post your chicken coop pictures here!

[Sylvester017]

Hey thanks! That's a good idea about lifting the coop, we will just have to see how it does here in the rainy season. As far as the coop wire, all the vents are covered in hardwire cloth. Only the run is chicken wire and I lock them up every night, the pop door has a lock on the inside. Plus I don't think my American bulldog will let any pests sneak by.....

Everybody up here free ranges and never has any issues if you lock them in the coop at night. No access to the run.

I forgot to mention that the coop if fully floored and the floor is a good 2 inches from the ground

That's nice to have neighbors to compare notes. Even here in the city we compare notes and share predator sightings (mostly raccoons and chicken hawks - in the city!!!)

Raising the coop higher than 2-inches is still a good idea as ID is a snowy state? We have ours raised on skids on top of paver stones because a couple days a year it can pour buckets in SoCalif. and our inside coop dirt floor stays dry. Of course we tarp over the coop and run when there's an expected rain plus have a popup canopy overall. Can't wait to get a new Amish coop in a couple years better built than our dumb little 4x6 now.

 

[Idaho Dan]

That's nice to have neighbors to compare notes.  Even here in the city we compare notes and share predator sightings (mostly raccoons and chicken hawks - in the city!!!)

Raising the coop higher than 2-inches is still a good idea as ID is a snowy state?  We have ours raised on skids on top of paver stones because a couple days a year it can pour buckets in SoCalif. and our inside coop dirt floor stays dry.  Of course we tarp over the coop and run when there's an expected rain plus have a popup canopy overall.  Can't wait to get a new Amish coop in a couple years better built than our dumb little 4x6 now.

Yeah, we can get quite a bit of snow here haha. And we get the run of the mill predators like hawks and raccoons, but we also have marmot and coyotes so it can be a little more stressful.

My wife came home late a few nights ago and saw a 25+ lb raccoon run through the driveway. The next morning my neighbor found one of her buffs dead. She forgot to lock the chickens up that night...... Needless to say that raccoon is high priority on my hunting list.

 

[Sylvester017]

Idahodan - forgot to mention a problem I had that you might experience. Your perch is at the same level as the nestboxex. My girls picked the nestboxes to sleep in since the perch on the opposite side was not higher but at the same level as the nestbox ledge. Our coop was custom pre-built and we had no say in its design but you have the option to raise your perch a little higher to discourage nestbox roosting.

 

[Idaho Dan]

Idahodan - forgot to mention a problem I had that you might experience.  Your perch is at the same level as the nestboxex.  My girls picked the nestboxes to sleep in since the perch on the opposite side was not higher but at the same level as the nestbox ledge.  Our coop was custom pre-built and we had no say in its design but you have the option to raise your perch a little higher to discourage nestbox roosting.

This is a problem I have just learned of hahaha I have blocked off my boxes for now until I can make adjustments. I may raise the perch a few inches to alleviate the issue. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Sylvester017]

Yeah, we can get quite a bit of snow here haha. And we get the run of the mill predators like hawks and raccoons, but we also have marmot and coyotes so it can be a little more stressful.

My wife came home late a few nights ago and saw a 25+ lb raccoon run through the driveway. The next morning my neighbor found one of her buffs dead. She forgot to lock the chickens up that night...... Needless to say that raccoon is high priority on my hunting list.

We don't believe in automatic doors for pop-doors. Never know what can be enclosed automatically with the chickens at dusk. Plus we get a lot of electricity outages and gloomy days. I and the DH just don't feel comfortable relying on electronic devices. One of us always plans to come home at dusk to put the girls away ourselves. We only have 4 free-range hens but the DH thinks of them like children.

As for raccoons we saw a goat-sized one coming out of our city sidewalk storm drain at 2 a.m. Neighbors weren't even aware of raccoons in the city! Our 5 surrounding neighbors have all chopped down their old trees so now we don't have squirrels and raccoons using trees to easily hop from yard to yard. Occasionally we see oppossum road kill on the street.

Normally I like wildlife but 'coons are the one wildlife that doesn't necessarily kill for food but kill for the sheer pleasure of killing. Added to that is their cunning, and their clever sharp manipulative paws/claws to tear into things, so they have to be reckoned with! Our neighbor said his farm coop was broken into by a raccoon that went around killing every chicken but not eating any for food - now that's vicious!

 

[Idaho Dan]

We don't believe in automatic doors for pop-doors.  Never know what can be enclosed automatically with the chickens at dusk.  Plus we get a lot of electricity outages and gloomy days.  I and the DH just don't feel comfortable relying on electronic devices.  One of us always plans to come home at dusk to put the girls away ourselves.  We only have 4 free-range hens but the DH thinks of them like children.

As for raccoons we saw a goat-sized one coming out of our city sidewalk storm drain at 2 a.m.  Neighbors weren't even aware of raccoons in the city!  Our 5 surrounding neighbors have all chopped down their old trees so now we don't have squirrels and raccoons using trees to easily hop from yard to yard.  Occasionally we see oppossum road kill on the street.

Normally I like wildlife but 'coons are the one wildlife that doesn't necessarily kill for food but kill for the sheer pleasure of killing.  Added to that is their cunning, and their clever sharp manipulative paws/claws to tear into things, so they have to be reckoned with!  Our neighbor said his farm coop was broken into by a raccoon that went around killing every chicken but not eating any for food - now that's vicious!

Yeah our pop door is string and hand actuated haha. We get a lot of power issues here too. Raccoons are the worst and I tend to find myself stalking them at nite.

 

[MrSelf Destruct]

We don't believe in automatic doors for pop-doors. Never know what can be enclosed automatically with the chickens at dusk. Plus we get a lot of electricity outages and gloomy days. I and the DH just don't feel comfortable relying on electronic devices. One of us always plans to come home at dusk to put the girls away ourselves.

I agree. I check the coop every evening when I go say goodnight to the girls to make sure nothing else is in there with them. As I get older I like being up early in the morning too so getting up to let them out isn't an issue for me either. I will stick with the 550 cord and hand method!

 

[Junibutt]

This is really cute. But it is so small that 4 nest boxes is too many as there should only be one or two chickens in it and only for transporting them like to a school science project or to the fair or as a free-range shelter. A school child had one built on a wagon that she used for her educational programs on chickens but only transported 2 bantams at a time.

However cute this is it's not too practical as permanent housing unless it is built many times on a larger scale and those cutout holes can be covered at night. Let us see your masterpiece when you've finished it! You might inspire some others of us!

It is only meant to be a free-ranger chicken shelter for 2-4 standard chicken or for urban environments where space is limited. Those cut-out holes actually have Plexiglass behind them. There is a video on that link as well that shows how the door on the other side of artwork actually become a ladder. But I do agree, for it to be practical for more chicken, it has to be enlarged to scale. Also I would probably build a cleaning tray as well in case you don't have open space for the droppings and wanted to use pine-shavings.

 

[aart]

Quote: Just perfect for rodents to take up residence, better to raise it up a good 18 inches if you can....place for chooks to shelter and enough room for you to crawl under for eggs or hurt chook. If you can't raise it up might want to put a 1/2" hardware cloth apron to exclude rodents.

Apron, attach to coop instead of run mesh wall as shown, corner is out of scale but you get the idea - don't forget the corners:

 

[sled483]

This is my temporary run 5x5x5. I am getting a 10x10x6 dog kennel soon. I just wanted to let the babies have some outside time.