N00b builds chicken accommodations, please send your advice as I get started!

[IAEchickens]

Quote: Looks like a straw or hay chopper, cutter to me. BTW nice old barn. I like the roosts.

 

[zook]

The coop is almost done. Increase challenge level, install birds!

My buddy set me up with these 12 week old guys. 11 hens, 1 rooster. It is really obvious that there is way more space available in here.





Need cleats on that walkway, and need to put a mesh grate on the window so they don't roost there.



Earlier in the day before they figured out the waterer, I put a dish down and they all swarmed thirsty. This is in the next door stall, which will be secondary cages later. For the next few days it is the quarantine while they get used to living here.

Looking good! Much nicer than when I was over the other day. You did an awesome job. I'm so glad the flock worked out. Instant setup. I like the all black ones, but none were in the coop when I got mine.

Congrats Man

 

[jt dancer]

You have some pretty girls; do you know what breeds they are? It looks like they are enjoying their beautiful new barn. Good luck with them.

 

[aart]

Nice!! Lots of space is good....and they'll get bigger!

 

[AnomieAcres]

This will be close to the last post for this thread, because at least this main section of the coop is pretty much done. I'd like to show a few more pics of the final touches.



Third day and all chickens are still alive! Excellent! Someone asked about the breeds - the guys who sold them to me said they were RIR and Black Australorp mainly. The one white one supposedly has the Americauna blue gene.



Here is why the sliding door is outside the coop room - so we can do a nice deep litter of wood shavings. The tacked in divider can easily be removed for cleanout.



Plastic bucket on wire with nipple waterers. They all happily use it now.



Installed cleats on the ramp. works much better now. Also screened in the window so no more roosting there.



I decided to use this old farm workbench as the doors for the egg cabinet, because the multiple flaking layers of patina give me a big woody. For now they are just tacked in place, hinges and hardware a little later. I can access from inside the room anyways.



Eggholes! Put some eggs in there, guys!

 

[aart]

I decided to use this old farm workbench as the doors for the egg cabinet, because the multiple flaking layers of patina give me a big woody. For now they are just tacked in place, hinges and hardware a little later. I can access from inside the room anyways.

LMAO!!!

Just make sure those flakes of paint aren't accessible to the chooks, not good for them to eat, and they will eat them.

 

[crazyfeathers]

Excellent job. This is exactly what we did with our barn. We didn't make outside nesting boxes but plan on doing that soon, to give the girls more room and easier egg collecting. Could you please take more pictures of your "tree" roosts? I know this seems obtuse but I know that I want to add tree branches for roosts but don't know how to mount them to flat walls, if I even mount them. Thank you. I love the barn, we were also very lucky in the condition of our barn that came with the house we purchased last year. Almost all of our coops and stalls were made out of recycled wood and insulation. We have 2 flocks, pigs, goats, and rabbits along with dogs and cats. We will be adding to our menagerie this spring. I love them chickens but the goats are a close second. Pictures please and again beautiful job.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

My neighbors just let their chickens roost in the rafters of the stable. It certainly works and is sort of old school, but messy.... you may want a mobile coop, so you can move your flock's feeding attentions around your property, instead of having it concentrated in one spot, where my may have other livestock....

There is nothing better for raising healthy free range chickens that fresh cow or horse manure. It is a fine poultry tonic.

 

[AnomieAcres]

Excellent job. This is exactly what we did with our barn. We didn't make outside nesting boxes but plan on doing that soon, to give the girls more room and easier egg collecting. Could you please take more pictures of your "tree" roosts? I know this seems obtuse but I know that I want to add tree branches for roosts but don't know how to mount them to flat walls, if I even mount them. Thank you. I love the barn, we were also very lucky in the condition of our barn that came with the house we purchased last year. Almost all of our coops and stalls were made out of recycled wood and insulation. We have 2 flocks, pigs, goats, and rabbits along with dogs and cats. We will be adding to our menagerie this spring. I love them chickens but the goats are a close second. Pictures please and again beautiful job.

Hey there this is for crazyfeathers, a bunch of closeup pictures and some tips about how I installed this stuff.



Here are the posts in front of the nest boxes. I just cut them to rough length, spun them around until it looked functional, and then used staples and some scrap bits of hardware cloth to attach each end. I haven't had eggs yet but I have seen chickens jump onto and land on them successfully.



Here is a bird's eye view of the top of one of the roosting poles, as you see it is supported by a scrap bit of bailing wire and two nails. I was wondering if a shaky / wiggly attachment like this system would bug them - apparently not.

There is that same roost pole from the other end. I picked it for the nice branching action, and they use both of them. You can see, the way this end is attached is even less stable.



The ramp up is from an old home-made ladder. It is blocked and tacked in on both ends. The back roost pole is a little more tightly fitting, it wedged in place quite nicely and hardly seems to need the wires, but they are there for safety.

 

[AnomieAcres]

So what is now the day room / quarantine room needed insulation and interior boards before I can get started dividing it up with some secondary cages. Me and my buddy powered through and got this done in a day. Decided not to install the hardware cloth inside these walls - the cages will be the last line of defense instead.



Never do anything "just temporary", unless you like the futility of tearing down the most recent thing you built. The crappy temp door lasted all of 48 hours before we hung this proper sliding door.



The window in this stall was just plywood, so I insulated it and then covered it with this corrugated plastic. On the other side it is a Lotto 6/49 placard, but it looks like it was custom built to fit right here.