My Coop Update

[BettyR]

We have reached our second milestone!! My son and I are building this coop buy ourselves and neither one of us has ever held a hammer in our lives.

The first part; the foundation took us forever to figure out how to go about getting it level but we eventually did.

Then the first wall was a bit**! We put it together and took it apart for two weeks until we finally figured out what we were doing wrong. Then it was as if something clicked in my son’s head and all of a sudden he became Mr. Carpenter and we got the other three walls put together in 4 days.

The bottom picture is all four walls bungee corded together; we will have to wait until this weekend when hubby is off work to get him to help us put the walls up.

I’m so excited; I can actually see it starting to take shape. I can’t wait until I will be able to order my chicks.

Edited to add: We are building this out of some very large pump crates that hubby brought home from work.

 

[Redfeathers]

Wow! That looks like it's going to be huge! How big is it?

Good job to both you and your son!

 

[CarlaRiggs]

Oh, my! Now *that* is a coop!

The building looks wonderful now, Betty. Stable, heavyweight and ready for anything. You've a wonderful son to help out with this. Isn't it fun to do things together with your kids?
What are the dimensions on the coop? And how many chickens are you planning to keep? I love the linoleum on the floor... you're obviously thinking ahead.

Bake your son a nice fragrant apple pie, and give him a big hug. He's doing a terrific job.

And please post more pics!

Carla

 

[BettyR]

Yea, it’s pretty big. It’s 7-1/2 feet wide and 18-1/2 feet long.

We have never built a chicken coop or anything else for that matter and we didn’t realize that it was a little excessive until we had already started putting it together. But the majority of the materials we’re using to build it were going to be thrown away so hubby borrowed a trailer and brought them home.

Edited to add:
This is my wish list; I will probably modify this a bit I don't know. I will order from Ideal since they are in Texas.

10 Ameraucanas / 2 Americana Roosters

10 Black Australorp / 2 Roosters

10 Buckeye / 2 Roosters

10 Buff Orpington / 2 Roosters

10 Dominique / 2 Roosters

10 New Hampshire Red / 2 Roosters

10 Hatchery Choice Guineas

I'm really not sure about the roosters; I'm not sure how many roosters I will need. The chickens will be free range - sorta. We plan to fence off about 1/4 to 1/2 an acre for them. I was kind of hoping that having a dozen roosters or so would help keep the hens safer.

Opinions on this matter would be appreciated.

 

[SamG347]

Nice coop! But with that many birds you are looking at only giving each bird around 1 sq/ft of floor space. In my opinion standard breed chickens should have 4+ per bird. Also I would get the 2 roos of each breed. And keep the better looking of the 2 and get rid of the other.
Good Luck!

 

[Jayare's Chicks]

I think you may be getting too many roos. Are you planning to keep the 6 different breeds seperated for pure breeds? If they are all going to be together I wouldnt get 2 roos of EVERY breed. I don't think I would even get 1 roo for EVERY breed if they are all going to be together and not seperated. I have heard on here that a 1 roo to 8 hen is a good ratio. The more roos you have the more wear and tear you are going to have on your poor little hens. The roos may fight with each other too much if you have that many.

It's looking like it will be a great coop for them chickies. Good Job!!!

Jayare

 

[BettyR]

Quote:
Thanks guys!

The birds will only be using the coop to roost in at night. We are fencing off about 1/2 acre for them to forage on during the day. The fence will have electric wires on the top, middle and at the bottom to help discourage predators. I’m getting the guinea fowl because I’ve read that they help keep the area clean of snakes and they are good at spotting hawks and sending up the alarm in plenty of time for everyone to take cover. Here on the Texas Gulf Coast snakes can become an issue and we also have a lot of hawks.

I read Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens and she recommends 1/4 acre of forage space for 100 birds, so hopefully the space should work. I’m not even sure that I will get that many hens, the ones I have listed here are the ones that I really like.

We are planning to put some posts in the ground on the outside running the length of the coop and extend the roof out 8 feet on both sides. I plan to put their food, water and the nest boxes outside under this covered area. It gets really hot here in the summer time and I think outside nest boxes would be better for the hens.

Jayare's Chicks :

I think you may be getting too many roos. Are you planning to keep the 6 different breeds seperated for pure breeds? If they are all going to be together I wouldnt get 2 roos of EVERY breed. I don't think I would even get 1 roo for EVERY breed if they are all going to be together and not seperated. I have heard on here that a 1 roo to 8 hen is a good ratio. The more roos you have the more wear and tear you are going to have on your poor little hens. The roos may fight with each other too much if you have that many.

It's looking like it will be a great coop for them chickies. Good Job!!!

Jayare

As for the roos I hadn’t thought about them fighting or the wear and tear on the hens. I will cut that number in half.

I don’t plan to separate them and I plan to have a closed flock. I’m looking forward to seeing what we come up with in the future.​

 

[Brian]

I do hope you'll show us the final pictures! Your coop is the same length as mine. It's a very good size!

I have 16 chickens. On rainy days they are uncrowded inside.

I agree with the other comment, that this will be far to small for 82 birds! You'll have one over-crowded smelly outbuilding. Consider increasing the building size, or cutting the flock by about 2/3rds. Also, I'd cut the number of roos in half.

Good luck!

Brian

 

[BettyR]

Quote:
Thank you!!!

I hadn't even thought about the smell. I'm definitely going to cut that number back drastically. I guess I'm just getting excited and I'm like a kid in a candy shop; I want everything I see.

And yes I will post more pictures.

 

[Mrs MIA]

You'll like the linoleum on the floor... so easy to clean and disinfect! I'm building a 12x20' breeding coop in the next week or so... will look very similar to what you have so far!

Good job, and yes... bake your son that pie!!!