Hidden Forest Coop

[RichnSteph]

Oh I'm super jealous. That looks awesome!

 

[ChookRanger]

Oh I'm super jealous. That looks awesome!

So am I, it's gonna be a great home for some happy chickens.

 

[aart]

Sweet, Sweet Fabrication!!

Are you going to put a perch from the roost to the upper nest?

Huge Kudos for ripping out and fixing what wasn't right!!

tho

....you might actually want to keep the nests low and the storage higher.....they may want to roost in that upper nest and poop it up.

 

[Jetpad]

Sweet, Sweet Fabrication!!

Are you going to put a perch from the roost to the upper nest?

Huge Kudos for ripping out and fixing what wasn't right!!

tho

....you might actually want to keep the nests low and the storage higher.....they may want to roost in that upper nest and poop it up.

Thanks. I hadn't thought about putting a perch next to the upper nest. I haven't actually had chickens before. Do they need a perch on their nests? I was thinking they'd just use the bottom lip of the nest hole.

If they do start roosting in that upper nest, I guess I could just block it off or turn it into another little storage place.

 

[Jetpad]

I made an outside roost. Since this picture was taken, I've decided it was too high and moved it down to about 3ft off the ground.


And here's the chicken ladder/ramp. I'm not sure where I saw it but someone else had put a strip of hardware cloth underneath the rungs of the ladder and thought it would be a good idea for traction. It's all nice an clean in this shot. That won't last for long.


I have two bolts sticking out of the top of the ramp and they fit into holes on the coop. That'll let me remove it easily.

 

[aart]

Quote: They'll be better able/more willing to access the nest if there's a perch in front of it......they like to take a look before entering.
You'll want 2 nests for 7 birds.

 

[Melnic]

Your coop is really shaping up nicely! It is very impressive. Can't wait to see the finished product!

 

[vehve]

Are you securing the ramp with a nut? Some sort of hooks might work better, easier to remove without opening nuts.

 

[Jetpad]

Are you securing the ramp with a nut? Some sort of hooks might work better, easier to remove without opening nuts.

Right now, there are no nuts on it. It's easy to remove but I am a little worried about it coming off onto a chicken. I'll probably have to do something to it.

 

[Jetpad]

I used hanger bolts with wing nuts for attaching a lot of things to the coop. That way they'll be easy to remove if I want to do a thorough cleaning. And you can buy an drill attachment that has threads on it matching the threads on the bolt. It'll screw them right down into a hole just like if it had a regular head on the bolt.


I used them on the wall panels. You can also see the "finishing washer" I used with green deck screws for attaching the hardware cloth.


And on this little 4" board that'll keep the litter/sand from going out the window.


I also used them for attaching the roosts, the nesting boxes, and the hardware cloth "windows".