post your chicken coop pictures here!

[TalkALittle]

I'm going to stick with 4 birds I didn't think all of them would survive based on all the horror stories here on BYC lol. My friend does have a huge ranch though and more than enough space to accommodate my extras.

Sorry I got all sensitive on y'all

I recommend not mixing bantams and large fowl in your small coop. The bantams will almost always be at a disadvantage. I've got 3 bantams with 6 LF birds in a 4x7ish coop and 7ishx12 run. If not for some creative accomodations that make their small size an asset, the bantams would have a bad time of it.

 

[junebuggena]

Temperature question. How warm is too warm in my coop? 5 1ish week old chicks and 2 2ish week old ducklings? With the heat lamp on it approaches 100 deg in the coop during the day. Without the heat lamp it stays about 80-85. What temp should I be trying to keep it around?

At that age, they need one warm spot at about 90*, the rest of their space should be considerably cooler. If the temps are getting over 100, it's too warm. And you may need more ventilation to allow excess heat to escape.

 

[junebuggena]

The new coop. 8x10 resin shed. Building out of pressure treated or marine grade wood was just going to cost a small fortune. The skylight doubles as a ridge vent, and there are two very large gable vents, plus two windows for even more ventilation on sunny days. The old roosting bars fit perfectly, and we reused the old nesting boxes to help them feel more comfortable with the new space.





These roosts are offset by about 6 inches, to avoid the birds on the lower roost getting pooed on.


My afternoon layer, getting reacquainted with her favorite nesting box.

The old coop came down in less than an hour. Further evidence that non-pressure treated wood will not hold up in maritime climates.

 

[McKinneyMike]

Getting run finished slowly. I had to order another 50' roll of 48" wide 1/2" hardware cloth to finish run. I ordered a 50' roll of 36" wide 1/2 hardware cloth too for the uncovered area of the run too. The 4x4's in the uncovered area will be cut to length as soon as I get the upper section of hardware cloth installed and add a 2x6 border to the roof line.

I hope to have it ready to paint and roof/reroof run and coop by next weekend.

 

[Sylvester017]

Finished (well...is it ever really finished??? Hahaha!) the quail aviary today. If this is your first time seeing my posts, this aviary is built under our second story deck on our house. A good percentage of the framing and the entire roof is actually our deck. Photo dump time...

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This is from the back corner. 8 by 12 inch pavers with normal bricks just inside that. Hardware cloth about 2 feet out from wood. Gravel on top. About an inch deep now, but I might fill it in deeper to be more level with the bricks.



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Shot of the door from the inside looking out. Those are 16 by 16 pavers on the outside and 8 by 16 on the inside. I did not run any hardware cloth under the door, so these are all I have for keeping predators from digging under. But I think it will be ok.... The door closes below and against that 2 by 6 you see, so there is no gap for an animal to get in unless they chew thru the wood.


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Outside front corner looking at the pavers and gravel. I graveled in between the pavers and the framing wherever there was a gap. Figure it will help with drainage and deter diggers a little bit. There is about 2 feet of hardware cloth coming out from between the corner post and the door frame, but there is none coming out in front of the door. So this short side of the aviary has some protection via hardware cloth from diggers, but the door is just protected by the 16 by 16 pavers in front of it.


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Shot of the sandbox. That is an entire 80 pound bag of sand.


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Shot of the house and the sandbox.


Well.....that is it for now. 21 quail will be moving in on Wednesday.

I don't have quail but you took great efforts to protect your little birds. Paver stones are great for keeping out digging predators. This is our 4x6 first coop set on 12x12 paver stones and the stones kept stray dogs from digging under the coop!


We're working on using a 4x4 raised cedar bed to make into a dust bath area for the chickens under the canopy shade. Hopefully it will also stay dry in rainy days since there won't be anything but mud in the rest of the yard.

 

[gpeters3]

....... - but they trained themselves to use the new coop roosts after having slept in the old coop nestboxes for years so I'm thinking the way a coop is configured may have a lot to do with why or where a hen chooses to roost since we never forced them sleep in or on the roosts or the boxes.  We check the coop nestboxes every morning and clean them out if they need it.  Real easy-peasy to clean when you use straw in the boxes.  We're used to it and haven't had any issues with "dirty" or broken eggs - with only 4 hens it hasn't been a problem.  I imagine with much larger flocks and big hen houses sleeping in nestboxes as you suggested would be more of an issue.  We have the added advantage of being retired, usually always home, and have the coop just steps away from the kitchen door so we hear the egg songs immediately and the eggs don't sit in the nests for long.  Silkies will easily go broody if eggs are left in the boxes so we take eggs out immediately. 

I had 10 once and a few broodies who would scream if you tried to reach under and get the eggs. They all slept in the boxes and some piled into the same box, usually the same 2. I also use straw and clean as necessary but with the new roost setup all but one are using the new roosts. I only had breakage problems when i had 3 roosters. That wont ever be a problem again.

As you say, suggestions are good and im going to try one, the tunnel entrance for the chicks when i get them into the new run. Im going to cut a hole in the back of each brood pen and add a 5.5 x 5.5 tunnel. I tested it today with the large hens and they could reach the back by stretching their necks but wouldnt get all the way in. I put a tunnel against the wall and tossed some corn in to see what they would do. Its still too cold here to leave the front open so i may reconfigure them to keep the wind out. The idea is to train them to go through the tunnel to get food and warm up after being in the run. Im going to keep lamps in them so they can self regulate as needed until they are bigger and can handle the cold up until summer at least. Im also going to put a 12 inch wide corner board so they cant be cornered in the run and later, in the coop. Ill let you know how many chicks i lose from bullys with all these safetys im adding. If they all live ill have 22 birds including 4 turkeys

 

[MeepBeep]

Getting run finished slowly. I had to order another 50' roll of 48" wide 1/2" hardware cloth to finish run. I ordered a 50' roll of 36" wide 1/2 hardware cloth too for the uncovered area of the run too. The 4x4's in the uncovered area will be cut to length as soon as I get the upper section of hardware cloth installed and add a 2x6 border to the roof line. I hope to have it ready to paint and roof/reroof run and coop by next weekend.

Nice, I know it's still a work in progress and this might be moot, either way I strongly suggest you put a gutter on that roof overhand in the run or else you will a have a very muddy ditch in the run

 

[McKinneyMike]

It will have a 5"seamless gutter on it for sure. Thanks for the input. I will trim out the fascia like the rest of the coop. I will be running an electrical subpanel to the coop once I get the run functional too. I have to have electricity for lights and a attic/gable high CFM fan at the least.

 

[TJordan]

And on another note @timothyyoung
PLEASE be careful with a heat lamp inside a coop! That is one MAJOR fire hazard! If you doubt that, I'm sure @TJordan
will be most (UN)happy to tell you what recently happened to her coop (and chicks) because of a heat lamp.

NO HEAT LAMPS PLEASE!!! I'm still in morning for my 16 babies that died in the fire.

 

[lynnehd]

I'm going to be putting some enrichment toys in there for them, it's just my nature to do things like that. I'm sure eventually we will expand but my husband literally just finished the run two days ago. I was thinking of making a Chunnel for them too with the leftover hardware cloth because we have a super long area that runs between the side of our house and the fence.

I would seriously think of setting up the chunnel at some point. Not that hard to do, and then you can use a secondary area for daytime only, so it can contain the chickens, but not necessarily be Fort Knox. That's if your daytime predators are mainly hawks, eagles, etc.
With a narrow long area next to a fence and house, suspending poultry/aviary netting (check Amazon, Ebay) over the top would not be hard at all.

That's what I have done; in my case I set it up around a tree as my 'pole'. They stay in the very secure coop/run at night, but spend a lot of time in the secondary area during the day.