New to Chickens - Question(s)

[Enchanted1s]

This chicken coop building -in the mud - between Flash Floods & Severe Thunderstorms is NOT making this a very fun project We have had the worst weather since we bought the house this past week.

On the brighter side - she is laying. Even with all of this drama, she has continued to lay an egg a day. & -at this rate - by the time I get anything better built for them, they will have been locked in their tiny coop for a week! LOL

 

[aart]

On the brighter side - she is laying. Even with all of this drama, she has continued to lay an egg a day.

That's pretty amazing considering the stress she's been under.

 

[Enchanted1s]

I thought so too. Not that I would really know, but I am pretty proud of her.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I think if she is still laying she cannot be to horribly upset.

Building in the wet and mud cannot be a fun endeavor.

The birds are little troopers and so are you. Keep up the good work.

 

[TexasSam]

In A week or two you will be sitting there drinking coffee and watching them peck and scratch around with A new peace in you. It's only A little hard at first then it's just fun except for poop cleanup lol

 

[Enchanted1s]

So - I had to let them out today. I want to incorporate the coop that we ordered into their bigger walk-in coop that we are building. I cannot do that with them in it! I got the roof up today, but in order to incorporate the purchased coop - it had to be dismantled. I didn't figure locking them in the nest, picking the nest up (with them in it) sounded like a very good idea. I could have waited until tomorrow, but I kinda wanted to see if they would go back in by themselves tonight (I only moved it a few feet). They did NOT return on their own Tomorrow would have been one week. When the neighbors chickens (shared fence line) went to bed in their roosts - -I noticed ours looking UP for a place to nest. I got the net and put them back in the nest box for the night. I will be letting them back out of the nest in the morning. The did not try (at least not very hard) to get out of the pen. We were working in the pen with them loose for several hours today - they were just so happy to be out of that little box, they didn't even care.

HOPEFULLY - we will be able to finish it tomorrow. I plan to lift the nest box up about 2 foot. At least they will have some room to run around in their bigger coop. It will be 8 foot by about 7 foot and 5'4" tall at the low side. As apposed to the purchased coop at 30 inches by 93" and about 3' tall. The pen is about 10 feet by 20 feet. I am guessing we will have to start over with teaching them where home is. Now that I have a net - I can catch them! especially if they are inside the pen.

 

[AmyNic]

Hi there! Have you looked on sites like Offer Up to see if anyone is selling/offloading a coop? When preparing for my chickens, I noticed used coops can be bought for quite cheap.

 

[Enchanted1s]

Hi there! Have you looked on sites like Offer Up to see if anyone is selling/offloading a coop? When preparing for my chickens, I noticed used coops can be bought for quite cheap.

Yes - I checked Offer Up - Craigslist - & Let Go. No coops under $300. Now in hind site, we probably should have considered that - but then again, for theses sales I would need cash and certainly had no way of coming up with that much cash. At least the credit cards allow us to make payments. With the purchased coop & lumber we are over $200 already anyway. AND I don't have enough materials to finish it like I would like to. HOPEFULLY, the roof will last long enough for me to come up with some better materials.

I sold my home of many years in Missouri two years ago November. There, I had a wood pile, and a scrap metal pile and most any other materials I would need. But, when I left MO, I had an estate auction and gave away almost everything I owned. We just bought our home here in April 2016. I is starting to feel like home - but I haven't been here long enough to even replace all the necessities, let alone acquire stock piles. I am starting to get a wood pile, but as of yet - no stock piles and no source for free materials.

 

[Enchanted1s]

Well - I almost don't want to post a picture as it fails to compare to most of the pictures of coops I have seen here - but it is done - well almost. I still need to add some roosts and maybe a different laying box.

I had to put them in the coop, but they went into the nest box on their own when it was about to get dark. The chicken was very curious about what was being built throughout - the Rooster, does not trust me at all. She did not lay an egg for us yesterday, but she did today. Yesterday was the only day she missed laying an egg.

 

[21hens-incharge]

That is actually pretty darn great!

The fact they headed in on their own at dusk is also pretty darn great!

You did a great job making them a safe place to be, getting the goats out of the bird food, learning what the little birds needed, AND sticking to it when they were being kinda ornery!

You should be proud of it! The birds like it and that is really what counts. Personally I think it looks great and should work well for a long time.