When I told my wife I was going to get some chickens she looked at me like I was nuts. We raised parrots (had over 100 at one point) for awhile and had gotten away from it because of the mess and expense. They were all in the house
it was really loud in the morning to say the leaste.
Well, the wife is used to my eccentricities after 24 years and said as long as I didn't spend any money she would put up with the chickens. I started looking around the house and gathering materials. What I didn't have I asked friends for and they hooked me up with scrap lumber and misc. parts and peices. Here is what I came up with....
The base frame is from an old bed frame and the pipes are pipe peices are from a drain pipe I had to change out at work. It was for draining rain water. The plywood was given to me by a friend that had it for hurricane boards but no longer needed it. I used extra fence pickets I had laying around for the sub floor then covered them with plywood. I then laid commercial tile that I found on the floor so clean up would be easier.
Taken from ideas I found on BYC I built the nesting boxes on the outside of the coop for easier access and added a flip up roof so I can gather eggs easier.
I added a poop board directly outside of the nesting boxes to make clean up easier and to give the hens easier access to the boxes. My brooder is sitting in the coop in this picture, I wanted to make sure it would fit in there for when I move the chicks out of the house and into the coop.
I lost all of the pics of the rest of the build, but here is the finished product,
I added the chains and locks to keep anyone or anything from gaing access to my birds.
Here is the inside, one of the roost logs is down on the floor because I have been moving the brooder in and out of the coop to get the chicks acclimated.
Since the coop is so small I am going to be feeding out side. I covered an area with hurricane panels to keep the rain out of the feed area. I am using a 3"pvc pipe cut in half for a feed trough. I put the little roof over it to keep the birds from roosting on the feed trough and pooping in the food.
I am using the water jug for water and will put an oil drain pan under it when I move the birds out to the coop.
Here are the future residents.....
This is my first coop and run and I am sure it is not quite right, so any suggestions will be appreciated. I have a few weeks before the birds will move in so I have time to make changes. I originally designed it for 8 birds, 7 hens and one rooster. Now that the chicks are here (15) the wife who was skeptic at first wants to keep them all
So now I will need to build an addition onto the coop and run to accomodate 15 birds. I am back on the prowl for free materials to work with.
All I had to buy was the posts and a few of the 2x4s all other material was gathered from around the house or given to me. I think I am going to go ahead and fence off a large area of the back yard with field fencing so they can free range and that will fix the run problem, but the coop is going to have to triple in size. It is only 15 square feet. Maybe I will just wall off the original run and make that the coop. Then the coop will be 84 square feet. I could then turn the small coop into a brooder and isolation pen.
Any suggestions?
Well, the wife is used to my eccentricities after 24 years and said as long as I didn't spend any money she would put up with the chickens. I started looking around the house and gathering materials. What I didn't have I asked friends for and they hooked me up with scrap lumber and misc. parts and peices. Here is what I came up with....
The base frame is from an old bed frame and the pipes are pipe peices are from a drain pipe I had to change out at work. It was for draining rain water. The plywood was given to me by a friend that had it for hurricane boards but no longer needed it. I used extra fence pickets I had laying around for the sub floor then covered them with plywood. I then laid commercial tile that I found on the floor so clean up would be easier.
Taken from ideas I found on BYC I built the nesting boxes on the outside of the coop for easier access and added a flip up roof so I can gather eggs easier.
I added a poop board directly outside of the nesting boxes to make clean up easier and to give the hens easier access to the boxes. My brooder is sitting in the coop in this picture, I wanted to make sure it would fit in there for when I move the chicks out of the house and into the coop.
I lost all of the pics of the rest of the build, but here is the finished product,
I added the chains and locks to keep anyone or anything from gaing access to my birds.
Here is the inside, one of the roost logs is down on the floor because I have been moving the brooder in and out of the coop to get the chicks acclimated.
Since the coop is so small I am going to be feeding out side. I covered an area with hurricane panels to keep the rain out of the feed area. I am using a 3"pvc pipe cut in half for a feed trough. I put the little roof over it to keep the birds from roosting on the feed trough and pooping in the food.
I am using the water jug for water and will put an oil drain pan under it when I move the birds out to the coop.
Here are the future residents.....
This is my first coop and run and I am sure it is not quite right, so any suggestions will be appreciated. I have a few weeks before the birds will move in so I have time to make changes. I originally designed it for 8 birds, 7 hens and one rooster. Now that the chicks are here (15) the wife who was skeptic at first wants to keep them all
All I had to buy was the posts and a few of the 2x4s all other material was gathered from around the house or given to me. I think I am going to go ahead and fence off a large area of the back yard with field fencing so they can free range and that will fix the run problem, but the coop is going to have to triple in size. It is only 15 square feet. Maybe I will just wall off the original run and make that the coop. Then the coop will be 84 square feet. I could then turn the small coop into a brooder and isolation pen.
Any suggestions?
