- Mar 31, 2009
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I built my coop a few weeks ago. It is inside our very old barn. It is not fancy or nice looking, but I think it is serviceable.
I have 20 chickens - 2 BR, and 1 BO that are 12/13 weeks old,
The rest are 9 weeks old now - 2 Mottled Houdans, 3 German Spitzhaubens, 2 that are either phoenixes or yokohamas, 2 that I have no clue what they are. One is slow feathering and rumpless (though I can't be certain if it's part of the breed or if the cats nipped his butt), and DH says looks like a dinosaur.
2 RIR banties, 2 black japanese bantams or BOEG bantams (can't tell which yet), and 2 blue rosecomb bantams.
I had 1 white cornish banty and another BO, but because of my stupid mistake, I lost them to my barn cats.
This is the south side of the barn. The coop will be built inside between the first two windows.
I started building the walls. You can see one of the boarded up windows in this shot (and please overlook my lack of real framing skills)
This shot shows the front of the finished coop (and cleaned barn to boot!)
And this one shows the new paint job on the barn.
The two workable windows belong to the coop for some nice light and ventilation.
On this corner, I will be building the roost poles.
I repaired the windows and covered them on the outside with chicken wire, though I think I will upgrade to welded wire fabric this summer when I take the windows out for the summer.
The side walls don't go all the way up, instead I left them open and covered them with chicken wire for ventilation. This is a very old very drafty barn, and it's nice that it keeps the drafts out, but has enough air movement to get fresh air circulating.
You can barely see the door frame on the left of this picture. This is were I will be putting my next boxes. I am debating whether to put them inside the coop, or outside in the hallway of the barn to keep more of the space inside. Bu then, I'll be taking some of the space outside in the hallway. Maybe I'll compromise and have half of the nest sticking out. I want a door on the nests so I can reach eggs from outside the coop. (That is assuming they always lay their eggs in there!)
Since my porch was starting to smell like a barn, I moved the chickens in.
Here are my girls (though because of my stupid mistake, I didn't close the door right and my cats ate one of the BO hens you see here. Sniff - RIP Daisy
)
The little ones I kept in their kennel brooder inside the coop to keep the older girls from getting too mean.
I let them out for a little bit every night for about a week, then took the kennel out and they were nice to each other.
This weekend I will do the roosts and start working on the next boxes.
I have 20 chickens - 2 BR, and 1 BO that are 12/13 weeks old,
The rest are 9 weeks old now - 2 Mottled Houdans, 3 German Spitzhaubens, 2 that are either phoenixes or yokohamas, 2 that I have no clue what they are. One is slow feathering and rumpless (though I can't be certain if it's part of the breed or if the cats nipped his butt), and DH says looks like a dinosaur.
2 RIR banties, 2 black japanese bantams or BOEG bantams (can't tell which yet), and 2 blue rosecomb bantams.
I had 1 white cornish banty and another BO, but because of my stupid mistake, I lost them to my barn cats.
This is the south side of the barn. The coop will be built inside between the first two windows.
I started building the walls. You can see one of the boarded up windows in this shot (and please overlook my lack of real framing skills)
This shot shows the front of the finished coop (and cleaned barn to boot!)
And this one shows the new paint job on the barn.
The two workable windows belong to the coop for some nice light and ventilation.
On this corner, I will be building the roost poles.
I repaired the windows and covered them on the outside with chicken wire, though I think I will upgrade to welded wire fabric this summer when I take the windows out for the summer.
The side walls don't go all the way up, instead I left them open and covered them with chicken wire for ventilation. This is a very old very drafty barn, and it's nice that it keeps the drafts out, but has enough air movement to get fresh air circulating.
You can barely see the door frame on the left of this picture. This is were I will be putting my next boxes. I am debating whether to put them inside the coop, or outside in the hallway of the barn to keep more of the space inside. Bu then, I'll be taking some of the space outside in the hallway. Maybe I'll compromise and have half of the nest sticking out. I want a door on the nests so I can reach eggs from outside the coop. (That is assuming they always lay their eggs in there!)
Since my porch was starting to smell like a barn, I moved the chickens in.
Here are my girls (though because of my stupid mistake, I didn't close the door right and my cats ate one of the BO hens you see here. Sniff - RIP Daisy
The little ones I kept in their kennel brooder inside the coop to keep the older girls from getting too mean.
I let them out for a little bit every night for about a week, then took the kennel out and they were nice to each other.
This weekend I will do the roosts and start working on the next boxes.
