Our Colorado Coop is finished! [New Pics on Pg 3]

[Suburban chick farmer 09]

Nice coop, I like the round nest box holes.

Nice choice on the beer.

 

[mmtillman]

job well done!

from MO!

 

[kristenm1975]

Awesome job! I really appreciate all the step-by-step pictures. You must have some very happy chickens!

Would you mind telling how much it cost to build? I'm always looking for a new coop to build that runs under $500.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[ColoradoMike]

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Thanks, CityChook!

Glad to hear you can get Fat Tire in MN - I love the stuff and am fortunate to live within a mile of the brewery

Also, I've read a lot of your wintering advice and plan on putting a bit of it into action this winter...our first with chickens.

 

[ColoradoMike]

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Thanks, Barred Rocker!

Regarding the roofing soundness, I was looking at some of my construction pics and realized there's not a real good support for the roofing near the apex... There is one cross member there, but neither of the roofing side rest on it. I may have to retrofit some additional cross supports to help with snow loads. I'm not really worried about the rest of the roof, I think I put in enough cross pieces for support...

I guess we'll see how it does this winter.

 

[ColoradoMike]

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Thanks! I was inspired by some pictures I saw on BYC - someone had some old antique metal nest boxes with round access holes - I tried to recreate that with my wooden boxes.

 

[ColoradoMike]

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I think we're in for around $350 or so for the coop and run; however, we did have a fair amount of reusables on hand, including the siding, the floor plywood, some of the buried galvanized fencing, the OSB I used for the nest boxes and some hardware. Funny thing is, I've seen a few other newer coops on BYC with the same flooring tiles - they're the cheapest that Home Depot carries! ~$0.89/ea.!

 

[Gwen]

Very fancy flooring for the chicks! Is that an automatic pop door? If not, how do you pull it open? I'm going to show photos to dh and see if he's up to make this for me. I really like it and it'd work well in our yard.

 

[ColoradoMike]

Hello again BYC folks! I haven't been on the forum in a LONG time, but have gotten few recent PMs asking me about my coop, so I thought I'd update my coop page and drop by to say 'hello'.

We're still enjoying having backyard chickens - it'll be three years in a few months. Out of our first batch of 5 chicks, two were roosters, so we took them back to the feed store where they were reportedly 'rehomed'...

So, our first winter we had 3 hens, and they did well in the unheated coop. I may have put vaseline on their combs once or twice, but not too much colder than 0 deg that winter (iirc).

In the spring of '10, I accidentally left the chicken run door open all night after letting them ''roam' during the day. The next morning, as I raised the blinds in my daughters room, I saw a ring of white feathers in the run and instantly knew what I had done. I then realized that the other two hens were happily pecking around the chicken yard and didn't seem to mind all the white feathers at all. So, luckily, two hens survived that bonehead move of mine. We replaced pearl, a California White) with two EasterEggers. It took a few weeks for them to assimilate with the older girls, but they did great that summer/fall and winter. I did expand the run that summer (and am SO glad I did) and insulated the coop. That winter ('10-'11), we had some COLD snaps. I think we were below zero for close to a week. I'm sure you Canadians and Alaskans chuckle, but for CO it was pretty brutal. I ended up bringing the girls into our detached (and unheated garage) and set them up in our large dog crate. I think I had them out there for 4 or 5 nights with an electric milk-barn heater set 5-10 feet away from the crate. It worked pretty well, but not ideal. At least that much frigid weather is pretty rare here.

We had those four until summer '11 when we lost the EEs. On a VERY hot day last July, we had left the chickens out to forage in the chicken yard. We weren't thinking and put the dog in the house (due to the heat) and went downtown for a music festival. When we got home, there was carnage in the back yard - feathers everywhere and an EE carcass. Sadly, out 3yo daughter was with us when we happened upon the scene. We wisked her inside and she said to my brother 'are those my chickens?'

Luckily, her two favorite (and our two oldest) survived unharmed. The next day, I bought two more pullets from Craigslist - another EE and a Gold laced Wyandotte. After around 6 weeks to assimilate, its been smooth sailing. I just hope I don't forget to secure the chickens when we leave (or when the dog isn't out).

Click here for my updated coop page.

Thanks for reading!

--Mike