post your chicken coop pictures here!

[bigmrg74]

We just got our nipple water system up and running today. I read that you should take out any other water set ups so that they will use the nipples. I hope that was right because i feel so guilty taking out their old water bottle, but the nipple system holds so much more and will be so much cleaner.

toss them some cut up cucumbers and melons for them while they're learning the nipples. lets them get some extra water into their systems.

 

[bigmrg74]

I decided to work in the shade with my new coop today, so I stretched out the tarp and put it on over the hoop to give me some nice shade to work under. A little hustle on my part this week and I could have my meat birds in there by next weekend.

 

[perchie.girl]

My coop is nothing fancy like all the other coops on this thread but it is homemade though. We only have three chooks at the moment but i am hoping to expand my flock soon. They get let out a couple of times a day as i have a dog and they can't be let out without supervision. (That little coop inside is where i keep my King Quails)

Oh but its functional and practical..... i prefer this design over a small house .... One thing though. Chicken wire is only good for keeping chickens in not predators out... when you can afford it reinforce areas where the chickens can come in contact with the wire with Hardware cloth.

deb

 

[RanchRichey]

Finally got ours finished. Coop with run attached, gate and top that A-frames or accordion folds out of the way depending on our needs and cleaning. They are allowed to free range in the back yard when we are home, but we have about 10 sq ft per bird for when they are confined all day too.

Pretty happy with how it turned out.

 

[AustralorpsAU]

We do have the wire dug into the ground to keep the foxes out and the wire is pretty small @perchie.girl

 

[ShellAndSteph]

We just got our nipple water system up and running today. I read that you should take out any other water set ups so that they will use the nipples. I hope that was right because i feel so guilty taking out their old water bottle, but the nipple system holds so much more and will be so much cleaner.

 

[ShellAndSteph]

WooHoo! Went to the coop this morning and heard a noise. Opened the doors and the girls were using the nipples! Yay! So relieved!

 

[Intheswamp]

My coop is nothing fancy like all the other coops on this thread but it is homemade though. We only have three chooks at the moment but i am hoping to expand my flock soon. They get let out a couple of times a day as i have a dog and they can't be let out without supervision. (That little coop inside is where i keep my King Quails)

I really like the openness of your coop. What part of the country are you located in...cold?...hot?...dry?....humid? I'm in south Alabama where we have to deal with hot/humid weather moreso than extreme winter freezing. I'm thinking along the lines of something similar. I had thought about something along the lines of a JT Woods open air house, but I'm thinking more towards something even more open.

I will have to agree with perchie.girl/Deb about getting a better predator barrier installed. I think I'd rather have some 2x4 welded or woven(best) wire fencing...dogs won't tear through it very easily. 1/2" hardware cloth will definitely stop reach-throughs from coons. Something else you might try for coons reaching through the fence is to install another layer of chicken wire on the inside to keep the chickens from getting up against the outer fence. It looks like your posts are fairly thick so a gap that the coon has to span with it's arm might reduce the chances of it grabbing a chicken. You would only need to have this inner barrier a couple of feet tall. Be sure to secure the top of the inner fence to the outer fence so a chicken can't somehow get down between the two fences (chickens *will* do what you don't expect them to do!

)...you could do this by nailing a 2x4 between the posts and stapling the top edge of the short barrier fence to it.

I really do like the openness of it....
Best wishes,
Ed

 

[ChickadeeNMe]

We are a local family business building chicken tractors in Knoxville, TN. We're called Smoky Mountain Chicken Tractors. Just thought I'd share a few photos of our work!
I use 3 of the tractors myself for my own flock! It started out as a personal thing, built a tractor for our own use, but got so many folks who liked them and wanted one, our business was born!

 

[Latestarter]

Finally got ours finished. Coop with run attached, gate and top that A-frames or accordion folds out of the way depending on our needs and cleaning. They are allowed to free range in the back yard when we are home, but we have about 10 sq ft per bird for when they are confined all day too.

Pretty happy with how it turned out.

WOW! That's a FANTASTIC Idea! It doubles as a PLAYPEN! Who needs baby sitters anyways?

Looks good! Don't know that I'd sit my baby down in the dirt/pine chips/chicken poop though... Course they'll get into worse than that when they get older most likely anyway... Very cute baby!