FLORIDA!!!!!ALWAYS SUNNY SIDE UP!!!

[cmom]

Haven't been on for awhile. Hope all of the Florida peeps are well.

 

[cmom]

Still kind of adjusting to the new BYC.

 

[Wyandotte Blue]

Have not been on for a long time. Weather - rain, rain and more rain. Wet rooster is a terrible thing - he let me pick him up no fuss to put into the inside coop he was so miserable one night. Hens ran in after him. I would like it to dry out, pastures flooded and mosquitoes unbearable. I want to build a super coop some day. Huge run. Any pictures out there? I want to be able to walk into the coop, no bending. Easy to clean, well-ventilated and a pleasant place to be!

 

[cmom]

I have several different coops with nice large pens for each coop. We have built these coops over many years. They are pretty much all different.We had a couple of leaky roofs so we put metal roofing on them and slowly residing them with metal.

These are the newest coops. We have moved them since this picture was taken and added pens for each.

 

[getaclue]

We knew the entire area where I wanted to build my coop was low. I had clean, fine sand delivered first, and we put it where we were going to build the coop. Not in the surrounding area. Yes, the sand was expensive. We made it at least 1 1/2 foot deep with the sand. I then had clean fill dirt delivered, and put it on top of the sand. Once again, at least 1 1/2 foot deep. Now that the rains are coming in, and that area is swampy, my coop is high, and dry.

There are 2 reasons I put the sand down first. 1. I can hose down my coop, and runs occasionally, and sand is a good filter medium. No odor, and no contamination. 2. When you elevate a low area, you don't really displace the water. The water is still there, just beneath the surface. Fill dirt alone, will wick, and eventually become mushy. The sand doesn't wick the water, and it won't become mushy.

Before we bought this place, I was renting an area from a person, for my coop. His whole property was very low. For the most part of the summer, he could not use his driveway. I had to park by the road, and load a wagon with my supplies, and haul it to the coop. I offered to help him with the driveway, and have a few loads of sand, or pea gravel delivered. Through a friend, he was able to get about 7 dump truck loads of fill dirt, for free. He elevated the driveway quite a bit. I told him I didn't think it was going to work the way he thought. I told him that if had he brought in enough dirt to elevate the entire low area, it would work, but just elevating the driveway, he needed sand, or pea gravel underneath the dirt.

Yes, when the rains first came, he was so proud of himself, his driveway, and I was wrong. After 3 weeks of rain, he couldn't use his driveway. The fill dirt got mushy, and some of it eroded.

While you don't have to have a totally dry coop/run, at least consider using sand, then fill dirt in a portion of it, so the chickens have a dry area. Fans in the coop help with heat, and mosquitoes don't like the breeze it creates, so they help some with mosquito control too.

 

[Wyandotte Blue]

Thank you cmom and Getaclue. cmom has a chicken empire! Love the huge runs that is what I want to do - I have 5 chickens. I will get sand, I had never heard of that and yes, MUSH is the word of the day. They have a dry area, the run is roofed at one end but when the wind blows the rain in, it all gets wet. I have a fan blowing into the inside coop and one to the outside run - I have a chicken, who was hatched and the others, even her Mom, try to kill her so I have to keep them separated. Peep gets inside coop/horse stall and others are in outside run that has a tree and has half a roof. When it got REALLY bad I put Peep in a dog crate and put outside chickens into inside coop . . . some days I would love to leave the door OPEN and let them feel grass and the great outdoors but I have a lot of hawks. I have hot wire running around the base of outside run all the way around keeps the varmints out.

 

[cmom]

We started off with one coop and 6 birds many years ago. I'm addicted.

 

[Wyandotte Blue]

Have to laugh! I would be too but cannot expand the way I want to!

 

[timelord1020]

I have 5 roosters who need a new home they are 10 weeks old I live in fort pierce Florida giving them away for free. I have 2 barred rocks, a porcelain d'uccle bantam, a dark brahma bantam, and a golden sebright

 

[Shawneegyrl]

I'm in lake Mary right north of orlando.

Winter Springs, we are neighbors!