Finally Finished! Well... except the roof.

[Cowgrl4life]

I finally got my coop finished enough to move some of my oldest babies out today! Yay! Roof still needs chicken wire, but they're locked in our "brooder box" that we built whenever we arent watching until we get the wire put on tomorrow. Here's just a few pics to show off our massive project. I also plan to paint the outsides of all the houses red and the insides a combo of red and black in the nest boxes. The coop itself is 8' tall, 12' wide and 24' long, all the houses are attached from the outside so that they can have all the floor space I can give them. Some of the coop is a little 'rigged' in case you notice in the pictures.

It was hard converting old wood and supplies into a chicken and predator proof house

Nest box #1

Nest box #2

Both nest boxes

Front of the outside "brooder" we built. the door is blocked as we were about to leave and the netting isnt on the top to protect from predators yet

We built the lid to open from the outside so that I can keep feeders in there protected from the weather and I can easily fit in for cleaning (hubby holdin it up so I can take the pic LOL)

And the inside of the brooder with 23 of my chicks settling into their new home

I'd really like to hear what you all think. I've been working on this darn thing for weeks and am so excited to have some babies out of the house and get some opinions back on my design/ just the coop itself... So far the chicks seem to love it. They about went nuts with all the space, flying around and stretching those wings

So cute!

 

[joletabey]

Does that say "Chicken Buffet" on the feeder? Cute!

Looks like you did a good job so far, but I am confused- you have a LOT of nesting boxes and a brooder- how many chickens do you have total for that space? And how many houses are going on the outside? Is the 12 x24 actually the run?
Don't worry about rigging stuff, I think a lot of us who use leftovers have to do that-

 

[annie3001]

looks good! are there windows? didnt see any? other than that, the chicks look happy! more room!

 

[Cowgrl4life]

I've got about 70 going into that space... I've read 4sq feet per bird for standard birds as the most common answer, and that means 72 standard size chickens could go in there. Yes the 12x24 is the size of the actual run. The brooder is all the shelter they have for right now, but I'm planning on making additions to the coop sometime this year when money allows. The walls are built on a 6x4 grid, and each of those grids will have a 6x6 run attached with a small house on the back of it where I can separate hens and roo's for breeding. I'm also planning on adding chip board to the back eight feet of the coop for protection from weather. So I guess technically its not "finished" but for the moment its as "finished" as my pocket will allow and it lets my girls get outside

 

[rubyrogue]

It looks good love the feeder. I could be wrong but i thought the 4sq feet was indoor space and outdoor run space was 10 sq ft?
I have a 6x6 coop i went with 3 sq ft inside because they are only in there at night so 36 divide 3= 12 birds. My outside run is 12x12 so 144 divide 10 i could have 14 for the run but not that many would fit in my coop. I went by egg layer square footage. I know meaties have other requirements.

 

[Cowgrl4life]

Ten square feet sounds awful spacious to me... I've had chickens before and had probably thirty or so in a 12x12 ish ( I dont know the exact dimensions maybe a bit bigger than that) run and they were just fine. I mean if my girls all get big and are WAY too crowded, of course I'll find a new home for a few, but I really think size wise they'll be ok..

 

[mikecnorthwest]

Looks great. You'll need to get your BYC page up and running so you can post some more pics as the hens get bigger and start laying.

 

[mychookschick]

Very Cool!!! That feeder is adorable!!!