post your chicken coop pictures here!

[perchie.girl]

The college I suppose to attend is In the state. And i have to come home each week anyways for other problems. So i won't be far and my parents are ok with that. They just have to give them fresh water, veggies and collect eggs. By the time I'm finished with school, my chickens would probably be dead. So then I could care for more

got news for you.... they can live a good ten twelve years barring accident or health issues... A friend of mind is still getting about two eggs a week from his ten year old hen.

 

[CuteChickens]

got news for you.... they can live a good ten twelve years barring accident or health issues...  A friend of mind is still getting about two eggs a week from his ten year old hen.

my point exactly

 

[bruceha2000]

Thank you for telling me this. Feed is not a problem for me to buy. I just figured that most people that raise chickens are able to get some money for their eggs just to cover the feed expenses nothing more. The reason I was asking about the money is that I just turned 16 and I'm applying for jobs right now and I don't have a constant source of income for the time being. I don't want to ask my parents for money because it is my responsibility to take care of the chickens.

Very responsible

I think it is great that you and CuteChickens want to do this and that you are starting by educating yourselves. Plenty of helpful people here on BYC on topics of all nature, chicken related and NOT chicken related. Remember that there are a LOT of "right ways" and really, not many wrong ways to raise chickens. Chickens need a safe well ventilated place to sleep, enough room in their coop and run, food and water, not much else. The housing can be super fancy or very basic, the chickens do not care.

Having excess eggs to sell and how much you would be spending on feed depends on how many chickens you get (obvious I know). I am going though a little more than 50 pounds a month for 16 adult size hens right now, there isn't much to eat out in the snow. Scratch (here) is a little less than layer feed but should not be more than 10% of their food (it is not as nutritious but they LOVE their "candy"). BOSS is stupid expensive, $30/ 50 pounds but it is also a small part of their diet. I buy 1 bag about every 9 months and sometimes in the winter I put some of it in a feeder for the non migrating birds. If your chickens can get some part of their diet foraging, so much the better. You can do REAL deep litter (which is basically a big compost pile of leaves, grass clippings, etc) or 'fake' deep litter (pine shavings several inches deep) and not spend too much on bedding. I rake through the fake deep litter every morning and have only replaced it twice. The last time because I figured the June chicks (brooded by a hen after they arrived in a brooder area I made in the coop) would be better off with less dusty stuff in their little lungs. It didn't really matter since I moved the old stuff to the run and the hen had them out scratching in it at a few days old. The shavings are ~ $6 for a compressed bag that holds 6 cubic feet. I use these in the nest boxes as well.

A potential "business plan" which in your case would include expenses for feed and shavings might include 7 chicks (because I have 7 pullets so the math is easy

). They take anywhere from 4 months (on the VERY early side) to 7 months (some longer!) to begin laying. My 7 started at ~23 weeks for 2, 26 for 1, 28 for 3 and almost 31 for 1. The earliest 2 were an EE and a White Rock, the last was an EE, the other WR was 28 weeks. Point being: you can't say "I'm going to get this breed because it lays earlier". And you can't say "I'm getting this breed because it lays more". Yes there are breeds known to lay better than others but each individual is an individual. The EEs are averaging 4, nearly 5 and nearly 6 per week. The Black Australorps/Jersey Giants (I'm still not sure) are 5 and 6, the White Rocks are 5.5 and over 6. One of my older (3.5 years) Black Australorps has averaged 3.5/week, the other goes broody and has averaged only 2.4. And BAs are on the "good layer" side of the list. None of my birds lay when they moult and other than a couple that laid their second winter, shut down from mid October to mid February (minimally).

Assuming the 7 pullets eat about half the food (because they are laying), their feed cost right now is ~6.50/month. They are averaging about 3 dozen eggs a week. If your family eats 1 dozen and you sell 2 dozen for say $3 each you can more than pay for the feed and bedding, at least until their first adult moult. Save the "extra" money during the good times to tide you through the lean (life lesson there regardless of context).

not that i'm aware of, that platform above the feeder is just the leftovers of the hutch they were in temporarily, its the bit in the centre of this photo with the ex-christmas tree leaned against it.

in their coop they have a 2x4 and a large branch.

I see? Sometimes one needs to step back a bit to see the whole picture

I figured the new feeder was in the coop.

Are your chickens eggless due to age or winter?

 

[philyc]

I see? Sometimes one needs to step back a bit to see the whole picture

I figured the new feeder was in the coop.

Are your chickens eggless due to age or winter?

haha.

they are all about 9-10 months old, the two leghorns were laying before i got them. i imagine its just because of the weather, but it has been a month now without anything. they all seem happy and healthy so it must just be this cold weather mixed with short days and having moved a month ago

 

[Deleon98]

Would a 5x5 run be big enough for six chickens?

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

I would say but you could make it bigger as I have 9 chickens in a run that's over 30 feet long and 11 feet wide

 

[Latestarter]

Typically (NOT carved in stone) chickens should have 4-6 square feet inside a coop and minimum 10 square feet+ each in the run area. A 5x5 run is nowhere near sufficient for 6 birds. 2 at most.

 

[bruceha2000]

haha.

they are all about 9-10 months old, the two leghorns were laying before i got them. i imagine its just because of the weather, but it has been a month now without anything. they all seem happy and healthy so it must just be this cold weather mixed with short days and having moved a month ago

It is the amount of light. They should start back up in a few weeks.

Typically (NOT carved in stone) chickens should have 4-6 square feet inside a coop and minimum 10 square feet+ each in the run area. A 5x5 run is nowhere near sufficient for 6 birds. 2 at most.

I agree on both parts. The NOT carved in stone one is the hardest because it depends a LOT on how often your chickens are confined in the coop when they are NOT sleeping. If NEVER, they don't need much room. If SOMETIMES, they need more room. If ALWAYS, I would say the coop should be as big as the run SHOULD be if it existed.

 

[Sylvester017]

I from AZ, very hot about 100-120° in the summer.

Tuff Shed has only one coop model but they will come onto the property and assemble it for you. Since your summers are miserable like our SoCal climate I would recommend hardware wire over the open-out cleanout doors for a more airy coop. Use a tarp or pop-up canopy over the coop for shade or protection from occasional rainfall. Makes it nice when collecting eggs in the rain. A BYC customer said their Tuff Shed coop ran about $1,200 and Tuff Shed did the assembly in their yard: http://www.tuffshed.com/tuff-shed-chicken-coop/


This is our first little 4x6x4' tall open wire wall design purchased from a feed store customer who custom-built it. It has 3 open wire walls and in the winter we put a removable plywood wall on one long side to keep out the drafts in the winter and we tarped it during cold/rainy weather. Eventually we put a pop-up canopy over the little coop but unfortunately I never photo'd the canopy. It's made of sub-quality material but it lasted 4 yrs and still was in good enough shape for our friends to use it for their new chickens. The feed store customer sold this coop delivered 4 yrs ago for $489. I absolutely do not recommend the sub-standard 1-inch chicken poultry wire which 2 stray dogs mangled beyond repair. I recommend securely attached 1/2" hardware for less likelihood of dogs, foxes, raccoons, weasels, etc, getting inside the coop.





This is a photo of our newest Barn Coop custom-ordered with features we selected from chickencondos.com which was built/shipped from Utah with a base price of approx $1,350 but cost us just slightly over $2,000 w/ wheel package and shipping costs. We ordered a lot of selective features to fit our particular climate. We screen the open clean-out door for more summer ventilation and with the top vents and an open pop-door it stays cool. An additional powder-coated kennel-wire run came w/ the coop but is not attached as yet. We also have built a new patio slab that the contractor will roof so the coop will be covered from sun or rain beating down on it and we'll be dry when we collect eggs in the rain! We waited 4 years to finally afford this custom coop but it's in a place where we wanted something more aesthetic to look at along w/ the remodeled backyard.





While backyard construction is in progress this is the coop's temporarily location until the patio slab roof is built. This pop-door end is where the additional kennel wire run will be attached once all is set up in a permanent locale.




Whatever coop you build or purchase just keep in mind that the designers/manufacturers always suggest more chickens fit the coop than safely can be accommodated. Our Barn Coop advertised 15 chickens would fit our 4x4x6' coop yet I would not put more than 4 or 5 chickens in it. Can you imagine 15 chickens pooping overnight on a small 4x4 floor space? Ridiculous! It has a slide-out cleanout floor but still I wouldn't put more than 6 LFs in this small space. So keep in mind that manufacturers grossly exaggerate how many chickens will fit a coop. Cut the number of chickens down by half or more. My personal rule of thumb is that a coop with 4 nestboxes will accommodate 4 hens, a 3 nestbox coop will accommodate 3 hens, a 2 nestbox coop will accommodate 2 hens. It's not that 4 hens require 4 nestboxes but that's how I gear how many hens will fit the space within the coop. I've seen manufacturers advertise 12 hens in tiny coops where 3 hens would be a tight fit. Even if the hens are free-ranged all day the overnight coop spaces are not roomy or airy enough to accommodate the hens healthwise from the stench of poops/ammonia or moisture generated in small confinement overnight. Maybe others would suggest differently but for myself I like 4-sq-ft floor space inside the coop for each roosting chicken. JMO

 

[Tulula81]

Here is our coop. We still need to add a run to the back side but at least the girls have a house now