post your chicken coop pictures here!

[bruceha2000]

bruceha2000, I wanted more than 12x12 of the barn. It's pretty full of tractors, motorcycles, 4 wheelers tools and such.So I got the entire side yard!The post hole digger is an older John Deer one that fits the 3 pt hitch. Not high tech but it works. Think of the old wooden fence posts that were treated like telephone poles. Many of those still around here and there in Ohio.

I want one of those, and the tractor too

A 3 pt hitch post hole digger is a lot more high tech than a manual "two handle, stab into the ground, pull the handles apart, lift up, hopefully not losing too much dirt" post hole diggers.

I got mine off of Craigslist. I think it was a garden shed to begin with. As you can see, I am critter proofing still and building the run this week. Newbie to chickens so I'm excited to find so many ideas on here!

Sweet!

Thanks for the ideas! Snakes not so much - coyote, raccoon, hawks, eagles and neighbor dogs though!

I piled the rocks around the base and will be putting hardware cloth on top of the dirt inside the coop since the coop doesn't have a floor. Then I'll put down gravel with a layer of shavings or pellets on top. Haven't figured out the best way to do that yet so I can clean it easy. All our neighbors have chickens and all have had losses to coyotes, so they are extra wiley in these parts

My chicks are only 3 weeks old but getting big fast. Need to hurry...

I wouldn't put stone on the hardware cloth in the coop, that will just make it harder to rake through the shavings and it will get popped up into the bedding. You don't need the HW cloth on the floor for the larger digging pests since you have the large skirt outside. But if like me you have mice, voles, rats and

weasels, they will happily tunnel a good distance underground so it isn't a bad idea though only the weasels are a threat to adult chickens. But the others will feast on your chickens' feed. Actually, looking more closely, since it is being held up on the concrete pads, I think you would want to run 1/2" hardware cloth from the wall straight down, then 90 degree angled toward the center even if you don't do the whole floor. The chickens will dig "daybeds" into the bedding and I fear you will have chickens and possibly eggs, out under the edge of the outside skirting.

My coop is a repurposed 10x12 stall in an old barn. Dirt floor, 1/2" hardware cloth over that and poultry stapled to the side wall. Horse mats on top of that (because they were already in the stall so why not use them?). Pine shavings on top of that, I just rake through it every morning to mix the overnight poop into the shavings. The chickens spend no time in the coop except overnight and for food, water and laying. You could do true deep litter which is pretty much a compost pile so you can get good stuff out of it for the garden. Search Deep Litter here on BYC.

Thanks! I will post more as I go. I live in Central Oregon, so we really don't get a lot of rain. The inside doesn't have any water marks from leaks, but I'll keep that in mind. I am planning to swap out the lattice eves with boards to cut down on wind drifting through. How airtight should it be? The cedar siding has gaps between the boards (1/8" or smaller) that will let air in. Will that be a problem?

You can put your location in your profile so people know where you live with respect to questions about weather, etc.

You do NOT want the coop tight, not at all. I would poultry staple 1/2" hardware cloth over the lattice in the gable ends (inside, it will be nicer looking

) because you WANT air to be able to escape up there but you don't want weasels or raccoons coming in nor wind blowing over the birds on the roost. If there is a gap where the rafters go over the top plates on the walls, cover those gaps with 1/2" hardware cloth as well.

• Do the windows open?
• How many chickens?
• Where do you plan to put the roosts?
• And the nest boxes? You don't need to rush on these, it will be at least 4 months before the girls will need them.
• Is there a prevailing wind direction or does it come from multiple directions?

If the roosts are going to be just below the window level, I would put battens (thin strip of wood) over the 1/8" gaps (which is a great way to keep the air in the building from getting too humid) in the siding from about a foot below the roosts to the level of the tops of the windows. That will keep any direct wind off them when they are roosting but let fresh cooler air come in the bottom and the warmer more humid and ammonia containing air go out the gable vents through natural convection. If you do have a strong wind from one direction that seems to make it breezy at the floor level, you could run the battens all the way down on that side.

And don't worry about them in the winter. My birds see -20F and have no issues with that. Given they always wear their feather coats, summer heat is a bigger problem for chickens.

 

[tumalochick]

I want one of those, and the tractor too   A 3 pt hitch post hole digger is a lot more high tech than a manual "two handle, stab into the ground, pull the handles apart, lift up, hopefully not losing too much dirt" post hole diggers.  


Sweet!


I wouldn't put stone on the hardware cloth in the coop, that will just make it harder to rake through the shavings and it will get popped up into the bedding. You don't need the HW cloth on the floor for the larger digging pests since you have the large skirt outside. But if like me you have mice, voles, rats and  weasels, they will happily tunnel a good distance underground so it isn't a bad idea though only the weasels are a threat to adult chickens. But the others will feast on your chickens' feed. Actually, looking more closely, since it is being held up on the concrete pads, I think you would want to run 1/2" hardware cloth from the wall straight down, then 90 degree angled toward the center even if you don't do the whole floor. The chickens will dig "daybeds" into the bedding and I fear you will have chickens and possibly eggs, out under the edge of the outside skirting.

My coop is a repurposed 10x12 stall in an old barn. Dirt floor, 1/2" hardware cloth over that and poultry stapled to the side wall. Horse mats on top of that (because they were already in the stall so why not use them?). Pine shavings on top of that, I just rake through it every morning to mix the overnight poop into the shavings. The chickens spend no time in the coop except overnight and for food, water and laying. You could do true deep litter which is pretty much a compost pile so you can get good stuff out of it for the garden. Search Deep Litter here on BYC.


You can put your location in your profile so people know where you live with respect to questions about weather, etc. 

You do NOT want the coop tight, not at all. I would poultry staple 1/2" hardware cloth over the lattice in the gable ends (inside, it will be nicer looking  ) because you WANT air to be able to escape up there but you don't want weasels or raccoons coming in nor wind blowing over the birds on the roost. If there is a gap where the rafters go over the top plates on the walls, cover those gaps with 1/2" hardware cloth as well.

• Do the windows open?
• How many chickens?
• Where do you plan to put the roosts?
• And the nest boxes? You don't need to rush on these, it will be at least 4 months before the girls will need them.
• Is there a prevailing wind direction or does it come from multiple directions? 

If the roosts are going to be just below the window level, I would put battens (thin strip of wood) over the 1/8" gaps (which is a great way to keep the air in the building from getting too humid) in the siding from about a foot below the roosts to the level of the tops of the windows. That will keep any direct wind off them when they are roosting but let fresh cooler air come in the bottom and the warmer more humid and ammonia containing air go out the gable vents through natural convection. If you do have a strong wind from one direction that seems to make it breezy at the floor level, you could run the battens all the way down on that side. 

And don't worry about them in the winter. My birds see -20F and have no issues with that. Given they always wear their feather coats, summer heat is a bigger problem for chickens.

Great ideas! Thanks! I have 7 chicks 3 weeks old. 4 Australorps and 3 buff Orpington. I attached a couple pics of the inside, will definitely need to do the battens on the inside. Some of the gaps are a lot bigger than I thought. The wind comes from the west/northwest most of the time here so it could blow through the two ends if it came directly from the west. We do have lots of trees though so it shouldn't get too bad.

I'm not sure what to do about the boxes and roosts yet. It already had the shelf in there which I may take out. Or I could hang the boxes under the shelf, but I'm afraid they'll sit up there and it will be terribly messy. I could put the boxes on top of the shelf, but they'd be about the same height as the roosts and doesn't sound like that's a good idea.

I already tried out the horizontal nipple water bucket and the chicks caught on perfectly. No more poopie water

Thanks again for all the great ideas!!!!

 

[bigmrg74]

I already tried out the horizontal nipple water bucket and the chicks caught on perfectly. No more poopie water

Thanks again for all the great ideas!!!!

That does work great when you can use them. So going to be glad when its warmed up enough that I don't have to worry about the water freezing and can unplug the water heater and I can put the nipple water bucket back in the coop. Only about another month.

 

[MeepBeep]

That does work great when you can use them.  So going to be glad when its warmed up enough that I don't have to worry about the water freezing and can unplug the water heater and I can put the nipple water bucket back in the coop.  Only about another month.  

I heat my coop above freezing (35°F) so inside there they function perfect all year, but I still heat the water in that 55 gallon drum to about 45°F just to be safe and avoid any potential issues...

I also did multiple test this winter outside the coop with horizontal nipples and heated containers, if I maintained the water at about 70°F and kept the nipples out of the wind they functioned fine in all but extreme -10°F or colder weather, and even in that extreme cold weather if you tapped the ice build up on the nipple once the sun came out as a chicken would in the morning they generally started to flow again...

I tested using these 4ish gallon olive barrels, with 3 horizontal nipples installed about 2" above the bottom, this allows for it to never run dry and not burn out the heater... For testing I used a 50W aquarium heater with a separate digital thermostat that overrode the installed thermostat on the heater so I could adjust to lower temps...

Barrels look like this...

 

[bruceha2000]

Great ideas! Thanks! I have 7 chicks 3 weeks old. 4 Australorps and 3 buff Orpington. I attached a couple pics of the inside, will definitely need to do the battens on the inside. Some of the gaps are a lot bigger than I thought. The wind comes from the west/northwest most of the time here so it could blow through the two ends if it came directly from the west. We do have lots of trees though so it shouldn't get too bad.
I'm not sure what to do about the boxes and roosts yet. It already had the shelf in there which I may take out. Or I could hang the boxes under the shelf, but I'm afraid they'll sit up there and it will be terribly messy. I could put the boxes on top of the shelf, but they'd be about the same height as the roosts and doesn't sound like that's a good idea.

I already tried out the horizontal nipple water bucket and the chicks caught on perfectly. No more poopie water

Thanks again for all the great ideas!!!!

I would put the battens on the OUTSIDE. If on the inside, rain will hit the batten and want to go somewhere. Most will drain down to the ground but some, because of the narrow space, will seep between the batten and the siding via capillary action and keep the wood wet. Then you get

ROT! Yes, even if it is cedar.

Some people make "poop trays" if they are going to clean the poop out rather than just rake it into the deep litter or deep bedding (what I do). You could put the roosts a few inches above the existing shelves, put a lip on them and put sand in. Use a cat litter scoop to sift out the poop.

My preference, to allow the most floor space, is to have the bottom of the nest boxes minimally 18" above the floor so the chickens can walk underneath them. It looks like you have enough space to do that under the existing shelves by making another "shelf" with ends and dividers. With 7 birds, 3 boxes will be plenty to start. But of course chicken math will kick in so you have the option of making more.

The chickens ABSOLUTELY will hang out and poop on any flat surface. They will even try to hang out on a sloped surface if they can get a grip. So if you don't plan to do the "poop shelf" thing, I would lower the shelves to 18" - 24" off the "top of the litter" level of the floor. Then make sides, dividers, several inch high front lip (to keep the bedding in the nest) and an access perch running across the front a few inches below the front lip. My 4' long 3 nest open box was like that until the 2 White Rock pullets decided they wanted to roost on the 1/2" dividers. So much for needing a 3" wide roost pole! But I think they were doing it because some of the older hens were bullying them on the roost and rather than sleep on the 2' high roost parallel to the 4' high ones, they chose uncomfortable footing at 4' high. I put a sloped roof over it.

Since you have a nice "walk in" coop, there is no need for outside access to the nest boxes.

I meant to ask before, what are the "interesting" backward C shaped pieces of wood on the outside ot the windows in the original picture?

 

[junebuggena]

Not a coop, but my new brooder. Still a work in progress.

Two closet doors and some old pallets.

 

[bigmrg74]

I heat my coop above freezing (35°F) so inside there they function perfect all year, but I still heat the water in that 55 gallon drum to about 45°F just to be safe and avoid any potential issues...

I also did multiple test this winter outside the coop with horizontal nipples and heated containers, if I maintained the water at about 70°F and kept the nipples out of the wind they functioned fine in all but extreme -10°F or colder weather, and even in that extreme cold weather if you tapped the ice build up on the nipple once the sun came out as a chicken would in the morning they generally started to flow again...

I tested using these 4ish gallon olive barrels, with 3 horizontal nipples installed about 2" above the bottom, this allows for it to never run dry and not burn out the heater... For testing I used a 50W aquarium heater with a separate digital thermostat that overrode the installed thermostat on the heater so I could adjust to lower temps...

Barrels look like this...

Its something I've kicked around, but right now I have the heated waterer, so I might as well make use of that. I sat the waterer on a pallet that I have hanging from chains in my coop, and ended up needing some bungees to keep it from swinging so much and a pair of metal pans to catch the water that splashes out of the waterer when one of my BSL's jumps onto the pallet. I do think I might keep an eye out for some clearish container in about the 5 to 10 gallon range for future ideas along this line.


The waterer set up before I added a second smaller metal dog dish upside down to put the waterer on top of that.


Another angle. Not sure if I had the bungees in here yet or not.

 

[tumalochick]

I would put the battens on the OUTSIDE. If on the inside, rain will hit the batten and want to go somewhere. Most will drain down to the ground but some, because of the narrow space, will seep between the batten and the siding via capillary action and keep the wood wet. Then you get  ROT! Yes, even if it is cedar.

Some people make "poop trays" if they are going to clean the poop out rather than just rake it into the deep litter or deep bedding (what I do). You could put the roosts a few inches above the existing shelves, put a lip on them and put sand in. Use a cat litter scoop to sift out the poop. 

My preference, to allow the most floor space, is to have the bottom of the nest boxes minimally 18" above the floor so the chickens can walk underneath them. It looks like you have enough space to do that under the existing shelves by making another "shelf" with ends and dividers. With 7 birds, 3 boxes will be plenty to start. But of course chicken math will kick in so you have the option of making more.  


The chickens ABSOLUTELY will hang out and poop on any flat surface. They will even try to hang out on a sloped surface if they can get a grip. So if you don't plan to do the "poop shelf" thing, I would lower the shelves to 18" - 24" off the "top of the litter" level of the floor. Then make sides, dividers, several inch high front lip (to keep the bedding in the nest) and an access perch running across the front a few inches below the front lip. My 4' long 3 nest open box was like that until the 2 White Rock pullets decided they wanted to roost on the 1/2" dividers. So much for needing a 3" wide roost pole! But I think they were doing it because some of the older hens were bullying them on the roost and rather than sleep on the 2' high roost parallel to the 4' high ones, they chose uncomfortable footing at 4' high. I put a sloped roof over it. 

Since you have a nice "walk in" coop, there is no need for outside access to the nest boxes.

I meant to ask before, what are the "interesting" backward C shaped pieces of wood on the outside ot the windows in the original picture?

I really don't know if I need to worry so much about rain. We don't get much here on the high desert. I really think it's cute the way it looks in the outside (yes, I'm being a girl about it

) I have a ton to do this weekend so I'll see how far I get!

The C things are frames for shutters. The cedar boards are missing on those. Here is a picture of the one window with an intact shutter. I just have to replace the boards on the rest. The windows don't open, the shutters were just for aesthetics I'm sure. We get plenty of wind but not hurricane force winds that would break the windows!

I will do some thinking about how to set up the nesting boxes and roosts and take pictures when I'm done. Thanks for all the insight.

 

[junebuggena]

I really don't know if I need to worry so much about rain. We don't get much here on the high desert. I really think it's cute the way it looks in the outside (yes, I'm being a girl about it

) I have a ton to do this weekend so I'll see how far I get!

The C things are frames for shutters. The cedar boards are missing on those. Here is a picture of the one window with an intact shutter. I just have to replace the boards on the rest. The windows don't open, the shutters were just for aesthetics I'm sure. We get plenty of wind but not hurricane force winds that would break the windows!

I will do some thinking about how to set up the nesting boxes and roosts and take pictures when I'm done. Thanks for all the insight.

If the windows don't open, the shutters are probably there to help keep the sun from making it too warm inside.

 

[tumalochick]

If the windows don't open, the shutters are probably there to help keep the sun from making it too warm inside.

I guess that's a possibility, it was originally a garden shed that I got off of craigslist and am in the process of converting to a coop. They might actually help in the summer as we can get pretty hot. Two windows face west and will get the afternoon sun.