nature_nerd
Chirping
I just wanted to share a few things that we have added and incorporated this past 8 months. I will say it’s been quite an experience learning about chickens and bonding with my 6 gals. The knowledge has been endless! So I appreciate this forum and being able to research and learn from here. I have 4 Buff Orpingtons and two Marans. My husband named the marans after the Yellowstone characters Beth & Elsa. ((I know, I hear your eyes rolling 
))
The orange gals are Margaret (the late royal), Charlotte (another late royal), Layla (the song), and Little Sweetie. Simply because if you are around this sweet gal for one second, you’ll understand! She’s been that way since we got them.
We had a setup before with their run but there was a space between that and the garage. We decided to use the materials from the dumpster dive (the stuff that people waste!) and add a roof over the run and extended it as well. To add to the stuff that people waste, my husband is the manager over a company that runs some of its business out of a warehouse. They rent space to other businesses due to the size of the warehouse and one of them is a dock building company. They were throwing away perfectly good lumber and brand new sheets of roofing materials! He would go dumpster diving and haul it home. The only thing we purchased was their exhaust fan, windows, ceiling fan, wire, and siding. The rest of it was used for the coop + run. We were happy to get the materials but what a waste on their behalf! We had a ladder type roost but that did not work for us. At all. It may for some people but we recently took that out and added a single roost with the shelf underneath. Highly recommended! I wanted to add that the larger posts are upcycled telephone poles that my husband cut down and bolted to the concrete under the coop. Then we bolted the poles to the coop to keep it off the ground. Let me tell ya, I never knew that there was such a thing as bolts the size of these! It drained the drill battery just getting them installed!
We also didn’t keep the feeder and water in the middle of the coop. We moved those to the side and I’ve already gone through those because I didn’t like them for what we needed. I donated them to a new chicken mom.
Unfortunately, we’re unable to free range so we set up fencing you can move around so they can forage and play (as we call it). Still, this done at different times during the day when I’m outside with them due to the prying eyes of many hawks. Not to mention the other possible predators that have been in and out of my area. I would never forgive myself if this happened so someone is outside with them when they go into their play area.
I wanted to share with you all and of course your comments & suggestions are always welcomed! Like I mentioned…8 months.
((Photos are from the beginning to present))
))The orange gals are Margaret (the late royal), Charlotte (another late royal), Layla (the song), and Little Sweetie. Simply because if you are around this sweet gal for one second, you’ll understand! She’s been that way since we got them.
We had a setup before with their run but there was a space between that and the garage. We decided to use the materials from the dumpster dive (the stuff that people waste!) and add a roof over the run and extended it as well. To add to the stuff that people waste, my husband is the manager over a company that runs some of its business out of a warehouse. They rent space to other businesses due to the size of the warehouse and one of them is a dock building company. They were throwing away perfectly good lumber and brand new sheets of roofing materials! He would go dumpster diving and haul it home. The only thing we purchased was their exhaust fan, windows, ceiling fan, wire, and siding. The rest of it was used for the coop + run. We were happy to get the materials but what a waste on their behalf! We had a ladder type roost but that did not work for us. At all. It may for some people but we recently took that out and added a single roost with the shelf underneath. Highly recommended! I wanted to add that the larger posts are upcycled telephone poles that my husband cut down and bolted to the concrete under the coop. Then we bolted the poles to the coop to keep it off the ground. Let me tell ya, I never knew that there was such a thing as bolts the size of these! It drained the drill battery just getting them installed!
We also didn’t keep the feeder and water in the middle of the coop. We moved those to the side and I’ve already gone through those because I didn’t like them for what we needed. I donated them to a new chicken mom.
Unfortunately, we’re unable to free range so we set up fencing you can move around so they can forage and play (as we call it). Still, this done at different times during the day when I’m outside with them due to the prying eyes of many hawks. Not to mention the other possible predators that have been in and out of my area. I would never forgive myself if this happened so someone is outside with them when they go into their play area.
I wanted to share with you all and of course your comments & suggestions are always welcomed! Like I mentioned…8 months.
((Photos are from the beginning to present))
Attachments
-
IMG_0998.jpeg -
IMG_1147.jpeg -
IMG_1165.jpeg -
IMG_1172.jpeg -
IMG_1219.jpeg -
45A56CA5-9463-4924-B7E0-F7A8C1010A8C.jpeg -
C3907440-526E-48D6-8022-85712C5DA551.jpeg -
IMG_1883.jpeg -
IMG_1884.jpeg -
IMG_1504_Original.jpeg -
IMG_2282.jpeg -
IMG_2283.jpeg -
IMG_2342.jpeg -
IMG_2356.jpeg -
IMG_2357.jpeg -
IMG_2343.jpeg -
IMG_2344.jpeg -
IMG_2358.jpeg
Last edited:
