Now you just need to add some ventilation at the top of the front and back walls.From this dungeon......
To this....
To this, this afternoon
The roof was replaced with coroplast and 6 turkey and 9 chicken "condos" nesting boxes were added on as a lean to. It transformed the coop from a dark dungeon into a bright warm place for them to spend the winter.
From this dungeon......
To this....
To this, this afternoon
The roof was replaced with coroplast and 6 turkey and 9 chicken "condos" nesting boxes were added on as a lean to. It transformed the coop from a dark dungeon into a bright warm place for them to spend the winter.
Yeah, I definitely try to be aware. Especially with being on here so long, despite it being off and on, ya kinda have to be awarethere's enough horror stories as well as both good advice threads and articles and questions I've asked myself over the years so definitely have learned a lot and still learning. The major thing being the HC despite a vast majority of people here in our area just using chicken wire. Also thinking about a roof for the chickies. I hadn't even thought of protecting the coop, I just thought the birds might be more comfortable, but that's a good idea. I was originally just going to put like wire or something to keep them in and the predators out but now I'm thinking solid roof, at least on part, may be best. Always learning and evolving. We all do what is necessary for our region and property. Where one person's post is no help in our particular situation, another person's post will give us an "aha" epiphany.
That's awful about the dogs but.good they deterred them! Can't imagine if they weren't home.we fortunately have no strays here, maybe.one or two stray cats but no dogs, and no loose dogs either. In fact our dog is the problem dog. Used to get loose all the time then we put him on a rope then he was so good we let him off, it started again, so on rope permanently now. No more escapes but he barks too. Normal with the Pyr but deep and.loud. he barks at anything walking by. We immediately go out and get him and he will come.back so it's usually only a couple barks but still. Of course he hasn't quite inherited the protection instinct for the birds but maybe he would have if he had been raised with them. Instead he thinks they're REALLY fun to chase around the pen. Guess that's the Lab half. I consider dog breeds a very necessary topic when talking chickens. Too many owners have come home to find their coops broken into by stray dogs or family pets that had never behaved badly before. I would personally choose a pure guardian dog breed over a working or herding dog breed but even then a dog needs to go through dedicated training before you know for certain that it has the temperament to make a good flock dog. Just like police dogs or service dogs may not all have the temperament to pass training successfully. I had 3 Rotties and a Border Collie and out of those 4 only one (our largest Rott) made a trustworthy and command-obedient dog - yet not around birds.
Here she is happily hanging out in the new coop! Ugh! Wouldn't be my choice of where to hang out but she seems to like it!
Merry christmas...Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Wonderful New Year to one and all! May yours be filled with love and light!
If you haven't already, you should make a coop page and enter this in the coop and run contest, it i excellent!We are fortunate to have bought a property with many outbuildings, and the one I chose for my girls is brick veneered, wood framed with inner dimensions of 11’5”x13’3”. It has its own electric panel and a gable vent. So we had a good starting point. I decided to build a work area in the run, to store supplies, and to be able to access the feeding station, waterer and nest boxes without having to enter the actual coop. This area is 11’5”x4’, leaving me 11’5”x9’3” which is more than ample space for my nine girls, one roo and chicken math. I will eventually have running water too. I used Microsoft Visio, and this was my design:
Their run is 50’l x 12’w x 9’h. Still to be built is a person door which will be large enough to allow the UTV access (it has a dump bed which would be helpful to adding material to the run), and on the other end are barn style doors that allow the tractor access for a major cleaning. The sides were built as panels, some indoors to avoid the horrid Florida heat, and the rest were built “on site”. Each set of panels was built to 10’ tall, and were set as shallow as one foot under the ground up to three feet to accommodate the slight slope of the area. On our property we found a petrified pine that we placed inside of the coop, and will be adding a swing to the trunk which has been set in a three foot hole and wedged underneath one of the top supports. There is also a 12' long 1.5" PVC waterer with 16 nipples.
Both the coop and the run were built like Fort Knox- after being on this site for many months, I am well aware of the predator issues, and did not take any shortcuts on security regardless of whether or not we even have any predators at all. Eventually, I may add screen on the inside of the run (behind the ½”hardware mesh) to keep out flies and mosquitoes.
I wanted to do this once, and do it right, and give them the best life I could possibly give them. After all, they give me yummy eggs and lots of entertainment too! Oh, and the color of the inside is painted “Soft Boiled” by Behr, and the exterior, when I find time to paint it, will be “Sunny Side Up”, also by Behr.
And, for the record, my wonderful fiancé and I are not trained professionals in any way. We are Do-it-yourselfers with lots of ideas and motivation. Anyone can do this!
Thank you for reading!
Danielle
The cost:
The coop:
The Run:
This really nice. I was afraid to place mine too close to the house for fear of smell. But I think after my run being flooded twice now in a month, we will be moving it in the spring and the only high place is near the house.Made out of plastic playhouse. More detail posted on https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/cottage-playhouse-plastic-chicken-coop
And even then, you can raise it up on ground treated 4x4's or cement blocks and put down some drainage gravel first.
