post your chicken coop pictures here!

[wvchix]

The coop has a chicken door (front) and human door (side) both of which can be locked. The wire is anchored to the ground around every 8 inches or so using metal spikes that I drove into the dirt and affixed to the fence using wire. It cost me less than $70 for this whole project!

Wow! That's great! This will be our 3rd coop and I'm hoping that by using pallets we can keep our cost down. You've done a great job with yours!

 

[Sylvester017]

We just raise regular chickens and butcher them. They're not all gross looking and they are healthier, and we can butcher as we need them instead of having to do a mass butcher all at once. I prefer fresh meat anyhow!!!

I do agree things are getting better, and it is reassuring. I think part of it is just a lack of education/information. If people really knew what was going on they might not tolerate it so much. Of course, that's true with much of our food, isn't it? How commercial cows and pigs are raised and butchered is also horrific. I just don't understand.....unless it's greed. "Give me more for less and I don't care how you get it there"...........you know?? The same goes for fabric, often now made in a chemically-laden factory by people who don't earn a living wage and are exploited by the business owners as well as the companies they make the fabric for....

SMH

Trisha

We stopped eating beef several years ago after the Mad Cow scandal. We won't eat veal for the industry's inhumane treatment of calves. Try to find raw milk anywhere because the processed stuff is useless. Pig meat is overly greasy. Market eggs are a joke. Chicken is inedible and tasteless.

I have to chuckle at people that want dual purpose birds for meat and eggs. On the farm my folks in addition to geese and ducks raised Leghorns for a LOT of eggs and we had tasty dinners from Leghorns. I wonder exactly how BIG a chicken has to be for dinner? Egg layers are easier on the feed bill and if it isn't big enough for table meat then use two birds for dinner. Much tastier than Cornish X. My friend processes her 5-month EE cockerels and says they dress out just as big as her bland Cornish X project birds and actually have flavor. She won't raise CX again. IMO meat should be used occasionally and not served all 3 meals of the day, every day, week in and week out. Meat is good a couple X a week or so but it's being shoved down the public's throat at every meal, snack, and restaurant menu. Nobody eats enough organic veggies anymore and our bodies are crying for it! We have our own garden for the hens and us and we get blessed with protein organic eggs in return. What can be better?

During drought the city water was so chlorinated it smelled out of the tap. My garden veggie seedling leaves were turning white so we decided to serve purified water to our hens during the drought crisis. High chlorine and fluoride (if the city uses it) can thin egg shell formation. My friend complained her girls had funny looking or thin shells but just 2 blocks away my purified water girls were giving us all firm smooth shells - I think they were even drinking more water. My DH said he never saw then drink so much water - must have been tasty without the chlorine in it. When we had natural rain rather than irrigating with city water this week all the outdoor seedlings perked up from the rain and the plants turned green and robust almost overnight. Hmmm?

 

[Sylvester017]

I am new to having backyard chickens, and wanted to build my own coop out of pallets and found materials. I've never built anything before, but I've gotten pretty handy repairing things at my job. So anywho, here is the finished product! A pallet coop with a fenced in run for my 4 six-week-old RIR ladies!




Here's the inside - two nest boxes and some food, water and chick grit. And shavings of course!

Let me know what you think! It's my pride and joy! I moved the chicks out there yesterday and I'm having a bit of "empty nest syndrome" (wakka wakka.)

I absolutely love the coop and that there's ventilation. Chickens are so easy to please and not fussy so anything they get with love they'll appreciate!

Does the coop entrance have a secure door closure?

If I may add a suggestion. We get a lot of downpour rains and raised our little coop up on blocks to keep the water out - only a few inches but it makes a difference during storms. Also you'll need a much firmer hardwire run attached to some secure thicker in-ground posts rather than loose netting. Raccoons and even crows love to snack on tasty baby chickies. Your coop is wonderful - I think most will agree here that the outside run definitely needs to be stronger - maybe even bigger for when the birds are adult size. Raccoons and many predators are clever and strong and can climb easily and even figure how to unlatch doors. We could've lost our hens to a stray German Shepherd who broke into our yard and tried to attack through the coop wire. Thank goodness the wire was sturdy enough that the big 90-lb dog couldn't eat our girls. We have since double gated our yard for any other irresponsible stray dog owners.

Always think secure, secure, secure as a new backyard chicken owner. Welcome to chickeneering and have I said I LUV your coop!

 

[elesandchickens]

I absolutely love the coop and that there's ventilation. Chickens are so easy to please and not fussy so anything they get with love they'll appreciate!

Does the coop entrance have a secure door closure?

If I may add a suggestion. We get a lot of downpour rains and raised our little coop up on blocks to keep the water out - only a few inches but it makes a difference during storms. Also you'll need a much firmer hardwire run attached to some secure thicker in-ground posts rather than loose netting. Raccoons and even crows love to snack on tasty baby chickies. Your coop is wonderful - I think most will agree here that the outside run definitely needs to be stronger - maybe even bigger for when the birds are adult size. Raccoons and many predators are clever and strong and can climb easily and even figure how to unlatch doors. We could've lost our hens to a stray German Shepherd who broke into our yard and tried to attack through the coop wire. Thank goodness the wire was sturdy enough that the big 90-lb dog couldn't eat our girls. We have since double gated our yard for any other irresponsible stray dog owners.

Always think secure, secure, secure as a new backyard chicken owner. Welcome to chickeneering and have I said I LUV your coop!

Thank you for the advice! Once I get some money I'll definitely reinforce my fencing!

And both the human and chick doors have double latches that lock into place
I plan on renovating periodically to update their space (building equity in a chicken coop? Haha)

 

[iwiw60]

I am new to having backyard chickens, and wanted to build my own coop out of pallets and found materials. I've never built anything before, but I've gotten pretty handy repairing things at my job. So anywho, here is the finished product! A pallet coop with a fenced in run for my 4 six-week-old RIR ladies!




Here's the inside - two nest boxes and some food, water and chick grit. And shavings of course!

Let me know what you think! It's my pride and joy! I moved the chicks out there yesterday and I'm having a bit of "empty nest syndrome" (wakka wakka.)

I think it's great...better than I could do, that's for sure! If you find you have problems with litter/poop getting in your feeders and waterers you might want to hang them from the roof? I see there are 'handles' so it shouldn't be much trouble...best of luck to you, you're ahead of me...my chicks arrive in 4 days..can't wait!

 

[graciecat]

Graciecat       Is that your coop?    Outstanding.    Tell us about it.  How many chickens do you have?   I have 18 that are 10 days old.  Still waiting to have my Dog kennel predator proofed.   Time    Time      

Yes it's mine! I am in the middle of building a big shop for my business so I bought a tiny coop with the plan on getting 3 chickens. I went to get my chickens and decided to get 3 chicks and 3 ducklings. So there went the coop! I knew I had to build something else so I went back and got 8 more chicks! So now I'm up to 3 ducks and 11 chicks! We went back and forth on what to build and we decided to just buy a shed and build a yard to the side. I ended up finding a guy to come and build it for cheaper! We added the yard and there you go. I don't have the inside completely finished. I still need nesting boxes but here's what I have so far.

 

[gilcamp4]

Yes it's mine! I am in the middle of building a big shop for my business so I bought a tiny coop with the plan on getting 3 chickens. I went to get my chickens and decided to get 3 chicks and 3 ducklings. So there went the coop! I knew I had to build something else so I went back and got 8 more chicks! So now I'm up to 3 ducks and 11 chicks! We went back and forth on what to build and we decided to just buy a shed and build a yard to the side. I ended up finding a guy to come and build it for cheaper! We added the yard and there you go. I don't have the inside completely finished. I still need nesting boxes but here's what I have so far.

I love you coop wish I had some thing like that, but we are low income so free is best for us, we have the camper and have 28 hens and 2 roos in it, now I have 6 sex lick peeps that I got tue at 1 week old, went to auction wed and hubby saw rir 5 weeks that he liked, I saw a lot that I liked so we started bidding got 3rds box of 5wks had 12 in it, then moved to the ones I liked and got 1st bid on box of 11 rir and 1 odd they said they were 2wks old so now we have the 5 week ones in our screen house which is still wrapped in plastic for winter so it is good for now, the little ones are on a table in a clear long tote. we are going to go look at camper in mans back yard to see if we can get that, we now have 60 chickens but what ever turns out to be roos will go back when bigger, only need two the sex licks are hens.

 

[graciecat]

Whatever works! I try to recycle and be green all the time but I just didn't have time on this. We have another big project going and the chicks had outgrown their brooder! We had planned on using leftovers from my shop to build it but it didn't look like we were going to have any leftovers. The interior is mostly leftovers though. I blame it on my husband for making me wait 2 years. I have been begging for chickens! So when the opportunity presented itself I went nuts! Haha

 

[jtbass2756]

Whatever works! I try to recycle and be green all the time but I just didn't have time on this. We have another big project going and the chicks had outgrown their brooder! We had planned on using leftovers from my shop to build it but it didn't look like we were going to have any leftovers. The interior is mostly leftovers though. I blame it on my husband for making me wait 2 years. I have been begging for chickens! So when the opportunity presented itself I went nuts! Haha

Can't wait to see the pictures? I love recycling !!! That's what almost all of ours will be. We will buy treated 4x4's for the places it will be be grounded...but other than that...nothing new of treated...

 

[ChickensRock01]

Here are a few pics of my A-frame, I have detachable wheels for it also.
This is the first coop I have built, overall I have been very happy with it.

Wow! thats pretty nice! How much did it cost all together?