post your chicken coop pictures here!

[MeepBeep]

Yeah I suppose if you want to "maintain" optimal egg production adding artificial light and heat is necessary. Personally I prefer to let nature take it's course. They lay when it's time, no need to fake them into it. They all need a rest period, as nature intended.

There is still the other reason to simply see better, with a 'walk in' coop for me I would never consider not having lights inside for that reason alone...

 

[FarmerPhronc]

There is still the other reason to simply see better, with a 'walk in' coop for me I would never consider not having lights inside for that reason alone...

As I stated before, taking care of 250+ birds we never needed artificial light. Yeah we had a large walk in coop, due to the windows and other features placed we never saw a need for artificial light. Never had a problem seeing my way around the coop to gather eggs or clean it out.

 

[HennyPenny2]

We rebuilt our chicken run this spring, a vast improvement from the one we had although it lasted 7 years. Yes it an open run, it's been that way for 7 years with no problems, the girls are locked up at night. With a large pine in the middle of my run and another tree from the neighbors backyard hanging over the other half and just the weird placement of it it was too difficult to try and cover the entire thing. I think the trees also give protection from Hawks. This time though I really wanted to build a pergola style run for my roses and now newly planted honeysuckle (I know some can be poisonous but this one from what I read is fine) to grow up and over it and cover it for added shade (there is a huge pine over the run that does provide some shade), as well as some rain cover once it's really covered. The half I have done already really shades the run even more than before and I love it.

That little house is my duck house I am working on and almost have complete. I plan to add river Rock around the pavers where the ducks little pool is. I kept the ducks down at the end of the run to keep the majority of the run dry. I also need to till up the run and add some new sand.

We also redid the inside of the coop which I love so much better. Lots of improvements such as a raised "litter box" which makes my life so much easier when cleaning chicken poop! I turned the bottom into a caged area for injured birds or just birds that need to be separated, as well as storage when not in use. Right now I have my 4 new EE pullets in there at night while they are separated from the others, works great! We still need to build a new outside door and inside screen door as well as a small overhang above the hen door. we also switched out all waterers for vertical and horizontal nipple waterers which keeps the water clean and makes it so easy for me to clean out although it stays clean for so long. Plus mosquitos and bugs and junk can't get into the waterer like the old ones. I also had rat problems so we changed the feeder to one I got from rentacoop.com and although I could have built one I didn't have the time with so much other stuff needing to be done. I love love these feeders. I keep it outside and rodents don't even know they are there and they are no longer a problem since we switched. So happy with how it is all turning out, this summer all the improvements will make my life so much easier taking care of my girls.

 

[MeepBeep]

There is still the other reason to simply see better, with a 'walk in' coop for me I would never consider not having lights inside for that reason alone...

As I stated before, taking care of 250+ birds we never needed artificial light. Yeah we had a large walk in coop, due to the windows and other features placed we never saw a need for artificial light. Never had a problem seeing my way around the coop to gather eggs or clean it out.

So I take it you only did stuff during the daylight hours then? I don't always have that luxury, there are many times I'm out at night after sunset or before sunrise working in my coop no matter how many windows or features I have there wouldn't be enough light to see properly in those instances... My artificial lights are on from 5AM to 10PM normally (I sometimes adjust if they are not returning to the coop with sunset), and during the winter when the sun is setting at 4:30PM, it's quite dark in the coop by 6PM or later and since I do a vast majority of my coop maintenance between 6 and 10 PM that makes things much, much harder without lights...

Of course there is no 'need' for light, but I find it to be a very worthwhile creature feature for me personally as do others, same with heat, I find it much nicer working in a 35-40° heated coop then the -10° it could be during the winter... Again neither are 'needed' but for me they are well worth the investment and trouble...

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

I heat my coop also and I wil be putting solar motion lights on every outside wall of the coop and I would like to put a small light on the inside of the coop so I can see to check on them

 

[FarmerPhronc]

So I take it you only did stuff during the daylight hours then? I don't always have that luxury, there are many times I'm out at night after sunset or before sunrise working in my coop no matter how many windows or features I have there wouldn't be enough light to see properly in those instances... My artificial lights are on from 5AM to 10PM normally (I sometimes adjust if they are not returning tot he coop with sunset), and during the winter when the sun is setting at 4:30PM, it's quite dark in the coop by 6PM and since I do a vast majority of my coop maintenance between 6 and 10 PM that makes things much harder without light...

Of course there is no 'need' for light, but I find it to be a very worthwhile creature feature for me personally as do others, same with heat, I find it much nicer working in a 35-40° heated coop then the -10° it could be during the winter... Again neither 'needed' no but for me they are well worth the investment and trouble...

Yes, pretty much the same for me now. I take care of them from 7:30 am till the sun goes down, depending on the time of year that could mean 5:30 PM till 9:00 PM. I understand that we all live in different areas, have different climates, and have different ways of taking care of our birds. Bottom line... What ever works best for you and the circumstances your raising your hens under will dictate how to best raise them.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Maybe it's me and this is also probably a stupid question but.... doesn't turning the lights on at night when they're sleeping disturb them? Unless you leave it on continously all day? Mine get ****** when i shine a flashlight on them lol

 

[Sylvester017]

Where did you get the wood for it? Just a regular hardware store?

I'm assuming you're asking about the cedar dust-bath? I ordered 2 each 4'x4' cedar raised garden beds when they went on sale at Home Depot end-of-the-growing-season for $16 each but that was a couple years ago. They've been sitting boxed in my garage. They were too small to use as a raised garden but perfect as a dust bath for the hens.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I'm assuming you're asking about the cedar dust-bath?  I ordered 2 each 4'x4' cedar raised garden beds when they went on sale at Home Depot end-of-the-growing-season for $16 each but that was a couple years ago.  They've been sitting boxed in my garage.  They were too small to use as a raised garden but perfect as a dust bath for the hens.

Yup! That's what I meant! But ohhh okay, hadn't realized they were actual garden beds haha whoops. I thought you had made them! Might see if they have those still or maybe i could make one?

 

[Sylvester017]

There's some discussion about lights for the chickens at night. We have a patio light that we leave on at night because we found it deterred night predators like possums, raccoons, rats, mice. Not 100% effective but it seemed we had less problems leaving the light on. Our coop has a couple windows that lets the light in and our Breda and Ameraucana both like perching by the window seats. With 2 windows there's one for each of the two LFs to sit by. They've had a night patio light for 5 years and it hasn't affected their laying cycles pros nor cons -- they aren't fooled by artificial lights at all.