We have decided to get into raising chickens! I love this site and have read and read thousands of posts and gotten several ideas that we incorporated as we are building. I'd love to hear any comments or feedback on what we have going so far. If you can think of anything we have missed or should add PLEASE comment! We have only about $220 into this coop so far. My Dad is in construction and we used scrap material he has been collecting over the years.
Wed. we will be getting 15 female chicks and 6 guineas. We have an old trailer that my husband put a piece of plywood in the middle to separate the chicks and guineas. I thought I could keep them all together but after reading that guineas should not be raised on chicken food they need turkey food I wasn't sure how I was gonna do that having them all in one brooder. I still need another heat lamp and food and water dish for the other side. We lined the bottom with tar paper and then took pine chips that my Dad had from him cutting his siding for his hunting shack and put them on top of the tar paper. I am thinking about putting a layer of sand under the pine chips but not sure if I should or not? Cleaning should be easy we will just pull the tar paper off and put a new layer down!
Our coop is 8 x 8 and will have an attached run that will be 8 x 50. We live in northern WI so our winters get very cold so we did insulate our coop. We installed an exhaust fan, 2 lights and an electrical outlet in case we ever need it. The floor is dirt. We tacked chicken wire around the whole bottom to keep critters out then we put a layer of gravel, then a layer of sand. Once ready to put the chicks in we will use the deep litter method and keep adding pine chips until we have to clean it. We will scrape down to the sand and use it for compost in next years garden.
We have one small window but the free door we have is glass pained so I am hoping this will be enough light for them. If it is to much light I thought I could just get a blind for the glass widow if I need to. We will have 6 nesting boxes and several roosts. The nesting boxes I have not decided yet what to do. My husband can make something out of plywood but I am really likes the kitty litter box idea thinking that something removable and plastic will be much easier to clean! Using left over vinyl siding that is close to the same color of our house. I have more pics on my profile page if you'd like to take a look! So..... What are we missing? Any advise?
Wed. we will be getting 15 female chicks and 6 guineas. We have an old trailer that my husband put a piece of plywood in the middle to separate the chicks and guineas. I thought I could keep them all together but after reading that guineas should not be raised on chicken food they need turkey food I wasn't sure how I was gonna do that having them all in one brooder. I still need another heat lamp and food and water dish for the other side. We lined the bottom with tar paper and then took pine chips that my Dad had from him cutting his siding for his hunting shack and put them on top of the tar paper. I am thinking about putting a layer of sand under the pine chips but not sure if I should or not? Cleaning should be easy we will just pull the tar paper off and put a new layer down!
Our coop is 8 x 8 and will have an attached run that will be 8 x 50. We live in northern WI so our winters get very cold so we did insulate our coop. We installed an exhaust fan, 2 lights and an electrical outlet in case we ever need it. The floor is dirt. We tacked chicken wire around the whole bottom to keep critters out then we put a layer of gravel, then a layer of sand. Once ready to put the chicks in we will use the deep litter method and keep adding pine chips until we have to clean it. We will scrape down to the sand and use it for compost in next years garden.
We have one small window but the free door we have is glass pained so I am hoping this will be enough light for them. If it is to much light I thought I could just get a blind for the glass widow if I need to. We will have 6 nesting boxes and several roosts. The nesting boxes I have not decided yet what to do. My husband can make something out of plywood but I am really likes the kitty litter box idea thinking that something removable and plastic will be much easier to clean! Using left over vinyl siding that is close to the same color of our house. I have more pics on my profile page if you'd like to take a look! So..... What are we missing? Any advise?
