post your chicken coop pictures here!

[junior62]

Yes

...

Very pretty.

Question - is the hardwire buried in the ground for predator proofing?  Otherwise a paver stone walkway all around the base of the pen would be advisable. 

And invest in a good umbrella for rainy days when raising the lid on the nestbox or add an awning over the nestbox.  Damp bedding will be a health hazard.  Collecting eggs from a nestbox isn't always convenient to wait until the rain stops.  We had a hen that would've been an egg eater if we didn't collect eggs immediately every morning rain or shine. 

A couple more cement stones to connect with your home sidewalk will help during rain. 

A drop-down ventilation lid in one of the walls with hardwire screen is advisable for when temps or humidity gets really high.  We had 100% humidity in a heatwave - flukey weather for our area - and had to open up the coop because the chickens were so miserable during the night.  We took turns sitting by the sliding door watching the coop all through the night with all the doors and nestboxes open and still had to bring one chicken inside she was panting in such distress.

Other than some minor safety adjustments your coop is absolutely eye-appealing.  If it were my property I would be so tempted to give the hens free range with all that lovely foliage to hide/snooze under LOL!  Just gorgeous!


Thank you for liking the coop. I will post better photos later. Yes. The construction wire was run out 18 inches from the runs and then I put sod down to finish it off neatly. I plan putting an adjoining walkway to the garage soon. Thanks for the heads up on the cover during egg collection. I am vented in the upper rear of the coop as well as the lower rear corners. My octagon window can be taken out and I have a mesh octagon I can lock in for those extreme muggy times. Good to air it out also. When we are out in the yard we open the front lower door and they come and go as the please , they seem to like to roam through the bushes pecking away. They don't go very far. We've got 4 reds and 4 meat kings. Not a huge fan of the kings. Not very mobile. This is our first crack at chickens. My wife thinks I may have gone a tad bit overboard on the coop design and size. The coop is a raised 4x6 with two 3 x 8 runs attached as well. Seems to be lots of square footage for them. I took full construction photos from start to finish. ( that's if I ever really finish...lol)... Thanks again for the like!!

 

[junior62]

Thank you for liking the coop. I will post better photos later. Yes. The construction wire was run out 18 inches from the runs and then I put sod down to finish it off neatly. I plan putting an adjoining walkway to the garage soon. Thanks for the heads up on the cover during egg collection. I am vented in the upper rear of the coop as well as the lower rear corners. My octagon window can be taken out and I have a mesh octagon I can lock in for those extreme muggy times. Good to air it out also. When we are out in the yard we open the front lower door and they come and go as the please , they seem to like to roam through the bushes pecking away. They don't go very far. We've got 4 reds and 4 meat kings. Not a huge fan of the kings. Not very mobile. This is our first crack at chickens. My wife thinks I may have gone a tad bit overboard on the coop design and size. The coop is a raised 4x6 with two 3 x 8 runs attached as well. Seems to be lots of square footage for them. I took full construction photos from start to finish. ( that's if I ever really finish...lol)... Thanks again for the like!!

 

[Sylvester017]

the dimensions of tje individual coops are 10x10, and each run os 10x15-20 depends on material cost, this space will be more than efficient for 25 in each coop, ( note: there are 2) there will 2 industrial sized fans fpr good air circulation not to mention 5 open but covered windows per coop, if smell is an issue, then its because there is a metric ton of poop, and i need to get off my lazy butt and clean it, but i dont see that ever happening. I thank you fo r ypu input, that is a good factor to consider, one that i took deep thought on when drawing these blueprints.

Sometimes these posts are so brief that the whole story is not in print. Cool that you put thought into the coop plans.

Since we went through such a miserable humid week I've been especially aware of ventilation and fresh air issues.

I'm still of the feeling that 25+ overall is better than 50+ even with divided coops. When 1000 sq ft for a year's free-range is recommended for each chicken I figured in our approximate 15 x 60 yard with an additional 4x50 side yard it won't be enough for 5 free-range birds - they will totally have decimated the greens/foliage and re-sowing will have to take place. I can't imagine confining them to less space than that especially in an enclosed coop/pen arrangement. Owners say their chickens are happy but chickens have no choice but to make the best of how their owners keep them. In crowded conditions chickens will get aggressive. But that's just me - one person's opinion - which is why I love BYC posts!

 

[Sylvester017]

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...

I didn't think heavy 'Lorps or their cousins the BOs could fly that well. But then we had a 7-lb heavy Marans clear an 8-foot barrier to rejoin her sisters when we wanted to isolate her from the rest of the flock so maybe that is a good idea to clip in your case.

If it keeps your neighbor happy that's important also. Our neighbor's old Chow-Chow sleeps against the chainlink fence with our chickens cuddled up against him on the other side. Talk about strange bedfellows!

 

[Sylvester017]

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

Whatever coop you build/assemble just make sure it's not OSB or that particle board stuff as many pre-fabs are cheap quality materials. Even if painted they could still get moisture somehow and start to warp. It's what we have now and for 3 years have had to take extra pains to keep it alive. Our next coop is B-N-B pine board with stain and sealer - better to seal pine 2-3 times in 10 years than to paint particle board or OSB and hope nothing crumbles, molds, or warps year-to-year. Just MHO.

 

[Sylvester017]

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!

Nice framework but as you may be familiar I'm not a fan of 1-inch flimsy poultry wire and that's what it looks like on my screen. Needs paver stone walkway around the perimeter of the pens against digging critters. Poultry wire is not interlinked and comes apart with hardly any effort as we found out when two mutts broke our fence gate and attacked our poultry wire coop. Lucky a neighbor intervened and saved our chickens. Poultry wire is just a wasted expense. The rest of your coops' framework is great but eventually plan on hardwire right over the poultry wire so you don't have to tear out anything already existing. Do you have plans for shielding the walls from inclement weather?

 

[Sylvester017]

Thank you for liking the coop. I will post better photos later. Yes. The construction wire was run out 18 inches from the runs and then I put sod down to finish it off neatly. I plan putting an adjoining walkway to the garage soon. Thanks for the heads up on the cover during egg collection. I am vented in the upper rear of the coop as well as the lower rear corners. My octagon window can be taken out and I have a mesh octagon I can lock in for those extreme muggy times. Good to air it out also. When we are out in the yard we open the front lower door and they come and go as the please , they seem to like to roam through the bushes pecking away. They don't go very far. We've got 4 reds and 4 meat kings. Not a huge fan of the kings. Not very mobile. This is our first crack at chickens. My wife thinks I may have gone a tad bit overboard on the coop design and size. The coop is a raised 4x6 with two 3 x 8 runs attached as well. Seems to be lots of square footage for them. I took full construction photos from start to finish. ( that's if I ever really finish...lol)... Thanks again for the like!!

Are meat kings like Cornish X's ? A friend of ours raised a dozen and two were killed by Crows right through their cage because the meat bird chicks were so indolent - she wouldn't have lost the chicks if her cage had the smaller 1/2-inch hardwire. Cornish Xs grow too fast and have to be processed by 8 weeks or they start really laboring trying to move about. I've heard stories of them dying of thirst because they couldn't walk 10-feet to their waterer. Try some traditional dual purpose breed varieties next - that way you'll have eggs for a couple years before processing them for table meat. Love your coop and the additional amenities you described re: ventilation!

 

[TJordan]

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'

We are planing to put up a 6' privacy fence with chicken wire another foot deep... Hurry up tax season, or at least I could win 10k lol... Who wants to donate to my fence funds lol...

 

[TJordan]

...

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! What size is that A-Frame? We plan to build one like this but we need room for at least 10... More once the babies start coming but we can build another later lol..

 

[khakimamma]