post your chicken coop pictures here!

[jtc123]

my new coop

 

[jtc123]

Great first coop!

 

[kenmlang]

Being horizontally positioned tongue and groove on your coop will it be fairly watertight in rain?

I just always wonder about leak issues - it's one of the reasons I question outside access egg boxes with the lids that lift up to reach the eggs. I've seen reviews that say there can be some leaking. We don't get rain often and then usually lightly but 1 or 2 x a year we can get a ridiculous downpour that floods the raised bed garden boxes and we have to completely tarp our coop to keep it as dry as possible during those times. Chickens love rain but not the downpours and they stay hiding then.

My coops do not have any leak issues at the nesting box area (exterior). The roof extends over far enough to cover that. It would take a constant driving rain to cause a leak. Here are some pics...

 

[dsboyce]

This is our big coop, where we keep the meat chickens. It doubles as a storage area for my mowers, tiller, etc.



The meat birds inside.



This is the little coop where our egg hens will reside.



This is the inside of the little coop. We are putting a concrete floor in and still need to build the roosts and nesting boxes.



A couple days ago, we finished putting up the fence for their run. Since we live in town, we don't have the option to free range, so we wanted to give them as large a run as possible. The sandbox is filled with diatomaceous earth and we are leaving the tree limb there for them to "play" on.

 

[Latestarter]

Is this anything similar to what is called "board and batten"? I see the term used in Amish-built coops and wonder what it actually means other than they look like ordinary wood boards to me. Would your opinion be that stained/sealed Board & Batten is better than "Duratemp" painted walls? I think with stained/sealed woods you have to seal/stain them more often than Duratemp painted walls?

All opinions/experiences welcome!

From "about.com" Architecture: "Board and batten, or board-and-batten, describes a type of exterior siding or interior paneling that has alternating wide boards and narrow wooden strips, called battens. The boards are usually (but not always) one foot wide. The boards may be placed horizontally or vertically. The battens are usually (but not always) about 1/2 inch wide. These battens are placed over the seams between the boards." An example of exterior use would be:

Stain is neither better or worse than paint. Stain tends to weather more and need to be re-applied more often than paint. It's really about what "look" appeals to you. Stained wood just has a much deeper lustre and character than a painted board IMHO.

 

[Sylvester017]

From "about.com" Architecture: "Board and batten, or board-and-batten, describes a type of exterior siding or interior paneling that has alternating wide boards and narrow wooden strips, called battens. The boards are usually (but not always) one foot wide. The boards may be placed horizontally or vertically. The battens are usually (but not always) about 1/2 inch wide. These battens are placed over the seams between the boards." An example of exterior use would be:

Stain is neither better or worse than paint. Stain tends to weather more and need to be re-applied more often than paint. It's really about what "look" appeals to you. Stained wood just has a much deeper lustre and character than a painted board IMHO.

We're retired and not too agile for a lot of staining/painting but yes, I do like the look of stained/sealed wood both inside and outside of the coops I've seen. The Duratemp is supposed to be 10x better than board-batten but the walls look so dorky from inside the coop - if the coop is going to run over $3K we might as well pick what WE like since either type of wall structure is the same price. As for the chickens they could care less about looks or colors - LOL. Chicken poop can get everywhere inside a coop so we were thinking the boards would be easier cleaning than the Duratemp walls - decisions, decisions! We've got a couple years to think about it but just wanted to clarify some of these terms we're coming across on the Amish coop sites.

Very nice of you to post the sample photo and the explanations - thx!

 

[Sylvester017]

classic board & batten made from rough sawn lumber

As per my post to LateStarter : We're retired and not too agile for a lot of staining/painting but yes, I do like the look of stained/sealed wood both inside and outside of the coops I've seen. The Duratemp is supposed to be 10x better than board-batten but the walls look so dorky from inside the coop - if the coop is going to run over $3K we might as well pick what WE like since either type of wall structure is the same price. As for the chickens they could care less about looks or colors - LOL. Chicken poop can get everywhere inside a coop so we were thinking the boards would be easier cleaning than the Duratemp walls - decisions, decisions! We've got a couple years to think about it but just wanted to clarify some of these terms we're coming across on the Amish coop sites.

Very nice of you to post the sample photo and the explanations - thx!

 

[Sylvester017]

my new coop

That's a LOT of chickens! I notice there is a majority of chickeneers and breeders in the NC and GA states. Or maybe I just see more posts from them.

How big is your coop and how many chix do you have? Are you able to free-range them when adults?

 

[Sylvester017]

My coops do not have any leak issues at the nesting box area (exterior). The roof extends over far enough to cover that. It would take a constant driving rain to cause a leak. Here are some pics...

The roof overhang is always the first thing I look at on everyone's posted coop photos. Some people like you anticipate the potential snow/rain leaks and make sure to have a good roof extension - especially helpful if you're the one standing in the rain retrieving the eggs from the nests.

Many coop photos show the nestbox areas completely covered by wide roof extensions in anticipation of inclement weather. We bought a popup canopy to completely cover our coop for shade as well as from rainy days and we sloped it in the direction we want runoff to go. A 2nd canopy is in the backyard for shade, and for a dust-bathing area that stays dry on rainy days and we anchored the legs one foot into the soil - the canopies get torn up from sun and gale wind damage but we replace with tarps on the anchored frame instead of expensive canopy top replacements and we're good to go for another year of protection. The frames far outlast the canopies and there's no way we're paying $100's to replace fitted tops year after year so the cheaper tarps with ball-ties stay snug and look fairly nice lasting as long as fitted covers at 1/10 the $$$.

As I stated before most of our rain is light to moderate and not often - however there's always that 1 or 2x a year we can get downpours that flood our raised garden beds and we have to completely tarp the coop. We made sure to raise the coop on skids when we first got it to anticipate the potential floods - the skids plus the tarps have kept the dirt coop floor dry so far. Our egg boxes are not exterior but are inside the coop accessed through a large drop-down door - which when dropped down also adds ventilation to the 3-ft tall nestboxes during our heatwaves - we put a loose tarp over the open drop-door to give privacy to the laying hens. We have mostly a hot climate and love the drop-down egg collection door to add ventilation.

Thank you for your input - really appreciate it!

 

[lil urbanette]

This is my new coop. The rains have kept me from dressing it up, but my chickies are not quite old enough yet, just 4 weeks and still in the garage in my 'daycare' pen

Here's our daycare pen