post your chicken coop pictures here!

They will LUV the added space.  Chickens love to scratch, and flap, and forage, and dig dust-bath holes to China!  Chairs, tree stumps, a dog house or couple chairs, treat balls (one owner made a treat bottle out of a small soda bottle), another owner used a child's plastic table, etc, to keep them busy or gives them places to have mid-day snoozes.  Noon seems to be the time my girls take their siestas.  As for water bowls or plastic mason jar waterers, we discontinued open water dishes because the wild birds(& chickens) would poop or throw debris into the open water so we switched to nipple valve waterers - I'm using the Brite Tap nipple valves with Rubbermaid jugs and the water stays cool and clean for days and days and the mooching wild birds can't get to it!
We Aren't New To chicken Keeping But We Are New To Small Coop ideas. Our last coop very large and i wasnt very involved. This thread has been very helpful. We are using the nippless for water this time and I love them! I'm trying to incorporate the chickens into my preschool for fun. The kids are loving it.
 
I have a nipple waterer as well and no problem with the mooching wild birds, the feeder made from pvc pipe they still manage to mooch from. I use dog kennel panels for my run. Although I have the lower 2 ft covered with 1/2 inch hardware cloth for predator protection, I sure can't afford to cover the whole thing in that to keep the birds out. Personally I'd rather give up the water, lot cheaper then the $25+ I'm paying for a 35 - 40 lb bag of organic layer.
That's my problem too - we have dog kennel panels (photos below) for the run and can't keep out the wild bird moochers. The little brats fly in through the chicken pop-door to steal straw and feathers from the nests! They are such a pain and breed like roaches in any little nook or cranny they can build a nest in! Because I have a very little cottage yard and small area for storage we can't buy the 20-lb bags of scratch&peck organic layer for just 4 hens. Our fridge is too small to store the unused portion so we buy smaller 5-lb bags once a month for the 4 hens (2 are bantams) at $8 each bag not counting the $5 bag of organic 3-grain scratch&peck scratch mix. In addition, for the chickens, we get wild bird seed at $7 for 20-lb bag plus the countless fresh fruit/veggie treats we buy at the store when our garden is not producing in the winter. We do the best we can always!






 
We Aren't New To chicken Keeping But We Are New To Small Coop ideas. Our last coop very large and i wasnt very involved. This thread has been very helpful. We are using the nippless for water this time and I love them! I'm trying to incorporate the chickens into my preschool for fun. The kids are loving it.
Lucky kids! They will fondly look back on these fun days in their old age!
 
I sure can't afford to cover the whole thing


That's my problem too - we have dog kennel panels (photos below) for the run and can't keep out the wild bird moochers. 


Anti bird netting is cheap http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004RA0P...id=1461278219&sr=8-1-ac&keywords=bird+netting or http://www.amazon.com/Garden-Nettin..._UL160_SR160,160_&refRID=1SQB668XSAJCV0F847RW

or you can upgrade and get a heavier weight 1" aviary netting fairly reasonable http://www.amazon.com/Anti-Netting-...TF8&qid=1461278177&sr=1-2&keywords=1"+netting

Just random links not seller or product recommendations...
 
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That is so cute! But never say "finally finished" -- we've been modifying and changing and adding for 5 years now
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That's my problem too - we have dog kennel panels (photos below) for the run and can't keep out the wild bird moochers. The little brats fly in through the chicken pop-door to steal straw and feathers from the nests! They are such a pain and breed like roaches in any little nook or cranny they can build a nest in! Because I have a very little cottage yard and small area for storage we can't buy the 20-lb bags of scratch&peck organic layer for just 4 hens. Our fridge is too small to store the unused portion so we buy smaller 5-lb bags once a month for the 4 hens (2 are bantams) at $8 each bag not counting the $5 bag of organic 3-grain scratch&peck scratch mix. In addition, for the chickens, we get wild bird seed at $7 for 20-lb bag plus the countless fresh fruit/veggie treats we buy at the store when our garden is not producing in the winter. We do the best we can always!






If my dog kennel panels were that small I would gladly cover them with 1/2 in hardware cloth to keep the moochers away. My panels are 6 ft tall and 6 to 12 ft long.

 

I have large rolls of the bird netting I use to keep wild birds out of my garden seedlings but I don't use the flimsy netting around our chickens. Friend of mine lost a chicken who got strangled in the netting so I chose not to use it. I use sturdier wire fencing for dividing the garden from the chicken yard. As for the wild birds -- they're just something we learned to live with except for them mooching the water and feed which we took care of. Sometimes the chickens get annoyed with the little birds too and chase them off !
 
If my dog kennel panels were that small I would gladly cover them with 1/2 in hardware cloth to keep the moochers away. My panels are 6 ft tall and 6 to 12 ft long.



We've attached wire over wire before and it's a pain and gaps form and although galvanized is not supposed to rust it still does. The wild birds are a nuisance but not the danger that coons and possums pose - so the heavy dog kennel wire we have on the Barn Coop will most certainly keep those night critters out for sure!
 

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