I started creating a chicken coop in October 2009, and am now starting to enjoy fresh eggs for breakfast. I learned alot from backyardchickens while creating the coop.
We are currently running 28 pullet hens and 2 roosters, with a capacity for 100 chickens. The hens are Rhode Island Reds and Ameraucanas.
The coop is on a 13 acre farm that I acquired a few years ago on Lake Lavon, in Princeton Texas. The coop was created from a 70 year old dilapidated tin roofed house that was on the property. The roof didn't leak, but it was missing all of it's windows, the floors were sloped, and the outside was exposed in some areas. The 70 year old lady that watches the chickens for me lives in a house 100 feet away and she was born in what is now the chicken coop.
We put in a chicken yard with a 6 ft chicken wire fence, but lost 2 hens to predators (we decided it was skunks). We added deer netting over the yard, which solved the hen loss problem, but the netting got knocked down by the two record 9 inch snows we got this winter. In the process of rebuilding the netting, we added a 6" horizontal barbed wire barrier at the top of the fence.
Following are the chicken coop features:
- 1,500 ft chicken yard
- 3 roosting ladders, each 8 ft wide, on hinges to facilitate floor cleanup
- 30 nesting boxes, accessible from the back side without going into the chicken area
- automatic coop door to the fenced chicken yard
- automatic lighting, with photocell override, and manual override, to get 15.5 hours of light per day
- automatic watering trough refill system
- feeder is large tin hanging feeder bought at Tractor Supply
- chicken wired window openings, with stapled plastic sheeting for winter ventilation control
The only thing I think I may need to add is a water heater for the couple of hard freezes we see in northeast Texas each winter.
I'll try to get some photos added to My Page. I'll be glad to answer any questions.
We are currently running 28 pullet hens and 2 roosters, with a capacity for 100 chickens. The hens are Rhode Island Reds and Ameraucanas.
The coop is on a 13 acre farm that I acquired a few years ago on Lake Lavon, in Princeton Texas. The coop was created from a 70 year old dilapidated tin roofed house that was on the property. The roof didn't leak, but it was missing all of it's windows, the floors were sloped, and the outside was exposed in some areas. The 70 year old lady that watches the chickens for me lives in a house 100 feet away and she was born in what is now the chicken coop.
We put in a chicken yard with a 6 ft chicken wire fence, but lost 2 hens to predators (we decided it was skunks). We added deer netting over the yard, which solved the hen loss problem, but the netting got knocked down by the two record 9 inch snows we got this winter. In the process of rebuilding the netting, we added a 6" horizontal barbed wire barrier at the top of the fence.
Following are the chicken coop features:
- 1,500 ft chicken yard
- 3 roosting ladders, each 8 ft wide, on hinges to facilitate floor cleanup
- 30 nesting boxes, accessible from the back side without going into the chicken area
- automatic coop door to the fenced chicken yard
- automatic lighting, with photocell override, and manual override, to get 15.5 hours of light per day
- automatic watering trough refill system
- feeder is large tin hanging feeder bought at Tractor Supply
- chicken wired window openings, with stapled plastic sheeting for winter ventilation control
The only thing I think I may need to add is a water heater for the couple of hard freezes we see in northeast Texas each winter.
I'll try to get some photos added to My Page. I'll be glad to answer any questions.
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