deadLOCC3D
In the Brooder
- Mar 27, 2018
- 6
- 25
- 41
I'm a new member and joined to be able to discuss this whole chicken business with you all.
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
(3) What breeds do you have?
(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com?
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
(7) Finally, my coops:
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
Yes, I'm new. I actually didn't care for chickens at all about three months ago, but my mother in law bought a proprerty that was on 5 acres. She asked if I could help build a coop. During this process, that's when I developed an interest in chickens. After I was finished with her coop, my wife wanted to raise chickens on my mother in law's farm. So I actually sat down this time and designed with paper and pencil my second coop. My second design still isn't finished, but it is very close. I just need to finish up the smaller details. I'll share the coop pictures at the end of this post.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
We have about 7 egg layers (not sure what types they are), 3 bantams (1 rooster, 2 hens), 3 gamefowl stags, 11 gamefowl hens. Not that many, but this will soon grow in a week when our eggs all hatch in the incubator.
(3) What breeds do you have?
As in answer #2, I'm not sure what the egg layer breeds are. My bantams are Old English Bantams. For my game fowls:
- 1 black McRae stag, 1 black McRae hen, 1 black McRae/Radio cross
- 1 Sweater/ yellow legged hatch stag, 2 sweater/yellow legged hatch hens, 1 sweater, 1 hatch, one unkown.
- 1 King cobra Asil/Hatch cross stag, 1 King cobra Asil/Hatch cross hen, 1 Black McRae/Sweater hen, 1 white Butcher, 1 unknown
(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com?
Mainly through online search. I've had questions about incubation, etc, and finally decided to join 
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
Playing sports, but I don't like to watch: Tennis, Basketball, swimming, video games, playing with daughters
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
I'm a firmware engineer at Intel. I'm currently going for my Master's Degree for Computer Science at Georgia Tech. Finishing up my final class and will have more time to devote to these chickens in a couple of months. I have a small 4 pound pomeranean dog we call Lychee. My daughters love playing with the chickens just like I do. I recently got into this whole thing and the whole building aspect of it is very relaxing to me. It's completely different from what I do on the daily. The first coop that I build is the first time I've ever done any woodwork. The second coop, I utilized a lot of what I know about math, geometry and trigonometry to build. For my next build I will be watching a bunch of construction videos before I start it to get some ideas.
For the first coop, the only thing I spent on are the screws, hinges, and the siding. It cost me about $100 to build.
For the second coop, it is much bigger but probably cost me about the same price, maybe a little more.
All 2x4's I have gathered for free by dumpster diving in new home sites. I also grabbed a bunch of pallets from there as well. Before I went dumpster diving, I asked the contractor there if I could pull the scraps which they allowed. Often times, they had loads of very long 2x4's, which allowed me to make a big roof over my second coop. So big thanks to them for giving me the ability to build these coops at a relatively low price.
For the second coop, it is much bigger but probably cost me about the same price, maybe a little more.
All 2x4's I have gathered for free by dumpster diving in new home sites. I also grabbed a bunch of pallets from there as well. Before I went dumpster diving, I asked the contractor there if I could pull the scraps which they allowed. Often times, they had loads of very long 2x4's, which allowed me to make a big roof over my second coop. So big thanks to them for giving me the ability to build these coops at a relatively low price.
Coop 1:
Coop 2:
Coop 2 had a lot more planning. I created a kit at my house and brought the kit over to my mother in law's farm. The images are below:
Nesting box:
Eventually I added a board on top because the chickens kept perching here and pooping into the nesting boxes.
Testing the kit:
I tested the fit of the kit at home. I only did the bottom floor, and to my surprise, everything fit like a puzzle. One of features I added to this design is the pull out drawers for cleaning the chicken poop. This also allows me to replace the bottom board of the drawer if need be instead of having a permanent and potentially damaged floor in the future.
Assembling the kit at the site:
This process was pretty quick, everything just fit without any major issues.
Adding the run:
I did not design the run in advance as I was expecting this coop to be only for laying hens and not game fowls. My wife wanted a 24'x16' quad run coop. Each quadrant has a run of 8'x12'.
The laying hens:
They all come to sleep in one of the coop rooms at night.
One of the layers laying her egg. I made the coop open on the side so as to not startle them when I open the door. Looks like she doesn't mind.
I have a bunch of eggs about to hatch, so I made this for them
These are game hen eggs. Hoping that one of the hens sits on them.
These guys used to be cooped up into a very tiny coop. Now they have a fairly large run with a bunch of perches in the run. Here, they are sun bathing as I see them doing often
I'm not quite done with the whole coop yet, but it's almost there. I need to add some siding to the apex here. For the siding, I just reclaim wood from pallets.
These last set of photos are of the actual coop inside the runs. Each wall is sided with plywood and reclaimed pallets on top of that. As you can see in the first photo, there is a duck. Underneath the coop, the ducks like to stay in there so I made some nesting boxes down there for them to lay, which they are doing now.
Coop 2:
Coop 2 had a lot more planning. I created a kit at my house and brought the kit over to my mother in law's farm. The images are below:
Nesting box:
Eventually I added a board on top because the chickens kept perching here and pooping into the nesting boxes.
Testing the kit:
I tested the fit of the kit at home. I only did the bottom floor, and to my surprise, everything fit like a puzzle
. One of features I added to this design is the pull out drawers for cleaning the chicken poop. This also allows me to replace the bottom board of the drawer if need be instead of having a permanent and potentially damaged floor in the future.Assembling the kit at the site:
This process was pretty quick, everything just fit without any major issues.
Adding the run:
I did not design the run in advance as I was expecting this coop to be only for laying hens and not game fowls. My wife wanted a 24'x16' quad run coop. Each quadrant has a run of 8'x12'.
The laying hens:
They all come to sleep in one of the coop rooms at night.
One of the layers laying her egg. I made the coop open on the side so as to not startle them when I open the door. Looks like she doesn't mind.
I have a bunch of eggs about to hatch, so I made this for them
These are game hen eggs. Hoping that one of the hens sits on them.
These guys used to be cooped up into a very tiny coop. Now they have a fairly large run with a bunch of perches in the run. Here, they are sun bathing as I see them doing often
I'm not quite done with the whole coop yet, but it's almost there. I need to add some siding to the apex here. For the siding, I just reclaim wood from pallets.
These last set of photos are of the actual coop inside the runs. Each wall is sided with plywood and reclaimed pallets on top of that. As you can see in the first photo, there is a duck. Underneath the coop, the ducks like to stay in there so I made some nesting boxes down there for them to lay, which they are doing now.
we are so glad that you have decided to join our flock!
those sure are some beautiful birds that you have there!
they are very nice and look comfortable.
Welcome to BYC!!! 
We are glad you joined our flock.
