My Coop Project (Pic Heavy)

[ajcb42]

nice job

 

[slabcrappy]

Again, thank you all for the kind words. As requested, I have taken some shots of the yard. The backyard is about 100 feet wide and about 100 feet deep. Here are some shots around the yard. I started taking them from the right side (facing the back yard from the front). I then walked up the side, around the back and down the left side. I tried to include the coop as a reference:

 

[slabcrappy]

I went out to collect the eggs and I figured I would take a pic of that. I know someone said they were looking for laying box ideas. Here are a couple in the bottom left nest:


I have one or two girls that get lazy and do not want to climb in the nest boxes, so they decided to make their own nest in the corner of the coop:


Here are some of the 6 in the brooder:

 

[shelbear81]

WHOA! I missed quite a bit today. Yeesh.

1. I do contain my free range chickens in a 4 foot chain link fence completely surrounding my backyard.
2. My chicks are contained to another fenced in area within the completely surrounded chain link fenced in back yard.
3. I have no idea who owns this cat so talking to them is not an option.

So, they are double fenced in and were when this marauding cat came into my chick area and carried off two of my babies. To say that I am not properly protecting my flock is ignorant. But whatever. This is an open forum and everybody speaks their opinion, and sometimes they are wrong. If/when I trap this cat, it will go to the SPCA. There is a cat that comes over and hangs out with my chickens. She is super sweet and we welcome her over. But this black one I saw yesterday is the culprit of 2 of my babies being killed. I want to catch it.

Why is it that there are leash laws for dogs but absolutely nothing for cats??? I am thinking of getting an outdoor kitten and raising it with my babies so that it loves chickens but keeps rodents and other cats away. Has anyone done this or think it is a good/bad idea?

Sal

I am new to chicken raising but I will say this... I agree with you and yet disagree, isn't free speech wonderful! Anyway, my best friend has had chickens for several years now and has eight cats, I think your best best is to get a Brown Leghorn Rooster to help protect your chicks. They are very alert birds, and very agressive in their defense of them. What you will spend on their feed you will make up for in some piece of mind. Cats either like the chickens, ignore them, or eat them. It is basically the luck of the draw with waht type of cat you wind up with. But I wish you luck, it is never easy to care about something so much and lose them to an animal that can be contained, such as someone elses cat.

 

[shelbear81]

you have a beautiful home (from what I can see) and did an excellent job on the coop!! Good luck! Hope my coop turns out half as nice!!

 

[slabcrappy]

you have a beautiful home (from what I can see) and did an excellent job on the coop!! Good luck! Hope my coop turns out half as nice!!

Thank you very much! I am sure your coop will be awesome!

Long story with this house, I won't bore with the details, but I will say this... We have been in the house for 2 years and 1 month. We have:

• Had massive amounts of carpenter ant colonies in the house (all gone now)
• Have worked for those 2 years cutting 14 trees down, residing the entire house, replacing 10 windows, 4 entry doors, 2 garage doors, the roof (flat) and all new soffits, facia and gutters.
• Spent over $50K so far.
• Renovated the kitchen.
• Gutted and partially finished the basement.
• Hand rototilled and hand graded the backyard.
• There was no landscaping, so we did the entire front and side yard landscaping.

These last two years have been the most challenging and hardest of my life. I thank God for His wisdom and faithfulness for getting us through it. There are scars, but they do not compare to the glory that we have been experiencing through and now after this trial.

The chickens have actually been a big bright spot through this. I realized I needed to do something I enjoy during all of this. So when I called the village building inspector, I was thrilled when he said there was nothing against chickens in our village! My past house I tried chickens twice, only to have a neighbor call the police and SPCA on me (they were not allowed in that town). I am in a better sub-divided neighborhood now and never thought they would be allowed, but obvioulsy they are.

Now, I am doing the fun things like building the coop, landscaping and making the lawn grass instead of weeds. God is good!!

Sal

 

[Rock Home Isle]

You have a very nice place for your girls. Great photos.

 

[joan1708]

Beautiful yard, Beautiful trees. After looking at your pictures, I'm not sure an electric fence will entirely take care of your problem. It looks to me like raccoons and such could climb up trees and go from tree to tree to get into your chicken yard. I have seen tin/metal "collars" around tree trunks to keep climbers from getting in them. However, that might spoil the good looks of your back yard. I'm thinking a livestock guardian dog may be what you need. The problem with that is it's gamble, as sometimes the dog doesn't work out. Good luck with whatever you do!

 

[aggiemae]

• Hand rototilled and hand graded the backyard.
• There was no landscaping, so we did the entire front and side yard landscaping.

You HAND GRADED your yard!? WOW!

Our house was custom built in 1957 but the owner got an NFL coaching job and mover away in 1960. They rented the house for 40 years planning to come back when they retired but never landscaped other that planting a laurel hedge along the back of the property...

50 years later...we buy the now newly renovated house with the same unfinished back yard... A half acre of weeds, four giant cedar trees in one corner (three not on our property) and a 120 for long 25 foot wide 60 foot high Laurel hedge... We increased the side of the yard by almost 600 sq feet by cutting back the Laurel! We are going to regarde this summer but will use a mini dozer since we are digging out a pool though I know of (sturdy younger) people who have actually hand dug pools.

The house has great southern exposure so we installed solar panels..our electric bill went form 180.00 a month to an average of $50.00..it was $20.00 in April, in May-September we get buy back credits even in not always sunny Oregon and with the new heat pump hot water heater (cools the house while it heats the water!) our bulls will go down to nothing.

 

[slabcrappy]

You have a very nice place for your girls. Great photos.

Thank you! After seeing your coop thread, that is huge compliment.

Beautiful yard, Beautiful trees. After looking at your pictures, I'm not sure an electric fence will entirely take care of your problem. It looks to me like raccoons and such could climb up trees and go from tree to tree to get into your chicken yard. I have seen tin/metal "collars" around tree trunks to keep climbers from getting in them. However, that might spoil the good looks of your back yard. I'm thinking a livestock guardian dog may be what you need. The problem with that is it's gamble, as sometimes the dog doesn't work out. Good luck with whatever you do!

Thank you! The good thing is the raccoons have not gotten to the girls and the new coop is predator proof. The cat is the main problem, but I have resorted to raising the chicks in the potting shed (the old coop) off the back of the garage without access to the outdoors until they are larger. therefore, if the cat comes around, he will not want to tangle with 12 large breed hens! I have never had an issue until the last 2 weeks and I have been free ranging for over a year.

You HAND GRADED your yard!? WOW!

Our house was custom built in 1957 but the owner got an NFL coaching job and mover away in 1960. They rented the house for 40 years planning to come back when they retired but never landscaped other that planting a laurel hedge along the back of the property...

50 years later...we buy the now newly renovated house with the same unfinished back yard... A half acre of weeds, four giant cedar trees in one corner (three not on our property) and a 120 for long 25 foot wide 60 foot high Laurel hedge... We increased the side of the yard by almost 600 sq feet by cutting back the Laurel! We are going to regarde this summer but will use a mini dozer since we are digging out a pool though I know of (sturdy younger) people who have actually hand dug pools.

The house has great southern exposure so we installed solar panels..our electric bill went form 180.00 a month to an average of $50.00..it was $20.00 in April, in May-September we get buy back credits even in not always sunny Oregon and with the new heat pump hot water heater (cools the house while it heats the water!) our bulls will go down to nothing.

Yeah, it took a few days of rototilling and a few days of raking, plus my wifey helped! You can kind of see the areas where I have nice grass and dirt, those are the areas that I have done. the backyard used to be 70% of 3 foot ground cover. I weed whacked it all down and tilled it to kill it. The trees had ivy going all up on them and I personally don't like that so I cut and ripped it all off of the trees. It has been a lot of work, but I really enjoy that stuff. The stressful stuff was the rot and carpenter ant damage that I found all over the house. That was bad, but the yard stuff is enjoyable to me. My problem is that I am not very creative. Me and my son planted 30 cucumber plants tonight in the side yard (away from the chickens).

Wow! You have made some improvements! That sounds sweet. The solar panel project sounds like a very wise move. We put them on one of our buildings at work, but I cannot say we get that kind of ROI. Buffalo isn't the sunniest place on earth, but it doesn't sound like Oregon is either?!