Kansas City Urban Chicken Coop

[Gifa]

We finished the run yesterday...



I have to say... digging the trench to bury our fencing was a huge PITA... Everywhere we put our shovel, there were rocks or big honkin' tree roots starting at about 6 inches deep... You may be able to see the pile of rocks we threw over the back fence into the easement... and that's after bringing some of them back over to lay on top of the fence once we got it in the trench. Some of the rocks were just too big to move... for example, the right post of the door on the run, is actually anchored directly to one of those rocks. It's possible that it's the bedrock... in either case, gigantic rock or bedrock... it's not going anywhere... If it took us a week with tools to dig the trench, I highly doubt a predator will have better luck, especially now that we have caged the top of the impenetrable barrier with the fence.

Those are spring loaded hinges on the door of the run, so that the door will always close behind us when we enter, and there will be a lock on the run, as there will be a locks on the main accesses to the coop.

We let the girls spend about an hour in the run yesterday. They seemed to like all of the room. It's about 150 square feet of run for 8 chickens... It's built on a slope, so it's over 6 feet tall in the front, and a little under 5 feet in the back. So it will be easy to get in there with a rake every now and again for cleaning, a.k.a. harvesting compost. The husband wants to build boxes for inside the coop for a salad bar, and I figure that's where I'll empty the unused water from their waterer when I go to fill it back up with fresh water...

Anyway... we are planning to bring in a little more top soil to raise the soil level to just underneath the bottom of the bottom rail in the front there... so, another 4 inches or so. We'll bother with landscaping next year, after the gas company has it's way with our property, but we are planning for a combination flower/vegetable/herb bed. Even though it is shady, lettuce and herbs grow beautifully there. The husband has already suggested hanging flower boxes off of the top of the frame with Petunias, bleeding heart fuscia, and whatnot...

All that's left to do now is finish the interior space of the coop, the front window, the chicken door, a few last hardware details and the furniture... feeders, waterers, roosts, etc, and then move the girls in.

They already like their run...

 

[crchickens]

Wow, that is beautiful~! We have not built our run yet, but I may steal some of your ideas. We are just 30 minutes south of you, and because we are rural, we have predators galore. Your run is the best I have seen. We do plan on putting hardware cloth on the entire thing, except the top, where we will use the welded wire.

 

[Gifa]

Thanks! Steal away. Most of the design of this run comes from pouring through the many "a predator ate my chickens" posts here on this forum and attempting to learning from those mistakes.

The only reason we even bothered with the 1" square hardware cloth around the bottom 2 feet in the front (10" in the back) is because we have dogs, and I didn't want there to be any decapitations due to chickens hanging their heads out and dogs biting them off... But other than that, the welded wire is strong enough to prevent nocturnal predators like raccoons and possums and whatnot from entering the run because it is thicker gauge. It's cheaper too. Helps keep the owls and hawks out as well.

The top rail at the bottom that goes pretty much all of the way around is where the hardware cloth and welded wire overlap and is level with the bottom of the coop. So that seam is basically impenetrable now as well. The space at the back between the run and the back fence pretty much limits the predators who will be nosing around back there to Raccoons, Possums, Skunks, Cats, and Small dogs (my mini aussie has just enough room to walk through, but she can't turn around or get a good angle to dig).



The wire is buried only 8 inches back there, but it has been quick creted and the ground level behind the chain link fence behind that is another 20 inches higher, and covered in big heavy rocks... so... Good luck, predators. The rail in the back is just above head level of smaller predators. The rail around the front is at eye level with bigger predators, like dogs, and coyotes... with a secondary rail underneath that to fortify the wire at ground level against pushing and pulling.

We are going to be installing a Pullet Shut chicken door with the solar power piece on thursday. We had debated about the need for a door at all as secure as we feel the run is, but having gone through the trouble to go above and beyond on the predator proofing, we decided the extra piece of mind was worth it.

 

[MadHens]

Looks great! Looks like your girls will have plenty of room!

 

[Rock Home Isle]

That is looking so FINE....very cool.

 

[Gifa]

Thank you so much!

We have just about finished the interior of the coop today... Just have to build and install the front window... which is going to be the access point for the triweekly poop cleanings (poop hammock/board/tray). The whole front side opens up for the tri-annual cleanings.

 

[Gifa]

Also... we have been increasing our girls' time in the space more and more in the last few days to acclimate them to the heat.

This morning we put them out at 9am... They like to dig little depressions in the dirt under the coop and lay in them to help cool themselves down. I have been periodically spraying down the dirt in their run with a light sprinkle of cool water to keep it comfortable for them as well. It seems to perk them up and get them back out to running around. I am planning to leave them out until 8 or 9 this evening, and then bring them back inside for the night. I will probably do that again tomorrow, but after tomorrow, unless they show signs of stress... they're out for good.

 

[Kansaseq]

Nice job! That's a run I'd like to have for my own!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Looks great!! Fantastic run, no one is getting in there! You really thought of everything! We're having 110 degree heat here and if you are anywhere near that hot, I'd suggest setting up a mister. I bought a Cobra mister at my farm store and set it up in all of my pens. The chickens LOVE it in the heat and usually stand under it until they are soaked. But it's better than chickens dying in the heat.

This is what I set up:

You are so lucky that you have lots of natural shade! I have had to buy that expensive "privacy" lattice-- the kind that has smaller holes in it, not the regular stuff and put it up on the outside of my pens. We're on the plains-- very few trees out here. Congrats on the new beautiful coop!

 

[Gifa]

The girls moved in last night. I could hardly sleep last night with them out there, worried about predators and all, but now that they've made it through their first night, I feel a lot better. And the Pullet Shut Automatic Chicken door worked like a charm this morning. We'll see if we can get them all in there again this evening before the door closes.





Really all that's left to do now is to get something a little more official to hold those windows out, build the roost, sew the poop hammock up, and a few cosmetic things here and there. But since they won't really be roosting right away, The husband and I will address the windows and the cosmetic things, and then take a week off.

Today is also the last day in temperatures over 100, at least for a while. So that's good too.


Oh, and the colors, in case anyone is interested in that detail:

Exterior: Valspar: Curry Green
Trim: Valspar: Aviary (green tinted off-white)
Interior: Behr: Navaho White (very warm white)