post your chicken coop pictures here!

[TerryH]

Run progress pics from today. Finally just about done.

 

[perchie.girl]

OK I was driving by an ally the other day and I spotted a 55 gallon drum .... With a HAT. Obviously designed to keep water from collecting on top of the drum

http://www.absorbentsonline.com/55-gallon-drum-covers-tops.htm

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

That's really nice now when the garden is done are you going to go and let them go through it for you? I am going to make a chicken tunnel hopfully so they can go and stay out of the flower beds by keeping them sectioned off into there and have the tunnel they can go in and out of there run as they please.

 

[TerryH]

That's really nice now when the garden is done are you going to go and let them go through it for you? I am going to make a chicken tunnel hopfully so they can go and stay out of the flower beds by keeping them sectioned off into there and have the tunnel they can go in and out of there run as they please.

Thanks. I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out. They will not have access to the garden but we'll give them plenty from the garden as we go along. I'm growing watermelons specifically for them. The paths in the garden are covered with heavy plastic under the mulch. I want to keep the dirt that's in the boxes in the boxes and not in the pathways. My garden OCD is not very conducive for chickens scratching around.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

Ok my chickens get full range over were ever they want but I am about ready to chicken proof the flower beds I had to chase them out of the beds 4 times today and yesterday I am getting tired of fixing them also. But if you want to grow watermelon get some old skids and plant w watermelons down in the skid scracks and then when the melons come on set them up on the skid and it will keep them from rotting and setting down in the dirt with the yellowly brown spot on it to fully ripen.

 

[MeepBeep]

Ducks might be messier than chickens but only slightly and in different ways.

That whole 'open water' thing I find to be tremendously dirty... Yeah I know there are ways to moderate the mess but it's always going to be more work and mess than nipples for the chickens...

I have three ducklings in a brooder right now and it requires daily cleaning and water maintenance, while a comparable sized chick brooder could go a week or more with no basically no maintenance or cleaning...

I have two potential re-homes already set up for the ducklings if we decide not to keep them, but if we do keep them they are going to share the barn with the llamas and goats, they won't be sharing the coop...

 

[ShrekDawg]

It will be about 60 Sq. Ft.in the next week or so. Right now it's just a small 3x7 under the coop. 6 white Leghorns hens.

Why don't pine shavings breakdown?

Not really sure why honestly but they do eventually, just takes a long time

Shavings do break down, but they do it very slowly. Straw or hay will compost down in about 3 months. Shavings can take 6 months to a year. Wet, warm weather helps speed up the breakdown. You must consider, they are basically little pieces of wood. Wood takes longer to break down than grass.
And right now, your issues basically stem from too small a run. Maintenance will be maybe once a month in the new run. Nothing more you can do at the moment with as small as the run is and with the number of birds living in it.

Curious why the chips break down faster though?

And with the wood shavings they probably spray chemicals on them also before packing. So could that also have an impact on why they don't break down as fast.

Maybe but probably not on animal beddinf

O ok well I have a four by 8 but it's to small we're bursting at the seems in it with the 20 chickens and they aren't even fully grown yet so it's getting tighter on the roost every day as they grow. So for all of you out there who don't believe in chicken math it's real I never imagined having that many but now I want more still. And to think I wasn't even going to build a 4x8 I was going to go smaller.

Chicken math is definitely real haha fortunately righr now we've stayed with the 8 but I may add more eventually. 8 is technically the max for this size though but could probably squeeze a few more in plus could keep the old coop or use the dog house. Or just expand ha wouldn't be that hard to build a second smaller one or to just take the nest boxes and storage off and make the coop bigger. But for now it's much better than the coop kit they're crammed in and 8 seems like a good number. I think the most I'dI'd go is 12 maybe 15. I kind of want a dozen eggs a day ha

Not horse bedding....   same stuff

True. Probably could hurt the animals with chemicals

 

[MeepBeep]

And with the wood shavings they probably spray chemicals on them also before packing. So could that also have an impact on why they don't break down as fast.

There should not chemicals on animal bedding chips...

The reason they might decompose slower is because they can compact denser, but if you aerate and turn the compost (like you should) the wood shavings will decompose faster than chips or chunks as they have more surface area per volume... This assumes everything else equal....

I personally have no problem getting wood shavings to compost in my deep litter quite fast...

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

Yes I have it in my compost box in the chicken run also and it just builds down into the dirt and it starts to compose and then the chickens turn it over and it goes and works that side some.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

Not really sure why honestly but they do eventually, just takes a long time
Curious why the chips break down faster though?
Maybe but probably not on animal beddinf
Chicken math is definitely real haha fortunately righr now we've stayed with the 8 but I may add more eventually. 8 is technically the max for this size though but could probably squeeze a few more in plus could keep the old coop or use the dog house. Or just expand ha wouldn't be that hard to build a second smaller one or to just take the nest boxes and storage off and make the coop bigger. But for now it's much better than the coop kit they're crammed in and 8 seems like a good number. I think the most I'dI'd go is 12 maybe 15. I kind of want a dozen eggs a day ha
True. Probably could hurt the animals with chemicals

Ya my cousin has a 4x8 coop with 13 hens in and they all lay and are happy and healthy so I wouldn't see why not. Say right now I have the 20 hens in that same size coop and I am only getting 1-2 eggs a week because they are crowded so I wouldn't get carried away like i did now I have to build a new coop. Not that I am complaining :cd