Large Urban Coop - Renew, Reuse, Recycle

[PamelaTX]

Very nice. Good job! I'm impressed!

 

[ChickensRDinos]

Looks great!! Really nice job. The only thing you might want to consider is that they space between the wires looks a little hide. If you have raccoons or oppossums in your area and the space is bigger than their hand then they can get your birds through the wire. Just something to be aware of.

 

[ryeguy]

Thanks for the kind words. I'm just about finished at this point. Just need to put up a few more trim boards. I'm also going to put a standard handle/lock on the door to the run and a good lock on the window.

In regard to the fencing (welded wire) I decided to go with it because it felt sturdier than the hardware cloth and our primary predators are large dogs. Our chickens are secure in the coop at night (which uses hardware cloth behind the ventilation hatches) so I'm not worried about a raccoon being able to get in during the night. When they are out in the run during the day our Border Collie is in the yard running circles around the coop or chasing squirrels in the yard.

We actually had a very large dog get into our yard the other day and it saw the chickens and went after them, but the welded wire didn't budge, which was nice. The hardware cloth might have been strong enough, but I feel more comfortable with the welded wire.

I still have to finish the nesting box interior, but I wasn't in too much of a rush as they won't be laying until around March. At the moment it's one big box. I haven't put a board in to split it into two areas. I also need to get down to TSC and get some DE and Sweet PDZ. We're also going to add gutters and a rain barrel soon.

The chickens seem to like their coop and run, but I'm definitely going to build a tractor in the spring so they can get out and scratch around the yard. Unfortunately I can't let them free range because of the dogs. We have an acre of land so upgrading to a 6 foot fence from what we have now just isn't financially feasible.

 

[n-da-woods]

Nice !

 

[Chookydeb]

very nice! not bad for somebody who's never built anything before

 

[lynyrd]

lucky duck-I mean chickens