. Any suggestions you may have would be appreciated. We have not readied the nesting boxes yet. Our hens are too young right now. If you visit my first post, Part !, you can see the nesting boxes I built. I’m trying to decide on straw with a mixture of Koop Klean for their nesting material. Any thoughts?
A face only a mother hen could love!
Fred & Dot
Thought I’d post photos and information describing the home I built for my wife’s pampered hens, Dot’s Delightful Debutantes!
I posted photos of the early stages of building our chicken home last June. This is the link to that initial build: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/910496/our-first-coop-building-the-coop-in-progress-part-1
My wife and I studied the different chicken breeds and had certain criteria we were looking for . . . friendly, good egg layers, accept confinement well, and most importantly could tolerate cold weather (we live in Northern Maine). We actually put together a notebook filled with all the necessary data regarding raising chickens. When it came time to buy our chicks, I took the breed names of the chickens we were most interested in buying to our local feed shop - Aroostook Milling in Houlton, Maine.
My wife and I settled on Buckeye Chickens and we purchased 4 hens. Since we were only interested in egg layers, we did not buy a rooster. We kept the chicks in their brooder for about 10 weeks and when the weather was warm enough, we released them into their new home.
Here the updated photos of our Buckeye hens.
Both the run and the coop floor have been covered with washed sand and a good amount of PDZ to eliminate odor. So far the combination of washed sand and PDZ has worked quite well, and our Buckeye hens seem very comfortable in their environment.
I guess I went overboard with my coop and added an electrical outlet and off and on switch. The outlet provides juice to the Pullet-Shut Automatic Chicken Door Battery, and to the Premier1 Prima Heat Lamp. We looked at all of the automatic door options available for coops and decided on the Pullet-Shut door, because my wife wasn’t comfortable with the "guillotine" style closing of the other coop doors on the market.
This the inside of the coop. The hens have not used the perch yet. And below the perch is the Poopa Board covered with pdz that is still clean!
Now, we own three Staffordshire Bull Terriers. When ducks fly onto our lawn and go to our bird feeders, the dogs pretty much ignore them. So we thought they would act the same way towards our Buckeye hens. Nope! My Staffy Bulls tried to get to the Buckeyes and began harassing them. So I had to build a makeshift temporary fence, and since then my dogs pretty much ignore them now.
I’ve added hooks to the inside studs of the run to hang items on and added a shelf to hold their treats.
I also added a swinging perch in the run but the hens have not used it yet!
We’re not done yet. We look over what we have and try to improve our Buckeyes' living conditions.. Any suggestions you may have would be appreciated. We have not readied the nesting boxes yet. Our hens are too young right now. If you visit my first post, Part !, you can see the nesting boxes I built. I’m trying to decide on straw with a mixture of Koop Klean for their nesting material. Any thoughts?
A face only a mother hen could love!
Fred & Dot
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