Adding Chickens to my world has been very rewarding & educational. I just love learning & reading ideas from the more experienced. I had a companion bird & wild bird background, some similar traits & needs, but also very unique behaviors & scenarios.
When I 1st started, I thought I had a few good ideas. Some were. Others were good in theory, but not in practice!
I wanted to see what other good ideas were floating around!
What idea did you have that turned out great? What idea did you have that wasn't so great & how did you fix it?
Let me start...I started with 2 chicks given to me out of the blue and I had to build a coop quickly. The 2 chicks were OK where they were temporarily but I noticed they enjoyed perching and always went to the highest perch. I had a bright idea of a stair step type of perch design, utilizing the space for storage underneath.
Wish I had a pic but I've lost 2,500 irreplaceable photos (thanks Verizon). Anyway, envision 4 big steps, 1 foot tall & 1 foot wide each step, the whole "bleacher looking staircase" was 5 feet wide, which was good as I added 2 more hens. The top step was abt 12 inches from the wall with a poop chute, as the chickens always go to the top step, then spin around with butt postioned over chute & hunker down for the night, facing the coop & backs to the wall. Under the "bleachers" was a cute door leading to storage underneath, where I slid in the woodchip bales.
At the end of the chute, which sloped downward, was a hanging pail to catch runny poops. Every morning I cleaned chute, pail & any other random poops, then sat on the clean steps hugging my chooks. Oh, it worked fine...at 1st.
Well, here's what happened. Eventually, even though there were nestboxes elsewhere, someone decided the poop chute was a good place to lay eggs. As the top step hung over the chute, I don't know how she got in there, but she did! Never underestimate a determined hen! So then I tried to cover part of the chute with another pc of wood, 2x4 against the wall, so poop could go in, but not a chicken. The next thing was just the amount of poop on the steps throughout the day. Night poops were in the chute, but all day long they let it go wherever. I was spending alot of time cleaning up poop...chute, steps, floor, etc. The next issue was I made them too tall. There's no need to make perches up to 4-5 feet high. Most times chickens went down the steps the same way they went up, hop 1 at a time, but sometimes one got so excited, it would jump & fly (or should I say flap furiously but not achieve actual flight) landing either on the floor, in my arms as I quickly dropped what I carried in order to catch a flying chicken, or manage to land outside through the door I just opened to come in...yeah, a flapping chicken as soon as you open the door, watch out & don't mind all the wood chips flying LOL. So, as that was not safe, that was the MAIN reason the bleacher steps had to go!
Live & learn!
How I fixed it...ripped out that bad idea & I now have a normal, lower & safer perch setup & a storage area for feed tins & bales of chips elsewhere nearby.
Here is the safer & less time consuming cleaner coop section design.
When I 1st started, I thought I had a few good ideas. Some were. Others were good in theory, but not in practice!
I wanted to see what other good ideas were floating around!
What idea did you have that turned out great? What idea did you have that wasn't so great & how did you fix it?
Let me start...I started with 2 chicks given to me out of the blue and I had to build a coop quickly. The 2 chicks were OK where they were temporarily but I noticed they enjoyed perching and always went to the highest perch. I had a bright idea of a stair step type of perch design, utilizing the space for storage underneath.
Wish I had a pic but I've lost 2,500 irreplaceable photos (thanks Verizon). Anyway, envision 4 big steps, 1 foot tall & 1 foot wide each step, the whole "bleacher looking staircase" was 5 feet wide, which was good as I added 2 more hens. The top step was abt 12 inches from the wall with a poop chute, as the chickens always go to the top step, then spin around with butt postioned over chute & hunker down for the night, facing the coop & backs to the wall. Under the "bleachers" was a cute door leading to storage underneath, where I slid in the woodchip bales.
At the end of the chute, which sloped downward, was a hanging pail to catch runny poops. Every morning I cleaned chute, pail & any other random poops, then sat on the clean steps hugging my chooks. Oh, it worked fine...at 1st.
Well, here's what happened. Eventually, even though there were nestboxes elsewhere, someone decided the poop chute was a good place to lay eggs. As the top step hung over the chute, I don't know how she got in there, but she did! Never underestimate a determined hen! So then I tried to cover part of the chute with another pc of wood, 2x4 against the wall, so poop could go in, but not a chicken. The next thing was just the amount of poop on the steps throughout the day. Night poops were in the chute, but all day long they let it go wherever. I was spending alot of time cleaning up poop...chute, steps, floor, etc. The next issue was I made them too tall. There's no need to make perches up to 4-5 feet high. Most times chickens went down the steps the same way they went up, hop 1 at a time, but sometimes one got so excited, it would jump & fly (or should I say flap furiously but not achieve actual flight) landing either on the floor, in my arms as I quickly dropped what I carried in order to catch a flying chicken, or manage to land outside through the door I just opened to come in...yeah, a flapping chicken as soon as you open the door, watch out & don't mind all the wood chips flying LOL. So, as that was not safe, that was the MAIN reason the bleacher steps had to go!
Live & learn!
How I fixed it...ripped out that bad idea & I now have a normal, lower & safer perch setup & a storage area for feed tins & bales of chips elsewhere nearby.
Here is the safer & less time consuming cleaner coop section design.
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