Finished my Coop

[rikithemonk]

Nice coop and welcome to the forum. You have created what I like to call a "stage one coop" Its what i made when I wasn't sure if keeping chickens was feesable. Its a nice starter coop to last you a year or so. Once you decide that chickens are something you actually like doing, you will build phase 2.

Points I learned

1) You need a house. An enclosed home for your chickens with walls and a door. This acts as a safe room at night when the dog or raccoon rips into the run. Runs with out coops that have doors are mortuaries. You are missing a house with a door that locks. You have no panic room for your chickens.

2) Protect the ground around the run. I had a rodent dig under the run and got several eggs as well as harming one of my hens. Chickens are dumb and dig in the corners. They dig under your run and dust bath. this leaves making a tunnel simple for predators. The chickens have done most of the work.

Riki

 

[Pine Roost]

Micky328, thanks for all of the advice. Could you explain your dust boxes to me? I would like to build one...is a 1'x1'x4" box, efficient for 6 birds? I have been hearing so much about how chicken wire will not keep out the critters, I am even thinking about completely sealing off the sides with plywood and making a run for them to use during the days.

 

[mickey328]

You're very welcome! We considered building some as well, but then realized we had a couple of old storage totes around...and used them instead. We put just one in at first, but they were all lined up and trying to push each other out of the way that we we stuck in another. We went with the somewhat deeper ones...about 6 or 8 inches, and filled them about 4 inches deep with a mix of mostly dirt, peat moss and a little bit of sand. We did poke some holes in the bottom for drainage, but kept the lids and pop those on at night...that way if it rains or the sprinklers go on, they don't turn to mud. The chickens have no problem at all hopping up into them and they LOVE them! It's not just pleasure for them either...it's really beneficial health wise. Odd as it sounds, it helps keep their feathers clean and also to reduce mites and such. A 1 x 1 would really only fit one hen comfortably...2 or 3 would probably get in, but they wouldn't be able to utilize it properly. I'd recommend either two or three separate smaller boxes (which are also easier to move) or one that's maybe 1' x 4'...and I'd go with about 6" deep, filled to 3 or 4 inches. They'll scratch some out of course, but that's actually good for the lawn

 

[Pine Roost]

Good deal, thanks. Like I mentioned, after hearing the negatives about chicken wire I think I may enclose the coop and install a run sometime soon. Assuming I got 4 more birds for a total of 10....what size run would be acceptable? And one more question....would there be any problems with having 4 bantams and 8 rir's in the same coop?

 

[mickey328]

When it comes to run space, I subscribe to the notion that 'more is better', LOL. Most say at least 10 sq feet per chicken. We have 6 birds (all we're allowed ) and our run is 9 ' on a side...so about 81 sq ft, plus the area under the coop which is an additional 20 sq ft or so.

I've read a lot of posts where folk keep banties and standards together with no difficulties, but I have no experience, so I'll leave that to the capable folk who have

 

[FlyboyTR]

I recently looked at a run/tractor that actually had a wood frame on the bottom, 2x2's and covered with hardware cloth. They said the advantage was that they chickens could not kill the grass since they could not actually scratch into the dirt. Yet, they enjoyed eating the grass and bugs. Just a thought! ...

 

[mickey328]

The only problem I see with that is that any sort of wire isn't really kind to chicken feet. Since we don't have a huge back yard and are limited to just 6 hens, we opted to go for a portable coop/run, which we move about every 3 days. This way they have a secure house for sleeping and access to the lawn during the day. If we don't leave them too long in the same spot, they mostly just trample the grass and it comes back by the time we move the rig around the yard and back to a previously used spot. Since we put in dust bath boxes, they don't dig holes so that solved that issue quite nicely. Another reason we move it frequently is the smell...and the flies! Sweet PDZ keeps the coop fresh and the flies out but it doesn't take long for the run area to get stinky and fly ridden. Once we move the run, we hose it down and once everything's dry, we run the mower over it with the bagger on...everything then goes on the compost pile.

If we had a bigger place and could have more chickens, we'd go for a permanent coop/run and let them free range as well for a few hours each day.