FINALLY! The Finished Product:Coop and Run......Its all Done.

[sparkydog]

What is the square for up by the coop? Is it a litter box?

 

[Anguissette]

Great coop! I especially love the name plates. I sooooooo wanted some of those myself but for the life of me cannot tell my BO girls apart

 

[emys]

Looks great! So nice to see the coop ready when the girls are. I think you will just have to say goodbye to the grass. The only way to keep it nice is to keep the chickens off it for weeks at a time and water well. You have a big run, but, probably not big enough for the needed rotation. Throw your leaves and grass clippings in one area and that will keep them from digging all the grass up quickly.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Great work!!!

+1 to what the poster said about the snow load on your netting, unless it is super strong.

I'm going to be outside in the middle of the night when it snows shaking snow off mine. The first time I had chickens a few years ago mine all came down.

 

[chickfamilyonsleepyhollow]

Nice coop and run ... really love the signs

 

[SparksNV]

Great Job!!! Love the name plates ... hmmmm I think I have the perfect place on my coop for some, right under the nest box! Thanks for the inspiration!

BTW, love the floor tiles - don't know if you remember me, but on a different post, I said we have the same flooring!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Well Done!

 

[animalover]

What a nice coop design! How smart to incorporate a storage area. I can see the girls love their sandbox.

 

[drumstick diva]

think I see daylight under the bottom edge of your pen, if so the predators will notice the gaps too. Lovely set up, love the floor titles, nicer than my kitchen.

 

[CT_Todd]

Quote:
Thanks for the comments everyone..

Regarding the grass:
I'm not too worried about the grass...Since they are not free ranging and you can only make the run so big, I figured its the price you have to pay..Oh well..
I like the idea of the grass clippings though...At least it would give them something to do...(Using that though to save the grass is a useless cause IMO..
Initially I thought about making 2 runs with separate doors..One to the front and one to the sides to let the lawn recover, but I figured at that rate I'd never get done..
Maybe next spring I will put them in a tractor for the day..

Regarding the Top..
There is deer netting strung across the whole thing that is supported by clothesline...My initial worry was the hawks that live in my front yard woods..
So for the time being they are protected (from them)..However like some of you indicate, I don't give it much chance to make it through the winter..And I know the wet snow will probably take it down..(Between you and Me and the rest of the internet) I am waiting to tell my wife I was right..LOL..I wanted to use 2x4 welded wire which is only a matter of time before I switch it to the wire. But I never win arguements with the wife, she is much smarter than I am so I dont even bother ;-). If you notice the 2x4 jutting out across the front towards the middle of the run, that is to eventually support a small roofed in area..So the only change that will happen will be a roofed area out 4 feet over the chicken door and one to the side covering the "sand box" (which they LOVE!)..

Regarding the "daylight"..
If you mean the daylight at some points near the bottom of the run, the hardware cloth continues down over that and is buried anyway ffrom 7 to 12 inches below the surface..
(If you meant there is daylight somewhere else that I am not seeing..PLEASE tell me where so I can close it up..!

Regarding the Storage area..
Yes the food is in one of those galvanized containers that fit very snugly (kind of like air suction) and then I put a bungie cord over it as well..If a racoon get in to it, it wouldn't be the worse thing that can happen and of course I would immediately know, so thats one I will deal with after the fact...no biggie..

I will very likely put some type of door there before winter..It will help keep any snow out of there as well..

Lastly the inside of the coop..
No picutered but across the human door there is a peice of plywood holding the shaving in..Its in their loosely and when it comes time to clean it out, just pick it up and move it..I made sure the human door was wider than a large broom so sweeping it out should be very easy.
Also the floor was very cheap...45 square feet was a whoping 16.00 at home depot...
It has made cleaning the poop board very simple.

One thing I do need to add is some shade..There are trees covering all of the coop and a little of the run but the orientation is such that they get blasted when the sun comes over the treeline around 10am or so..