Wanted to do a small update on the coop.
Overall everything seems to be going great - chickens and my wife are still happy!
During quarantine we had one of the roosters try and go after one of my kids when everyone was free ranging (kids included, lol) so I finally took apart the old coop’s run and used the 2"x2" fencing to fashion a simple run extension adjacent the coop. I even used the old door, lol.
Though the chickens don’t get the free range diet and exercise they were used to, it’s nice to be able to let my kids run around freely, yelling and screaming, without having to keep an eye on where the roosters are at so they don’t get excited and take it as a threat - also no more randomly stepping in chicken poop hidden in the grass!
Haven’t noticed any issues with ground-based animals getting into the new run, but we did have an issue with a great horned owl who unfortunately got one of the cochins - RIP "Pancakes #3". Basically it the owl threaded the needle when it flew between the gap above fence and below the trees, right into the coop through the human door that I was keeping open for chickens. It happened around dusk, well before dark too. Was a pretty big owl too, at least 20" tall and about a 4ft wingspan!
Here's the new run. It's about 15ft wide, maybe 40ft long, about 4-5ft tall:
Here's the owl:
I started a black soldier fly composting bin, for feeding BSF grubs to the chickens. The chickens aren’t getting their usual kitchen scraps, but they seem more than happy with fresh BSF grubs, which they basically fight over!
Mmmm, yummy.....
Coop itself seems to be doing alright. Need to make a few adjustments and changes after observation.
- Our sprinklers hit the front of the coop where the doors are at. Because I made all my gaps so tight (like 1/4" or less), the wood binds a little bit when it gets saturated. Rain isn't an issue since roof overhangs, just the sprinklers. I think I just need to hit some spots on the doors with a hand planer and shave off a little material where it contacts.
- Also, because everything's on a slope and because I stepped down my cinder blocks - I've noticed all the wood chips tend to migrate over toward the downhill/low side and build up against the hardware cloth. Plan to add a 2x8 or similar board to the area to contain it more and keep from pushing on the HC.
- Before cold weather comes, I need to reconfigure the roost bars inside the actual coop. Mostly they've been sleeping out in the run, which seems fine - but when they're inside the coop, none of them roost on the smaller bars, they all want to sardine up on the highest spot directly above the nest boxes. Good thing I added that roof section over the boxes! I'm just going to modify the roost bars with an extension so they're not over the nest boxes anymore. May add a piece of vinyl or something underneath to be a poop slide, haven't decided on that yet.
but I did get a new waterer built. I made an article for waterer: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/perkolators-chicken-waterer.75389/
