Hi everybody. I got my 6 chicks at the beginning of March, and spent some time building them a coop, after looking through all the great advice here at BYC. My DH was very sick last year (better now), and I needed some therapy after tending him (and dealing with insurance people 
), so I planned and built it mostly all myself.
Its 4'x8', and raised up about 2', to give them shelter from the sun, and the Oregon rain.
I fixed up swinging arms for their feeder and waterer - it makes them easy to fill, and they swing under the house for protection from the weather, and the birds can't sit on them
And then I found this neat waterer in a garden catalogue - it was rather pricey, but its not plastic, and I can use ACV in it. It isn't really big enough though, so I have a bigger metal one with plain water in it as well. And I really like the way it looks.
The main doors are double - that is, the inner doors are chicken wire, and the outer doors are solid (with windows for light), but with removable hinges. Now that it is hot those outer doors are off entirely, and will go back on when it starts getting cold at night. There is a little window at either end with a removeable plexiglass pane - you can just see it halfway out of it's frame in this picture - in the hot weather they are out completely. For added ventilation there is a 3-4" gap under the eaves that is always open, and covered with hardware cloth.
The run was hard, as the coop is at the top of a steep incline (you can see how the land falls away outside the fence in this next picture), so it was a pain finding ways to keep the ladder steady. Its an odd shape, but is about 100 square feet, with 1/2" hardware cloth all around, and buried round the edges, and over the top as well - we have hawks here.
And here are a couple of pics of the inhabitants: all 6 yesterday diving into their plate of kefir, oat flakes, and clover sprouts:
And the lord of the manor - Jan von Werth - at the entrance to his "castle"
I'm pretty proud of myself, as I had never built anything more complicated than a bookshelf before.
Thanks for all the good ideas I got here!
), so I planned and built it mostly all myself.Its 4'x8', and raised up about 2', to give them shelter from the sun, and the Oregon rain.
I fixed up swinging arms for their feeder and waterer - it makes them easy to fill, and they swing under the house for protection from the weather, and the birds can't sit on them
And then I found this neat waterer in a garden catalogue - it was rather pricey, but its not plastic, and I can use ACV in it. It isn't really big enough though, so I have a bigger metal one with plain water in it as well. And I really like the way it looks.
The main doors are double - that is, the inner doors are chicken wire, and the outer doors are solid (with windows for light), but with removable hinges. Now that it is hot those outer doors are off entirely, and will go back on when it starts getting cold at night. There is a little window at either end with a removeable plexiglass pane - you can just see it halfway out of it's frame in this picture - in the hot weather they are out completely. For added ventilation there is a 3-4" gap under the eaves that is always open, and covered with hardware cloth.
The run was hard, as the coop is at the top of a steep incline (you can see how the land falls away outside the fence in this next picture), so it was a pain finding ways to keep the ladder steady. Its an odd shape, but is about 100 square feet, with 1/2" hardware cloth all around, and buried round the edges, and over the top as well - we have hawks here.
And here are a couple of pics of the inhabitants: all 6 yesterday diving into their plate of kefir, oat flakes, and clover sprouts:
And the lord of the manor - Jan von Werth - at the entrance to his "castle"
I'm pretty proud of myself, as I had never built anything more complicated than a bookshelf before.
Thanks for all the good ideas I got here!
