It's Done!! Not Near as Nice as Others on the Forum but It's Done

[ams3651]

ive seen ones like yours where just the end was closed in. roof and 3 sides just in the area where the nest boxes and roosts are. They will feel enclosed and secure and nothing can reach in while they are roosting and they are out of the rain or hot sun. But all together a very nice coop.

 

[Just-Like-Hatching]

Very good job. But, as most of us know, you never quit coming up with new ideas.

 

[Omran]

I think it is ver beautiful, are you planning on building a closed coop for winter?

 

[Jolyn]

It is very nice but take it from me rain can be a pain. My coop and run just got hit hard with our first rain and it is a fortress. Although you are on grass so that's gonna be better than the dirt mine is on.

It really is made very nicely.

 

[SussexInSeattle]

My opinion is to put roosting bars right in front of the nest boxes and have them built way up towards the roof of the pen. Also I would suggest a roof and walls on the two sides of the pen closest to the nest boxes. That will give the chickens a sense of safety that they are looking for by roosting in the nest boxes because the pen walls are all wide open, this is why they are unwilling to go up high because they still feel as though they are in the open so it isn't as safe as the nest boxes seem in their minds.

 

[SussexInSeattle]

Ooops, I should have read everyone elses' posts before putting mine in which turns out to be a repeat of all the others. One other thing I thought of was that they may roost on that internal roof and poop that all up, I wonder if you enclose the end of the pen and then roof the very top, maybe removing that lower roof?

Also what could become a pain in the butt for you is the wire all across the floor of the pen. After a long time, the poop will build and the wire will make it just a pain to rake the poo out. You may be better off laying the wire on the ground all Outside the pen rather than inside so critters will find it hard to start any holes on the outside of the pen and you could then rake the poo inside easily.

One more factor about a solid wire floor for living on, all chickens love to scratch. You may have ripped toenails on your girls if they catch a nail on that wire. I don't know if that could be easy for them to do but it is VERY painful for them since there is a blood vein in each toenail. One of my chickens ripped out a nail somehow running around the yard and stood like a pirate for WEEKS!

Aren't chickens the coolest things ever for making our minds just continue to come up with idea after idea after idea? I made THREE good size nest boxes out of 1 piece of cheap 4X8 plyboard and they are solid as rocks since the backs of each nest are actually the barn walls! Then the sides are screwed right into the wall studs. My chickens have made me into a pure genius! LOL I did cheat a little and used some scrap board for one floor and one of the roofs. But all my scrap was free at my local hardware store out of their free recycle/scrap bin.

 

[beerguzzler]

You guys are geniuses. I closed in the roofed area of my coop/run on 3 sides where the roost is. I also raised the roost another 6 inches. Guess what??

All but 3 of them are now sleeping the night on the roosts. Thanks for all of the help.

 

[SussexInSeattle]

psssssst.... (Don't tell anyone but our chickens are the ones who told us what to tell you about your chickens--- for the most part we'd all like to believe we're geniuses but unfortunately, we're all chicken cheaters!) LOL


PS, to train those last three to roost, you might try placing a cardboard box inside the nest boxes just before sundown and if you are a morning person, run out and remove the boxes right at sunrise. The box should be large enough so the chicken can't fit in the nest box with the box in there. You should only have to do this for 3 to 7 nights. Just be sure that you have enough roosting spots, even if you have to build another roosting bar.

 

[krcote]

The only thing that I don't think anyone mentioned was chickens usually like to scratch/roll around in/on the floor of the run. As you have it now, there is chicken wire preventing them from doing those very "chickeny" things! To keep them safe in a similar way, you can research burying the chicken wire or cloth around the perimeter. Great job!

 

[ChickenTender63]

Quote:
That has been mentioned numerous times through the first couple of pages of this topic.