Lets see your "Breeding Pens"

[kryptoniteqhs]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/39717_dsc06028.jpg

YAY!!!!!!!! THIS IS WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IM SOOOOO HAPPY!!!

 

[kryptoniteqhs]

Like this!!!

 

[CARS]

Quote:
While it's simple and beautiful, it wouldn't work well here in MN at sub-zero temps. In WV, maybe????

 

[kryptoniteqhs]

it gets pretty cold here too...but i already have a couple of coops similar to these and they work perfect

 

[Germaine_11.20]

How cold is cold out there? We are at 18 here tonight. In the single digits a few weeks ago. Those are basically three sided. I think I might get by if I enclosed the open side and cut a pop hole.

 

[Megs]

ilovefrizzles- love the setup!

in the summer i plan on covering my whole enclosure with a tin roof/gutters etc, building coops on the outside of the run for the 2 with the doghouses (those are temporary coops, probably use for chick rearing later), and adding a few tractors, very similar to the ones MAllen has (love them).

this is the coop i have added since the first photo was taken (though it now has a shingle style roof and will be painted in the spring), it is on the left wide of the run attatched to a 10X10, i will be replacing the 2 dog houses with ones this style

 

[Fourgirlsoneboy]

I am thinking it is too cold here for a 3 sided pen- I don't think its been above freezing for 2 weeks! How do you keep their combs from freezing? Of course, you could prob use it for 8-9 months of the year? I am thinking of something similar (for warmer months), but I am also worried about predators- it seems like it would be pretty easy for a racoon/opossum/fox/neighbors dog to get into them.. That being said I live in Back Creek, so maybe we see more critters than you do!

Love this thread!

 

[lildinkem]

rustyswoman :
Do you put the roo in there with them and for how long? Do you do it everyday, every other day? And do the girls lay their eggs in there or is that strictly for breeding and then they go into a different coop?

About $80 to build. IF you run the live stock fencing on the bottom, it makes it VERY hard for critters to break in. And again their easy to move around.
I keep one cockerel in there at a time. And depending on the weather it is everyday. Only exception is when I switch cocks, then I give a few days off for the girls. The girls will lay their eggs in there. I am adding nesting boxes that will hang about a foot off the ground. These boxes will be small, about 3 feet by 4 feet. That way they can stand on the boxes or go under them. And I am suspending them from the top with small chains.

heritagebirds :
Wow, lildinkem, nice pen and nice 3 German Sheps in the bkgd, what is the brown dog?

My wife and I found a little mix that was dumped off the Highway 70 here in Indy, she came with a BIG BROWN surprise inside her. He is Auggie. The big brown dog is Auggie, he is a 1 year old Pit Bull / New Foundland Dog mix.​

 

[Fourgirlsoneboy]

Livestock fencing on the bottom is a fantasic idea!!!!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

A lot of good ideas here!
The drawing is like what I want to build in the spring. I would like it to be 24 to 32 ft long with a solid back and wire front run but I know I will have to enclose the solid 3 sided coop because what my guys are in now seems too cold to me. They are all doing well but I hate to think of them in 22 degree weather at night with the wind blowing.

I want to make it 6' tall in the pen area and the back of the coop roof can drop to 4' with a doorway of 2'. If that makes sense. I plan for the coop area to be 8' deep and the pen to be 10' while being only about 4 to 6 ' wide. But they would all be side by side, built together.

This is what I am using now and it is good for warm weather but I don't like it being so open in cold weather. These are good grow out pens but for breeding I would like something different.