Helpful hints for building coops

[User395221]

Aside from accommodating the lid, is there a reason for the sloping top? Could you just have a square drawer with a "hunk" cut out of the front so they can climb in?

 

[CapricornFarm]

Aside from accommodating the lid, is there a reason for the sloping top? Could you just have a square drawer with a "hunk" cut out of the front so they can climb in?

Yeah, if they are too comfortable they sleep and poop in there. Plus, water runs off the nest box. I just got carried away with the angle. It has been years since i made a nest box. So the next set will be different, more of the box inside the coop, less outside and less slope of the roof. Live and learn. Again. Sigh.

 

[tigger19687]

Well they look adorable

 

[CapricornFarm]

Well they look adorable

Thanks! Took me twice as long as normal since husband helped. He gets these ideas that seem good until you try them. Then you have to take it apart and start over. I had to put a slot between the two boxes because it will have to fit around one of the uprights in the coop wall. I think i had best use the little boxes for the rabbits and make bigger ones for the chickens. It was great fun cutting down the drawers to use them.

 

[NancyNurseCxMama]

Here are the drawers:View attachment 1127278
And here is the double nest box:View attachment 1127279
I am afraid i made it too shallow with that slope. The next one will be different.

They are beautiful. Stop doubting yourself---you are doing a phenomenal job!!!
Since when have chickens been so damn picky??

 

[NancyNurseCxMama]

OMG is your husband living a dual life??? He is exactly like mine!!!
I try to keep him away from my garden and any other projects I am working on. He always has the bigger and better and superior "suggestions."
And he ALWAYS wants to "help," lol!
From laundry to making beds to cooking----GO AWAY!!!
Love him dearly but good LORD!!!

 

[CapricornFarm]

They are beautiful. Stop doubting yourself---you are doing a phenomenal job!!!
Since when have chickens been so damn picky??

Thanks, i appreciate the vote of confidence. I will have to put other boxes in as well, 2 are not enough for 10 hens. I hate when they lay on the floor or in the run.
Some of the stuff i painted the other day got the paint washed off by this pesky rain. The weather man days it is supposed to be fair tomorrow.
What have you been up to, Nancy?

 

[CapricornFarm]

OMG is your husband living a dual life??? He is exactly like mine!!!
I try to keep him away from my garden and any other projects I am working on. He always has the bigger and better and superior "suggestions."
And he ALWAYS wants to "help," lol!
From laundry to making beds to cooking----GO AWAY!!!
Love him dearly but good LORD!!!

I just let him cook and i wash dishes. But our minds just work so differently is is hard to work on the same project. I planned to cover the eaves with mesh for ventilation, he went ahead and filled them with leftover pieces of wood. At least i got one side done my way. He was mad that i made the run cover with metal roofing, wire is faster and easier. But I WANTED to cover at least part so the run does not become such a mud hole. I hate tarps on top of runs. Had that in TN. Wait until i put up the other side and do the same thing! I am that Capricorn, a stubborn goat.
Mine actually does his own laundry and i do mine. My stuff is always dirty and full of paint, lol. Don't want to contaminate his stuff. I wrecked a bunch of his clothes once by leaving a pen in my scrub top. The ink was all over the inside of the dryer. That was popular. Sigh.

 

[NancyNurseCxMama]

"Scrub top"??? Are you a medical type person?
I retired as an ICU nurse a few years ago. LOL...I remember messing up the laundry with a pen in my pocket...life goes on.
The last washer/dryer screwup involved a Sharpie that HE was using to mark lumber for the chicken run.
I forgave him and moved on. Nobody really gives a flying fajita what the inside of the washer looks like anyway.

 

[NancyNurseCxMama]

[QUOTE="

What have you been up to, Nancy?[/QUOTE]

I have been up to worrying about predators (saw a coyote running around the coop and leaving poop there a few nights ago) and worrying about relatives in Texas (not affected, thank God) and worrying about Hurricane Irma hitting the East Coast.
Need to work out the partial roof plan for the coop. DH is willing but I am concerned about his health issues. I am fully able to take over should the need arise.
About that possible hurricane hit. I bought two dog exercise pens that I can link together. I plan on moving my girls to the basement and hunkering down in the event of a horror scene.
Having only six, this is doable.
Damn, I am a first time chicken mama but I love those silly girls.