My Coop DeVille...

[Soujrnr]

Hi all,

I'm almost done with the construction of our coop. My wife and I are working hard to get it all done so that we can get some chickens perhaps next week. Here are a few photos of it. The trench is to bury wire in for burrowing predators, which will be covered with gravel to hopefully keep snakes out. Rumor has it that snakes don't like gravel, and we have a lot of snakes here. We live right next to the woods as well, so we also see foxes, coyotes, hawks, and other predators as well. The woods behind our house has a stream running through it, so animals come all the time for watering. A free chicken dinner would probably top their list as well.

The long white tubes in the second photo are our homemade feeders made from 4" PVC. I will be picking up a rain barrel as well, and fashioning a watering system for the girls. I will be putting a gutter on the back side of the coop and routing it to the rain barrel, and then from the barrel to some kind of watering system.

Comments, hints, tips, etc., are always welcome!

Mike

 

[rosemarythyme]

I assume you're going to hardware cloth over the 2x4 wire as well? Looks nice so far.

 

[Soujrnr]

I assume you're going to hardware cloth over the 2x4 wire as well? Looks nice so far.

Yes. I screwed up when I installed that. I thought it would be adequate, but I'm learning from forums that I need the smaller mesh. So, I'll have double protection, which is good. The 1/4" stuff is super weak.

 

[Soujrnr]

My wife and I spent the last two full days completing the coop because we are getting our girls tomorrow. We are getting four to start with. Their breeds are ISA Brown, Buff Orpington, Black Copper Maran, and I think the other is something like a Barnyard Mix, or something like that.

Here are the pictures from this evening. We finished all the 1/4" hardware cloth in the rain because we are getting the girls tomorrow after church. We are excited!! We are going to set up our own meal worm farm as well. We bought a 55-gallon rain collection barrel that we'll be setting up for providing water as well. We installed the gutter just before the rain started, but we haven't got all the plumbing in place for it yet. That's next.

I installed the larger welded wire on top of the run. No big predators will get in there. We also buried 1/4" hardware cloth all around the perimeter and covered it with gravel. We'll probably put some narrow cinder blocks along the bottom, just for added protection. There are a couple things left to paint, but it's functional now.

 

[Soujrnr]

Oh, we have another question. We are considering putting PVC tubing for their water source. Is mold or mildew a concern, and if so, how do you deal with it? The system would be somewhat similar to this photo.

 

[Nomadicus]

Are you using municipal water that has chlorine in it?

 

[Soujrnr]

Are you using municipal water that has chlorine in it?

No. We will be collecting rain water off the roof of the coop.

 

[Nomadicus]

No. We will be collecting rain water off the roof of the coop.

The flow rate will be rather slow so I don't know for sure but I think it will at least have some buildup in the pipes. The system you have will support way more than you are starting with. What is the diameter of the piping?

 

[Soujrnr]

The flow rate will be rather slow so I don't know for sure but I think it will at least have some buildup in the pipes. The system you have will support way more than you are starting with. What is the diameter of the piping?

Here's the plan so far. I want to elevate the barrel to take advantage of gravity, but I won't be able to raise it too much just due to the height of the gutter. I'll be putting a valve on the bottom of the barrel and that will have a hose connected to it to feed into a watering dish or something like that. We are still kind of tossing ideas around to figure out what will work best.

When you say the system we have will support way more than you are starting with, are you referring to the number of chickens we are starting with versus the capability of our watering system? (just so I'm clear)

 

[Nomadicus]

The system looks capable of supporting way more than just the 4 you are starting with if that pipe is a big as it looks. With water moving slow through the pipe different type of things can coat the pipe inside.