My Coops - made from recycled materials!

[suyoder]

I am married to an amazing man. He designed and built two coops for me.. I helped him on the tractor, but he built our stationary coop with some help from my two younger brothers, and then built the run with only as much help as I could give him in-between my housewife duties. So here's pictures of the stationary coop/run/chickens. We have twenty standard sized chickens that live here... the ten bantams are housed elsewhere... total of 30 chickens.


The coop/run.


The clever door system my husband rigged up... all I have to do to open/close the coop door at night and in the morning is to hook or unhook a loop of rope on a nail.


The inside... we still haven't gotten the roost done yet, but they aren't intersted in the low roost we have sitting there. They all pile together on the shavings. The food/water is inside for now, until we get a place built for them to stay dry in the run.


A view of one of the nestboxes that are not in use yet...


The other nestbox... the roof lifts on the outside to easily access the future eggs.






A Wyandotte hen and an orpington hen


I love love love my Dorking Cockerel -- Amigo! He's the SWEETEST thing ever! He never gives me the evil eye like my two orpington cocks do, and he loves sitting on my hand and surveying his "kingdom".


I love how they have "community" dust baths.


Any thoughts about this one? Is it a Cock or a Pullet? He/She is 5 weeks old.




One of my four Australorp hens. Gorgeous big girls! They are VERY fast growers. Way bigger than any of the other chicks!


One of the 2 buff orpington cocks who will probably end up as soup.


A welsummer hen enjoying the sunshine...


Giving one of our cats the evil eye...

I will post pictures of the second coop and the residents there in a little while!

 

[suyoder]

OK, here's the pictures of the tractor coop made from almost entirely recycled materials - second hand wire, rough sawn pine, pallets, and even a scrap of linoleum for under the roost. The whole coop costed approx. $70 to build... and about 2 full days of work. I am amazed with how well it came together! The only thing we had to buy was screws, staples, and shingles. My hubby took the wheels off of our old push mower (which we had just replaced last week, and were about to haul off when he came up with a brilliant use for them.) and he is going to rig up something with them to help us be able to move it easier. Right now we have my buff Brahma Bantams in it. I posted pictures of them in the "What Breed or Gender is this" section of the forum... any if you have any thoughts about their gender, please leave a comment on that thread!!!!






my hubby spent some time on this one! This whole section slides off for easy cleaning of the inside of the coop. As you can see, there are three nest boxes, and each nest box has an individual sliding door that slides down.. held up by a swivel block. Quite brilliant, I thought.


The inside of the coop... the door is closed at night, and they are snug and safe.

 

[RJSorensen]

You have some very nice building there, the carpentry looks to be first rate. A very nice build by your husband and his various helpers. I can see that you really love your birds as do I. The pride you have in your flock and coops is well earned, you have a very clean, neat operation going for you there.

I really enjoyed looking through the photographs of your birds, very bright eyed and nice looking. I can see they don't go without… It is nice that your family seems to enjoy and support you in your enterprise, that is very good as well.

I have been painting my new coop today, so I know of the thought and labor that goes into a nice setup like yours. Well done.

Best to you and your flock,

RJ

 

[suyoder]

Thank you very much! I have been amazed with how addictive chickens are!! They come in so many different varieties and breeds and shapes... It's just a lot of fun to browse chicken breed books and read the history and such on these fascinating birds.

All the best in your painting!