We set out originally to have 6 chickens in our little backyard, well, by little I mean it is the better part of a third of an acre,but, still, it's no hobby farm. My grand idea for a chicken coop was to take the victorian play house that I was sure my little girls (human girls) would love to play in and would endlessly pretend to be Anne of Green Gables all the day long in, and turn it into a chicken coop, because, they didn't spend one single day playing in it. Not one day.
I spent about $250 dollars over five years ago at Sam's Club to buy the, build it yourself, playhouse. It is all hard wood, solid, and adorable. It's original color was kind of a blonde wood with a white roof and ballisters, white shutters and white vinyl, fake window slats. There is a large window opening on one side with a shelf that my little girls were supposed to use for playing drive up store, which they never did (yes I'm bitter). It is the perfect size for an opening to attach two nest boxes in.
The opposite side has an adorable door with a fake window in it, and is just the right size for little girls to go in and out, which they never did.
On each of the remaining walls are windows. One wall has two good size windows with fake vinyl slats, and the other wall is set up like a little bay window.
The roof is pitched like a real house, and there is a sort of porch with a smaller pitch roof over it.
So, we got our chicks, and ended up with not six but eight little ones. We knew we would have time to make the necessary modifications to provide a real coop for our chicks, and as it was March, we projected that it would be ready by May, when the nights would be warm enough and they would be feathered out enough to move outside.
The reality was we had a not so attractive, but solid, run constructed out of chicken wire and a scrap wood frame, by May, and that was pretty much it. I insisted that the chicks move out of the garage, and they agreed. A large cardboard box is not room enough for eight little pullets, especially when three of them ended up being roosters. So, we stapled old screening material over the windows that were not on the run side of the coop to make it secure, and opened the middle window in the little bay window set up to make a coop entry door. I put an old cat climbing perch kind of thing that had three levels inside for the chicks to roost on until we got the inside roosts done, but as it was so big it wasn't going to fit inside the coop itself, just in the corner of the run. Oddly enough, that's where they preferred it, and spent every night on the top level, which was sheltered by the tarp we put over the whole set up to keep the rain off until we could seal any cracks and then paint it.
Throughout May we slowly worked on the coop itself, attaching cabinet doors we got at a surplus store for Habitat for Humanity onto the windows opposite the run door side, and putting boards as temporary roosts inside the coop. After about a month of the chicks refusing to roost inside the coop, preferring the cat climber, I decided to remove it. The whole thing was covered in carpet that was impossible to remove, and believe me, I tried. I tried to keep it clean, cause we all know that sleeping chickens are pooping chickens,by having heavy plastic on the surfaces, but, that failed miserably. Well, let me tell you, those chicks were confused and mad when it came night time and they went looking for their favorite roost. They all, one by one, stood staring at the empty place where the climber used to be, and then took turns trying to fly up onto the part of the roof that was inside the run. Because it was pitched at a steep angle, they would at first sit, then slide, then end up back on the ground. It took the better part of an hour before they all gave up and went inside the coop for the night.
As July was fast approaching, and the two leghorns were showing signs of being ready to lay eggs, I pressed for the nest boxes to get done. My dear husband came home from helping a neighbor move with a black, country style TV armoire. They were going to leave it on the street for whoever wanted it, so, he figured I could find a use for it. He figured right. I had him slice it in half with his electric saw making a front half and a back half. The front half had cool doors and I wanted to put it in our mud room as a closet for brooms, and boots, etc. it didn't need a back for that as it would be pushed up against the wall. The back half still had shelves in it and a back, so we attached that to the back of the coop where the big open window was that I figured would be perfect for two nesting boxes. I figured right. We used two 5 gallon buckets with those bucket attachments that snap on to the opening of the bucket and have a perch on them that you can get online. Then we attached them to the inside of the cabinet, and cut openings in the back of the cabinet and the buckets. Lastly we attached two cabinet doors over the openings in the cabinet, and voila. We have solid, secure nest boxes, and our two leghorns started using them day one.
The next project is to attach the genius idea I have for removable roosts inside the coop. I'm taking bamboo rods that are cut to fit the length of the inside walls, and will glue two of them to the underside of a 2x4 also cut to the same length. I picked up at Walmart these curtain assemblies where you put one end of the rod into the closed end and then the other end of the rod into the end that is cut out on top. The rod rests in these assemblies that are screwed into the wall at opposite ends. The bamboo rods rest in these, and when I want to clean them or move them, or whatever, I just lift them out, and can put them back when I'm done. We shall see if this works the way I envision it.
After that, I am making poop catchers similarly to the rod holders, and then I need to seal the gaps in the walls, cover them with plywood, paint the inside and the roof of the coop, and pull off the unsightly tarp.
I will post pics of our finished product when it is done. Right now though, I need to finish the turkey coop, too, so, it may be a while.
Oh, and FYI, we had to rehome one of our roosters, and the other two we have in our freezer along with one of the pullets that ended up being a meat chicken. We picked up four more chicks, still waiting on their final sex determination but we think they are all pullets at this point, and I just ordered eight more chicks from Ideal Poultry that I hope will all be pullets , but, who knows. I may need to add a nest box or two, so, that means another coop modification. Ah well, I know I can make three boxes work, I will have to be creative if we end up needing four.
I spent about $250 dollars over five years ago at Sam's Club to buy the, build it yourself, playhouse. It is all hard wood, solid, and adorable. It's original color was kind of a blonde wood with a white roof and ballisters, white shutters and white vinyl, fake window slats. There is a large window opening on one side with a shelf that my little girls were supposed to use for playing drive up store, which they never did (yes I'm bitter). It is the perfect size for an opening to attach two nest boxes in.
The opposite side has an adorable door with a fake window in it, and is just the right size for little girls to go in and out, which they never did.
On each of the remaining walls are windows. One wall has two good size windows with fake vinyl slats, and the other wall is set up like a little bay window.
The roof is pitched like a real house, and there is a sort of porch with a smaller pitch roof over it.
So, we got our chicks, and ended up with not six but eight little ones. We knew we would have time to make the necessary modifications to provide a real coop for our chicks, and as it was March, we projected that it would be ready by May, when the nights would be warm enough and they would be feathered out enough to move outside.
The reality was we had a not so attractive, but solid, run constructed out of chicken wire and a scrap wood frame, by May, and that was pretty much it. I insisted that the chicks move out of the garage, and they agreed. A large cardboard box is not room enough for eight little pullets, especially when three of them ended up being roosters. So, we stapled old screening material over the windows that were not on the run side of the coop to make it secure, and opened the middle window in the little bay window set up to make a coop entry door. I put an old cat climbing perch kind of thing that had three levels inside for the chicks to roost on until we got the inside roosts done, but as it was so big it wasn't going to fit inside the coop itself, just in the corner of the run. Oddly enough, that's where they preferred it, and spent every night on the top level, which was sheltered by the tarp we put over the whole set up to keep the rain off until we could seal any cracks and then paint it.
Throughout May we slowly worked on the coop itself, attaching cabinet doors we got at a surplus store for Habitat for Humanity onto the windows opposite the run door side, and putting boards as temporary roosts inside the coop. After about a month of the chicks refusing to roost inside the coop, preferring the cat climber, I decided to remove it. The whole thing was covered in carpet that was impossible to remove, and believe me, I tried. I tried to keep it clean, cause we all know that sleeping chickens are pooping chickens,by having heavy plastic on the surfaces, but, that failed miserably. Well, let me tell you, those chicks were confused and mad when it came night time and they went looking for their favorite roost. They all, one by one, stood staring at the empty place where the climber used to be, and then took turns trying to fly up onto the part of the roof that was inside the run. Because it was pitched at a steep angle, they would at first sit, then slide, then end up back on the ground. It took the better part of an hour before they all gave up and went inside the coop for the night.
As July was fast approaching, and the two leghorns were showing signs of being ready to lay eggs, I pressed for the nest boxes to get done. My dear husband came home from helping a neighbor move with a black, country style TV armoire. They were going to leave it on the street for whoever wanted it, so, he figured I could find a use for it. He figured right. I had him slice it in half with his electric saw making a front half and a back half. The front half had cool doors and I wanted to put it in our mud room as a closet for brooms, and boots, etc. it didn't need a back for that as it would be pushed up against the wall. The back half still had shelves in it and a back, so we attached that to the back of the coop where the big open window was that I figured would be perfect for two nesting boxes. I figured right. We used two 5 gallon buckets with those bucket attachments that snap on to the opening of the bucket and have a perch on them that you can get online. Then we attached them to the inside of the cabinet, and cut openings in the back of the cabinet and the buckets. Lastly we attached two cabinet doors over the openings in the cabinet, and voila. We have solid, secure nest boxes, and our two leghorns started using them day one.
The next project is to attach the genius idea I have for removable roosts inside the coop. I'm taking bamboo rods that are cut to fit the length of the inside walls, and will glue two of them to the underside of a 2x4 also cut to the same length. I picked up at Walmart these curtain assemblies where you put one end of the rod into the closed end and then the other end of the rod into the end that is cut out on top. The rod rests in these assemblies that are screwed into the wall at opposite ends. The bamboo rods rest in these, and when I want to clean them or move them, or whatever, I just lift them out, and can put them back when I'm done. We shall see if this works the way I envision it.
After that, I am making poop catchers similarly to the rod holders, and then I need to seal the gaps in the walls, cover them with plywood, paint the inside and the roof of the coop, and pull off the unsightly tarp.
I will post pics of our finished product when it is done. Right now though, I need to finish the turkey coop, too, so, it may be a while.
Oh, and FYI, we had to rehome one of our roosters, and the other two we have in our freezer along with one of the pullets that ended up being a meat chicken. We picked up four more chicks, still waiting on their final sex determination but we think they are all pullets at this point, and I just ordered eight more chicks from Ideal Poultry that I hope will all be pullets , but, who knows. I may need to add a nest box or two, so, that means another coop modification. Ah well, I know I can make three boxes work, I will have to be creative if we end up needing four.
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