Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[Fun Chicken]

Mary you just have a touch of Chicken Fever

Hi Fun Chicken, welcome to BYC and the Michigan thread. If you want to quote someone look down at the bottom right of their post and you will see three tabs. One of them says "Quote," if you select that, the other member's post will show up in your box. "Multi" allows you to select several different posts to quote.

Thanks, I'm not sure I would have found that out on my own. Although I only see two tabs, the one for the "ovations", and the "quote". No "multi".

 

[Fun Chicken]

Fun, chickens are very tough and resilient. you could also check out the coop threads. there are a lot If very helpful ideas on there.

I'm beggining to see that. I guess it's just me who's not so tough and resilient, lol. I'm going out to take the picture, as promised, and I'll post it ASAP. Thanks ladies!

 

[Fun Chicken]

This is the view from my backyard. We have Kiwi growing on the opposite side of the stairs and a Russian vine on the side of the stairs. Between the two, they pretty much cover up the whole porch and stairs, lol.

 

[Fun Chicken]

This is the begginings of the coop. We put insulation in the ceiling so that it would not leak.

 

[Fun Chicken]

I was originally going to leave the rest of this under the porch for them to be in undercover and for a dust bath, but I think I'm going to extend the coop to the next posts (right after the stairs) and just leave the very tip for those purposes.

 

[yochickiemomma]

Fun my biggest concerns so far is how water proof the deck is unless you plan on putting some sort of barrier (roof) under the deck to keep them dry and how much snow drifts up against the sides of the deck. By mid winter the piles next to my porchs are taller than me (5'2") Maybe I'm looking at It wrong. Definitely a cool place to build though. Is the space about 4 ft tall? I think it'll be neat when It's done.

 

[RaZ]

This is the view from my backyard. We have Kiwi growing on the opposite side of the stairs and a Russian vine on the side of the stairs. Between the two, they pretty much cover up the whole porch and stairs, lol.

This is the begginings of the coop. We put insulation in the ceiling so that it would not leak.

I was originally going to leave the rest of this under the porch for them to be in undercover and for a dust bath, but I think I'm going to extend the coop to the next posts (right after the stairs) and just leave the very tip for those purposes.

I think you will find that the flake board disintegrates pretty quickly. You can seal it and add a layer of linoleum or cheap vinyl but flake board shouldn't be in contact with the ground.
What type of insulation did you use in the ceiling?
Think about how you will be cleaning the coop after the walls are up. If it is hard to clean out, it usually doesn't get done. That would be bad for the chickens.
Same for gathering the eggs. Make it easy to do.

You have a lot of potential there. Don't cheap out on the materials or design.
Good luck.

 

[aart]

This is the view from my backyard. We have Kiwi growing on the opposite side of the stairs and a Russian vine on the side of the stairs. Between the two, they pretty much cover up the whole porch and stairs, lol.

Sorry, gonna be blunt......
.....I think it would be a nightmare to have a coop under there, but I'm old and can't crawl around on the ground very well anymore.

Agrees with Raz about the flake board/OSB...and yochikiemomma about the deck being a waterproof 'roof' for the coop.

Access would be difficult to say the least, especially after the snow piles up, it's maybe about 4 foot from ground to deck joists?
Am guessing it's on the north side of the house, judging by algae growth on house siding, would be dark and damp.....rife for for mold growth.

 

[Fun Chicken]

I think you will find that the flake board disintegrates pretty quickly. You can seal it and add a layer of linoleum or cheap vinyl but flake board shouldn't be in contact with the ground.
What type of insulation did you use in the ceiling?
Think about how you will be cleaning the coop after the walls are up. If it is hard to clean out, it usually doesn't get done. That would be bad for the chickens.
Same for gathering the eggs. Make it easy to do.

You have a lot of potential there. Don't cheap out on the materials or design.
Good luck.

The flake board is not directly on the ground. DH put some 4x4s across and then put the boards on top of those. As far as the insulation, we used blue board (although it was pink) and then flake board. We will seal that one to make sure it doesn't rot so soon. The water from rain and melted snow will drain both to the sides (where the stairs are aand opposite) and to the front, where the run will be. I'm thinking, after reading some of the comments here, that we should probably put something like a gutter to get the water to the sides and keep the run dry. The height inside the coop is probably around 4.5' so yes I'll have to stoop somewhat to get in. My plan, which is nof necesarily DH's plan, is to be able to open up the sides, or at leat one side, so that I can pull all the straw wigh a long handled broom, and even hose it down if it needs it. I plan on giving it several coats of paint and sealer so I can do that. The nest boxes I would like to put them on the side that will open, sort of hanging out so that I can just lift a top and I can get to them. Am I dreaming? Is all of this possible?

 

[Fun Chicken]

Fun my biggest concerns so far is how water proof the deck is unless you plan on putting some sort of barrier (roof) under the deck to keep them dry and how much snow drifts up against the sides of the deck. By mid winter the piles next to my porchs are taller than me (5'2") Maybe I'm looking at It wrong. Definitely a cool place to build though. Is the space about 4 ft tall? I think it'll be neat when It's done.

My husband put blueboard insulation and then OSB after that. We'll probably seal it just to be sure. As for the snow drifting on the sides of the deck, I'm not sure because so far it's been open so it doesn't really pile up, but I imagine it will now that we're going to close it. If it does, I may have to go inside to get the eggs, instead of getting them from the outside. Or maybe, just thunderstorming here, we could put some sort of over extended roof over the nest boxes to protect them and keep the snow from blowing there. Hmmmm... I'll have to think on this some more. Any suggestions?