post your chicken coop pictures here!

[Chicken Egg 17]

Keep your numbers in mind in case an emergency happens and you need to re-home your chickens for whatever reason.  Stuff happens and it's good to have a future friend/home in mind just in case.  That's when manageable numbers comes in handy.

O ya my cousin could take a few and then my neighbor would take the rest as they have like 50 chickens I took my rooster over and they said o ya u can just set him down so I would imagin that they would take them

 

[adkhunter1590]

Busy weekend. Tons of yard work and a new run addition for our newest group of chicks to get outside. While we free range our other 8 hens and 1 rooster we decided to keep our new ones penned up for awhile. At least until they are big enough to fend for themselves against our top dog rooster and other predators. Last time we introduced a couple new ones our rooster didn't play so nice. He can be a mean cuss but he does a great job at keeping our hens safe and in line.

So that brings me to our little run I worked on this weekend. 8x16 footprint. Door on on end for now but plans for another bigger door on the opposite end to make it easy to clean out. Metal roofing will go on possibly tomorrow. So far the littles love their new outdoor area. Once I can get them friendly with the old flock I plan on putting in a second pop door into the old flocks side of the coop so they can all share the run during winter months.

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[FarmerPhronc]

Busy weekend. Tons of yard work and a new run addition for our newest group of chicks to get outside. While we free range our other 8 hens and 1 rooster we decided to keep our new ones penned up for awhile. At least until they are big enough to fend for themselves against our top dog rooster and other predators. Last time we introduced a couple new ones our rooster didn't play so nice. He can be a mean cuss but he does a great job at keeping our hens safe and in line.

So that brings me to our little run I worked on this weekend. 8x16 footprint. Door on on end for now but plans for another bigger door on the opposite end to make it easy to clean out. Metal roofing will go on possibly tomorrow. So far the littles love their new outdoor area. Once I can get them friendly with the old flock I plan on putting in a second pop door into the old flocks side of the coop so they can all share the run during winter months.

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As so many here have pointed out in the past, chicken wire may keep your chickens in but it's not gonna keep predators out. You may want to consider replacing that with 1/2 inch hardware cloth.

 

[Latestarter]

Busy weekend. Tons of yard work and a new run addition for our newest group of chicks to get outside. While we free range our other 8 hens and 1 rooster we decided to keep our new ones penned up for awhile. At least until they are big enough to fend for themselves against our top dog rooster and other predators. Last time we introduced a couple new ones our rooster didn't play so nice. He can be a mean cuss but he does a great job at keeping our hens safe and in line.

So that brings me to our little run I worked on this weekend. 8x16 footprint. Door on on end for now but plans for another bigger door on the opposite end to make it easy to clean out. Metal roofing will go on possibly tomorrow. So far the littles love their new outdoor area. Once I can get them friendly with the old flock I plan on putting in a second pop door into the old flocks side of the coop so they can all share the run during winter months.

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If you look at that chicken wire at the bottom, a coon or fox will be under that and in with your birds in 5 seconds flat. Stray dogs or a feral cat won't have any problem either. strongly suggest you use 3' tall 1/2" squares (1/4" is a weaker grade/gauge) hardware cloth as a wrap around the bottom of your run and attach it with poultry staples or screws with fender washers, and then do some sort of apron out from it to prevent diggers from getting under. Best of luck!

 

[FarmerPhronc]

We live in Western NC so we do have freezing Temps. I have not thought of a warmer. I need to investigate this further. I was imagining my self thawing water bottles every morning come winter...

Where I live I've seen it get to -35*F. When it gets that cold I don't think much of anything will keep a chicken waterer from freezing up. One simply goes out and takes care of their flock providing the best one can for them.

 

[tumalochick]

FINALLY finished the run! Our $200 craigslist coop and the run we built for my 16 girls (well, 13 girls and possible 3 roosters)

I would like advice on a top for the run. What works best to keep hawks/eagles/ravens etc out? We get lots of snow in winter so I need something that it won't pile up on and break it down. Is bird netting sufficient? The girls are locked up tight inside the coop at night so not terribly worried about raccoons climbing in. I haven't seen any around during the day.
It's about 14x20. Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[FarmerPhronc]

FINALLY finished the run! Our $200 craigslist coop and the run we built for my 16 girls (well, 13 girls and possible 3 roosters)

I would like advice on a top for the run. What works best to keep hawks/eagles/ravens etc out? We get lots of snow in winter so I need something that it won't pile up on and break it down. Is bird netting sufficient? The girls are locked up tight inside the coop at night so not terribly worried about raccoons climbing in. I haven't seen any around during the day.
It's about 14x20. Thanks for any suggestions!

The netting my work to keep out over head predators during the day. You lock your hens in at night, you shouldn't have to much to worry about.

 

[vasher]

Third day of materials acquisition and construction. Slow going, but we don't really have plans and have been kinda winging it with certain ideas in mind. Finding straight 2x2s and 2x4s may have been the second largest time sink. Chickies are getting evicted in a couple weeks.

 

[Sylvester017]

I literally have almost zero chance of predators. This is my 2nd year with these hens just a new coop that I built. I live in the city and also have a solid privacy fence around my yard. Thanks for the tips though, just stuff that I don't really need in my situation however

I didn't know we had stalking city raccoons in our neighborhood until a year after we got chickens -- we drove home at 2 a.m. morning to see a raccoon the size of a goat come out of the street drain just 5 houses away! City raccoons are more dangerous and clever than rural ones because of all the city obstacles they cleverly learned to maneuver around - traffic, fences, freeways, tall buildings, sewers, etc.

 

[Sylvester017]

FINALLY finished the run! Our $200 craigslist coop and the run we built for my 16 girls (well, 13 girls and possible 3 roosters)

I would like advice on a top for the run. What works best to keep hawks/eagles/ravens etc out? We get lots of snow in winter so I need something that it won't pile up on and break it down. Is bird netting sufficient? The girls are locked up tight inside the coop at night so not terribly worried about raccoons climbing in. I haven't seen any around during the day.
It's about 14x20. Thanks for any suggestions!

Beautiful set-up you have! If you have a raptor problem I suggest heavy duty netting and fastened down with no gaps - owls and the smaller Cooper's Hawks somehow seem to manage to get inside netting if it has any gaps/cracks and has to be checked often since wind can play havoc on the fastenings. As for snow (or rain) I like gable or slanted roofs to repel weather - otherwise I don't know what to do with your flat roof. I had the problem with my first coop & run not having a slant to the roof and it eventually leaked and we had to put a pop-up canopy over it. We have a Barn Coop roof now and it's so much better.

Third day of materials acquisition and construction. Slow going, but we don't really have plans and have been kinda winging it with certain ideas in mind. Finding straight 2x2s and 2x4s may have been the second largest time sink. Chickies are getting evicted in a couple weeks.

Pretty much everyone on this thread will advise you to use hardware cloth 1/2" rather than flimsy poultry hex chicken wire. If you think the lumber was costly, wait til you price the good wire! Love the chickies!!!