post your chicken coop pictures here!

[ezicash]

I placed a tarp over the coop and part of the run to give them shade from the hot sun and protection from the rain. The run is a DIY from a first timer chick grandma - I wish I could make something that looked nicer but I am learning as I go. These are Rhode island Red Pullets

 

[charliethezero]

Here is my coop, 6'3"x6'. It's almost finished, a few minor details left to do. The run will be 18x6 feet including under the coop extending out the right side.

 

[Sylvester017]

Interesting that your birds are the exact opposite of mine. They will scratch around, usually not all the way to the bottom of the box (I usually have at least 3" of pine shavings in them) but they don't toss them out. AND, not only do they NOT push any preexisting egg away, they will move it to the center of the nest where they are going to lay. Here are my boxes, as you can see there is no easy way for them to get the shavings out of the community box, not with that single egg shaped entrance.



This is the open box inside the coop before I put in the 2 dividers. You can see there is a fair bit of vertical depth.


Bruce

Hi Bruce - very nice egg box with the round-hole entrance. That is the round entrances we have on each of our 3 individual nestboxes. Hens love seclusion so I'm not a fan of your open box but love your lidded one with the round hole. I love the round-hold entrance because it helps to keep some straw in the nestbox when the hens kick it around - especially that OCD Silkie of ours who will scratch til her toes bleed. Had to line the boxes with plexiglass to keep her from getting splinters. They have plenty of deep straw we add every day but the two OCD hens constantly kick it out. We re-homed one of the two OCD hens so now it's just the Silkie that throws the straw around and there's less being kicked out. I suppose it was good to re-home at least one of our OCD hens.

You look to have more chickens than we do so our circumstances are dissimilar. We are down to 3 hens after rehoming a bully last weekend - she wasn't just a pushy broad - she was pulling out the beard of the Ameraucana and when there was no more beard left she started chasing the Silkies to pull out their crests. She came to maturity after her first broody period and being a LF started to get assertive in a damaging way and the non-combative Ameraucana and two smaller Silkies were not able to challenge her back in a fair fight and she got drunk with power! She is in an egg-laying flock now where there are older LF hens to put her in her place. Hated to lose her as she was a good layer.

We're crossing our fingers that the Blue Wheaten Ameraucana stays non-combative since she is as good a layer if not better than a Leghorn. Until we got her I was giving up on LF egg-layers for our backyard flock - she is non-combative towards flockmates, friendly, seeks humans to talk to (and loudly), easy to handle/pickup/pet so easy for health checks, lays XL eggs at least 5-6x/week, and they're blue! From comparing notes with other chickeneers, these characteristics seem to prevail among Ameraucanas and EEs.

Syl

 

[noXcuse]

I'm still working on it. And yes, that is a shower drain plumbed in. I poured a concrete floor inside with it sloped to the center. I can open up the big door and rinse it out. I'm also in the process of plumbing feeders and waterers. I'm trying to figure out how to make the waterer freeze-proof. I'm thinking an insulated 5 gallon water cooler with a heated dog dish.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

 

[Sylvester017]

Is that egg really as pink as it looks on my computer? If it is, what breed of chicken laid it? My daughter would LOVE pink eggs.

It is true that a long enough 2x4 on the flat would need some support in the center and perhaps you are correct in your guess as to why people put them in "wrong side up". Time for people to switch to 3" round fence rails. Besides being able to span a longer distance, I notice there is WAY less poop on the rail than on the parallel 2x4 roost.

Bruce

Our Buff Leghorn layed pink shelled eggs (pinkish on the interior of the shell also). If you're interested let me know and I'll contact the breeder to see if they're still breeding them (from the Danne J. Honour line). Mr. Honour has bred his Buff Legs to finally lay white eggs but my breeder who previously bought birds from him still has the pink egg layers. My breeder shipped two 11-12 week old juveniles from the East Coast to the West Coast overnight. Birds were priced reasonable but the shipping cost was high.

Our Black Silkie lays glossy pink (pinkish on the interior shell also) and the Partridge Silkie lays matte very pale pinkish-cream tinted shells. Unless a Silkie breeder can verify their line of birds lays pink the majority of Silkies lay a very light pink-tinted or cream colored egg. We got lucky with our Black Silkie laying the pinkish eggs.

Brown egg layers have white inside their shells (like Marans) but truly pink eggs have a pale pink inside wall as well. The pink pigment seems to be throughout the shell whereas truly brown egg layers have a white shell that is coated in brown pigment on the outer shell and the brown can be washed off. Our pink and pale-tinted eggs will not wash off color.

As for color in photos they always seem to show darker on these threads. Our Ameraucana lays a pale blue but the camera we shot with shows it a deeper brighter blue than in reality. One of the reasons I hate to post pics regarding colors.

I personally like the 3" fence rail for perches since the birds favor the rounded edges on a square-ish pole. We had one in redwood going through two cinderblock holes that the chickens loved using in the yard. I doubt I could talk an Amish manufacturer to fashion one for us in one of their coops. I'm still researching coops or trying to find a local builder. Sometimes mfr coops have a good design but sh***y materials or else there's quality materials but utilizing a lousy design (like nestboxes built outside the coop LOL).

 

[Sylvester017]

This is a place we have rented for 3 yrs now, this old hen house was buried in overgrown saplings and weeds, after years of hard work it is cleared and refenced, for our new flock of chickens

Your fence will keep the chickens inside but it won't keep the predators outside. Anyone else going to chime in on this one?
Nice attempt to make a roomy run and A+ for effort as I love the growing number of chickeneers on this thread but there appears too many security issues with this particular setup in a rural wooded setting.

 

[araminta37]

we have been making sure to lock them up at dusk

 

[Sylvester017]

I placed a tarp over the coop and part of the run to give them shade from the hot sun and protection from the rain. The run is a DIY from a first timer chick grandma - I wish I could make something that looked nicer but I am learning as I go. These are Rhode island Red Pullets

I use tarp over our 4x6 feed-store coop 24/7. Protects from sun and rain damage since our wood is cheap particle wood. Since our coop has 3 open-wire walls we completely tarp the coop except for ventilation on one side. It's good to use the poultry netting from aerial predators but the fence doesn't look strong enough to keep out ground predators. I'm sure you'll invest in more security as you go along. For pre-fab that is one of the cuter coops we looked at a couple years ago. Now if it only was about 3x bigger and stronger-built for our yard!

Think about stronger 1/2 inch hardwire fencing. Even in city neighborhoods the raccoons, possums, loose pet snakes, and stray mutts are a threat to chickens. I've been house-sitting my daughter's place and a raccoon got into the yard and spread trash all over the place. Her dog killed a possum who scampered into the yard in broad daylight! I'm glad it wasn't a skunk! In the afternoon I saw a very big coyote nosing around outside the iron bar fence. Night critters don't hunt just at night any more and it doesn't take them long to sniff where the chickens are!

 

[Sylvester017]

we have been making sure to lock them up at dusk

So I'm not doing a repeat read my post #3910. Security has to be during the daytime as well. But after all this thread's experienced advice it's still your choice.

I like that you got a one-breed flock of RIRs. Because they are assertive and a bigger dual-purpose breed they tend to be alphas in a mixed LF flock - but when they are an all-RIR flock the squabbles will be equal with fair challenges. Not to mention the benefit all those frequently layed XL eggs!

 

[TherryChicken]

Here is an updated picture of ours..

all the panels are done, as well as the floring, now just to get it up and start working on the housing, nesting boxes, and roof