- May 3, 2013
- 34
- 3
- 26
What are the features you FIRST added to your coop and then ended up changing or tossing out entirely?
I'll start. Hello my name is M and I am a chicken coop addict...my two hens are 6 months old and I've had them for a little under a week but here are a few things that stuck out right away to me.
- Roosting "stick". I used an old closet dowel. For whatever reason the chickens did not stay on it whenever I'd place them on the stick in the evening (maybe it was too smooth?) and I ended up using a 4" width piece of fence board.
- Water Nipples. The cups are much better . My watering rig is a simple 4" wide PVC pipe that had the nipples on the bottom - I couldn't find a place to hang it high enough for my chickens to use the nipples properly so I opted for cups instead and it seems to work awesome.
- Chicken wire roost floor. The intention was that poop would fall to the lower area below the coop for "easy" pick up. Wrong. I made a pull out pan last night which prolly won't be pulled out but a few times a year because the pan is filled with sand which I sift through on a daily basis with a cat litter box sifter.
- Nails. I used small nails to nail the chicken wire into the coop frame. Zip ties and U shaped nails are much better. Zip ties are great since they come off easily when you've made a mistake. The U shaped nails were good to anchoring the final placement of the wire netting.
- The Ramp. I added more steps to the ramp, this seems to help the chickens out a lot more especially if the ramp is at an pretty steep angle. (Mine make it up and down easily enough and I think it's at a 45 degree angle)
- Cleaning supplies. A small rake is nice, a poop scoop would have been nicer. Having a bottle of diluted vinegar solution is a good thing to have on hand.
- Storage. I wish I had built a better storage bin for my coop. I just thought a few hangers to hang tools would be fine but I forgot we need some place to store the feed and stuff lol!
I'll start. Hello my name is M and I am a chicken coop addict...my two hens are 6 months old and I've had them for a little under a week but here are a few things that stuck out right away to me.
- Roosting "stick". I used an old closet dowel. For whatever reason the chickens did not stay on it whenever I'd place them on the stick in the evening (maybe it was too smooth?) and I ended up using a 4" width piece of fence board.
- Water Nipples. The cups are much better . My watering rig is a simple 4" wide PVC pipe that had the nipples on the bottom - I couldn't find a place to hang it high enough for my chickens to use the nipples properly so I opted for cups instead and it seems to work awesome.
- Chicken wire roost floor. The intention was that poop would fall to the lower area below the coop for "easy" pick up. Wrong. I made a pull out pan last night which prolly won't be pulled out but a few times a year because the pan is filled with sand which I sift through on a daily basis with a cat litter box sifter.
- Nails. I used small nails to nail the chicken wire into the coop frame. Zip ties and U shaped nails are much better. Zip ties are great since they come off easily when you've made a mistake. The U shaped nails were good to anchoring the final placement of the wire netting.
- The Ramp. I added more steps to the ramp, this seems to help the chickens out a lot more especially if the ramp is at an pretty steep angle. (Mine make it up and down easily enough and I think it's at a 45 degree angle)
- Cleaning supplies. A small rake is nice, a poop scoop would have been nicer. Having a bottle of diluted vinegar solution is a good thing to have on hand.
- Storage. I wish I had built a better storage bin for my coop. I just thought a few hangers to hang tools would be fine but I forgot we need some place to store the feed and stuff lol!
