Let the adventure begin!!! Building a coop

[ShellyP]

I am so very excited! I finally talked my husband into letting me have some chickens in our back yard. I had two chicken coops about 10 years ago and loved having chickens and getting fresh eggs.

Yesterday I ordered 12 started pullets from Murray McMurray Hatchery. They will be between 15 and 22 weeks old when they arrive here between September 10th and September 13th.

My husband will be building the chicken house and run and I have gotten so many great tips from BYC. Thank you all for your expertise and willingness to share it.

The one big question I have is about the construction of the "poo boards". In my past chicken houses I had the traditional 3 tier roost which was such a pain as far as cleaning underneath. If anyone has specific instructions on how they built their roosts and poo boards I would really appreciate it. For instance...how deep are yours? What are they constructed out of?

I will be posting pictures here of the coop building process.
Did I say how excited I am?!!!?

 

[silkiechicken]

Congrats! I don't have poo boards, but perhaps a search can help with that. As for grown hens. Are you sure you don't want to raise up some chicks? They will be much friendlier. From what I remember hearing, point of lay pullets from hatcheries are often beak clipped and skittish.

 

[ShellyP]

You bring up some good points, but I am very confident with this particular hatchery. The started pullets from this hatchery don't have their beaks clipped and get to do some free ranging while at the hatchery. I am so excited to start getting some eggs so this seemed like a great "jump start". I do hope to get some "Olive Egger" eggs at some point to let one of my Buff Orpington girls hopefully hatch. So I do hope to have some baby chicks some day. Thanks so much for your post.

 

[silkiechicken]

But if you got chicks this week, by sept 10th, they'll be just one week shy of that 15 week mark of a started pullet . But I'm a sucker for chicks and just can't help but to squish their big fat fluffy day old bodies. LOL And the joy in having your birds come run-waddling with wings a flaping is one of the best feelings in the world! haha

Best of luck with the chickens!!!

 

[SobbaChickens]

Sounds like you've done your research

Best of luck! I've enjoyed having chickens so much, might sound crazy but they've been kind of like therapy to me.

 

[aart]

There's one very long thread with lots of examples of poop boards.
Here a search for more info..... Advanced search>titles only> poop boards

 

[chicksbunsdog]

I have a poop board under our chickens roost and it's wonderful. I actually have three trays that I got from Christmas tree shops on the "poop deck" and I keep sweet pdz on the trays so each day I go out and pull each tray off the poop deck and scoop the poop with a sifter spoon, much like scooping kitty litter. I add a bit of pdz each day if needed. It keeps the coop so clean that all I do with the coop is fluff up their shavings every so often. I've only completely cleaned out the coop once in the 8 months that we've had them. My family jokes that the coop is cleaner than our house (and sadly, it's true!) You can some pictures of our poop deck before the chickens moved in on my page with the coop construction photos.

 

[ShellyP]

Silkie....since we are just now building the chicken house I wouldn't be able to order the chicks now. But I totally understand your love of the chicks. Soba, I don't think that sounds crazy at all. I completely understand your chickens being your therapy. I certainly loved my chickens and each had it's own personality. I can't wait to spoil my new girls.
Thank you so much apart and chicksbunsdog for the feedback on the poop shelves. I really appreciate your help.
Exciting news! The first lumber for the new coop was purchased by my amazing husband today.

 

[ShellyP]

The coop building has started!

 

[tymimo]

My poop board is about 16 inches wide so it extends about 8 inches on either side of the roost and is about 8 inches below the roost. The board is just a piece of 1/2 plywood with 2x2 along the edges to hold in about 1 inch of PDZ. The roost is about 3 feet long for 4 chickens but each morning I find all the poo concentrated under half the roost. I scoop out the poop using a cat litter scoop and deposit into a covered bucket next to the coop that gets emptied periodically. If I'm in a rush it probably takes 3 minutes, tops, but I like to rake out the PDZ all level and smooth. I believe someone on the poop board thread likened it to a zen rock garden.

There's a picture of the roost in the pics of my coop in my profile. The roosting bar is free standing so I could move it around the coop if I need to and remove for cleaning. I did entertain the idea of putting the nesting boxes underneath but didn't in the end.

Since you're getting 12 chickens your roost will obviously need to be longer and I don't know if one roost would fit in your coop.

Hope that helps.