post your chicken coop pictures here!

[jtbass2756]

Decided to decorate my board that covers the nest boxes..!! LOL....My dh thinks I have lost my marbles.. I have a before and after picts.. hope you like. I love having fun when I can...

 

[TJordan]

We rescured a White Leghorn 3 years ago and were warned that because Legs are lightweight and nervous in nature that they were flighty and I hastily clipped our Leg's outer flight feathers.  But she was never flighty nor ever wanted to fly out of the yard - are you kidding? - she wanted to stick around where the food and treats were! LOL   I never clipped her wings again after new moult feathers came in and never again clipped any other successive breed added to the flock.  New birds take their cue from the flock so if the flock doesn't fly out of the yard then they won't either - plus we provide a lot of shelters like doghouses, popup canopies, rose bushes, plywood planks raised on cinderblocks, for a multitude of hiding places for our open yard girls that they don't need to fly away for escape.  They hide under all the shelters for their midday snoozes.  Not having enough shelters in an open area is what causes a frightened hen to fly or "go over the wall" so-to-speak.  Some jittery wilder temperament birds like Jaerhon, Lakenvelder, Fayoumi, Brakels, Gull-type breeds (like Campine or Friesian), etc, are usually difficult to confine in open areas and look for the highest vantage points - usually trees.  However the more common layer breeds like Legs, BOs, RIRs, NHRs, BRs, etc, are not necessary to clip.  They will stay in a confined yard especially if there are scattered shelters and always access to feed/water and occasional treats.  All our neighbors have cut down their old trees so there's no temptation for our flock to roost in trees.

 
A couple years later we ordered two jittery jumpy kooky spooky klutzy APA Ameraucanas who as juveniles could fly long distances.  And I was worried to lose expensive rare birds and contacted the breeder about clipping their wings because I really didn't want to mar their appearance or have them escape either.  The breeder said they wouldn't clip the wings and it was for predator safety to be able to fly out of harm's way.  Well we didn't clip those rare birds' wings and though they continued to flap, fly, or jump over into my raised garden bed, at maturity they settled down and knew where THEIR territory was to stay.  Never lost any breed, adult or juvenile, to flight out of the yard or over the wall.  Now these were all LF breeds.  If I had flighty jittery bantams I might consider clipping wings since those little buggers want to fly high up into trees and over walls if there is not netting over their open pens.  This is why we settled on flight-limited Silkies as our free range bantam breed - wing clipping was unnecessary.

Everyone who clips wings believes it is for a good reason or for fear their birds will fly away.  May I ask why you all clipped your chickens' wings? 

Thanks. I have 10 austolorps .... I hear they are good egg and meat birds plus they are good brooders... I hope they are right, but my neighbor asked me to clip wings because his dogs like birds... I hate to have to strangle a chicken killer lol...

 

[TJordan]

Is that brand feed good? We just got a 50lb bag of it...

 

[Olive Oil]

Fancy! I love it!

 

[Latestarter]

Truth be told, I'd be much more worried about the neighbor's dogs breaking and entering your property to kill birds.... Maybe you should tell the neighbor he should clip his dog's legs? or pull their teeth? justsayin'

 

[Olive Oil]

Here are our 3 coops! The brooder coop is inside one of the larger coops so we can let the little guys "out" without letting them out!

 

[jtbass2756]

Is that brand feed good? We just got a 50lb bag of it...

The only kind I've used since I stated keeping my ladies. I did get some chick feed by the same mfg when I had chicks this year but only have one small empty bag left...got to find someplace to put it up! LOL I get the BOSS for my birds as well as treats for my chickens/then one bag is grower/finisher/and one bag is my usual layer crumble.. I've had healthy birds all through this...

 

[tridentk9]

HomeTime today was doing a building with prefab parts. The walls and roof are built in sections at the factory. Cement footings leveled, very important as the sections are squared at factory, then it was 3 hours to put up walls. No scrap or dumpster filling up your yard. I wonder if they do chicken coops

 

[DoubleMM]

Decided to decorate my board that covers the nest boxes..!! LOL....My dh thinks I have lost my marbles.. I have a before and after picts.. hope you like. I love having fun when I can...

Is that brand feed good? We just got a 50lb bag of it...

I find that Dumor makes the chicken poop smell something awful. Otherwise the birds don't seem to have any problem with it. I like to switch it up from bag to bag or mix different types

 

[jtbass2756]

I find that Dumor makes the chicken poop smell something awful. Otherwise the birds don't seem to have any problem with it. I like to switch it up from bag to bag or mix different types

Maybe its because I use PDZ that I haven't noticed or maybe because I haven't tried others...always worried that switching around might really upset their digesting and cause problems with the poop thing! ??