post your chicken coop pictures here!

[TherryChicken]

Oh man, im so sorry. It hard to lose them, especially when youve raised them from chicks

 

[Sylvester017]

I'm starting to believe that's what's happening with ours. After a hard rain the floor is wet and there is no explanation. Rafters are dry... So where's it coming from?

Check all the internal wall crevices to see if moisture is coming from a side wall gap or crack or else the coop isn't lifted enough off the ground so that rainwater seeps in. That's why you see so many coops raised on legs or skids to keep running ground water out. Our small 4x6 coop has an open dirt floor bottom and set on a paver stone patio. We lifted the coop on treated flat lumber boards about 3x2-inch boards left over from our house remodel and they were perfect to set the coop base on top of them and those boards keep the rain water running off and away from the base so the dirt floor stays dry - we added a tarp cover over the coop roof and sides and also a popup canopy overhead and no more rain problems.

Rain is another reason I love large extended roofs overhanging the external nestboxes and over the people door entrances. There are huge 12x12 gazebos and straight-leg canopies or covered pergolas that can be buried or concreted to the ground to cover a coop if you wanted something that looked nicer than a cheap popup canopy. Someone on this thread situated their little coop for two chickens in their covered lanai patio just outside their back door so rain will never be an issue for them and the 2 chickens free range the yard.

Cheap tarp and canopies works for us for the time being. We are slowly redoing the yard to replace eyesores but for now the chickens' comfort is first and then appearances second

 

[Flutterbee]

My ugly old coop that we will be working on soon (And my broody hen on her eggs)

 

[iwiw60]

Quote: Don't feel alone, @Orpie !! Yesterday afternoon we had a series of really heavy thunderstorms roll through...the worst I've ever seen and I've lived here almost 30 years! The rain, uh...DELUGE, that came down lasted almost 45 minutes and in that time we got almost 6" of rain!! By the time it was all said and done it was getting too dark to really 'check' the coop and run. So today when I got home from work I blocked off the pop hole entrance and opened up the coop.....O - M - G !!!! The floor bedding (pine shavings) was soaked in spots; in front of the double-door entrance, the pop hole entrance, and for some reason back on the north wall that's under the roost/poop tray! Fortunately it is sunny and warm today and I have re-sealed the outside perimeter where the walls meet the flooring, but I'll have to wait til tomorrow to do a 'fix' for the wetness experienced at the pop hole. Reason rain came down that outside wall of the coop is because of the limited roof overhang (part of the LifetimeShed the way it's built) and the roof line of the run that butts up to it. There's a 'gap' of sorts and so tomorrow I'll pitstop at Ace Hardware and pick up an 8' length of 8" flashing, bend up 2" along the length, and shove it in and up and fasten with screws and fender washers.....WHAT A DAY IT'S BEEN! I hope your water probs are getting fixed, too!!

 

[Sylvester017]

My happy birds are finally wandering around and not huddling under the coop lol...

Nice roomy yard! So glad to see free-ranging hens.

Set up a couple or more plywood plank shelters on cinderblocks around the yard or a couple large doghouses or popup canopy buried/staked to the ground for hiding/snoozing from aerial predators. Hawks are quick to dive after open foraging hens so the girls need scattered shelters every few feet so they aren't running prey in a large open yard.

We have set up 3 low shelters, an old recycled wheelbarrow, 2 doghouses (with a straw floor to make cleaning up poop easier), a popup canopy and an old reclaimed headboard on cinderblocks for our girls to use during the day no mater what part of the yard they're in. Noticed in your photos how your girls are either near or under the coop or huddled against a fence as a natural instinct for a shady hideout. We've seen the Cooper's Hawk sitting on our patio furniture not more than 5 feet from a hiding hen and he would not go after her. Hawks prefer the open spaces of a yard to swoop on running hens. In 3 years there hasn't been one Cooper's Hawk to get one of our hiding girls.

Our girls hug the fence and house walls when snoozing so those are the places we set up the low plywood shelters and a canopy with a doghouse under it in the middle of the yard. In hot weather we set up an Orbit Mister under the shade of the canopy and the girls will spend nearly the whole day under there with a doghouse closeby to dive into - I once saw our 4 hens simultaneously dive into a doghouse when the Cooper's Hawk was on the fence above them. After watching this phenomenon for the last 3 years I'm a firm believer in a lot of low shelters for hens - they love to hide in wood piles also but that only attracts spiders and rodents (but then those are chickens' favourite delicacies LOL).

Once a year we replace a worn popup canopy top with a new tarp fastened down with camping ball ties and it looks almost as nice as the more expensive replacement canopy cover. The metal frames of popup canopies are good for years anchored to the ground but the canopy tops wear out from sun and wind damage. Right before rainy season begins we replace the cover with a fresh new tarp each year. To give the girls a dry dust bath area we are putting a raised 4x4 cedar garden bed under the canopy so the girls will have plenty of dry dirt during sprinkling weather. They won't need it in a downpour as they love to cavort around in the mud puddles in heavier rains to catch all the yummy swimming worms! My hens dislike and run from the splashes of my watering hose yet they'll forage in pouring rain all day without blinking an eye. Go figure?

Your door for the chickens to enter the coop could blow shut. Figure a way to keep it securely open. Our coop door blew shut in a bad wind and the hens couldn't go to roost. They all huddled into a doghouse!

 

[TJordan]

Nice roomy yard!  So glad to see free-ranging hens. 

Set up a couple or more plywood plank shelters on cinderblocks around the yard or a couple large doghouses or popup canopy buried/staked to the ground for hiding/snoozing from aerial predators.  Hawks are quick to dive after open foraging hens so the girls need scattered shelters every few feet so they aren't running prey in a large open yard.  

We have set up 3 low shelters, an old recycled wheelbarrow, 2 doghouses (with a straw floor to make cleaning up poop easier), a popup canopy and an old reclaimed headboard on cinderblocks for our girls to use during the day no mater what part of the yard they're in.  Noticed in your photos how your girls are either near or under the coop or huddled against a fence as a natural instinct for a shady hideout.  We've seen the Cooper's Hawk sitting on our patio furniture not more than 5 feet from a hiding hen and he would not go after her.  Hawks prefer the open spaces of a yard to swoop on running hens.  In 3 years there hasn't been one Cooper's Hawk to get one of our hiding girls. 

Our girls hug the fence and house walls when snoozing so those are the places we set up the low plywood shelters and a canopy with a doghouse under it in the middle of the yard.  In hot weather we set up an Orbit Mister under the shade of the canopy and the girls will spend nearly the whole day under there with a doghouse closeby to dive into - I once saw our 4 hens simultaneously dive into a doghouse when the Cooper's Hawk was on the fence above them.  After watching this phenomenon for the last 3 years I'm a firm believer in a lot of low shelters for hens - they love to hide in wood piles also but that only attracts spiders and rodents (but then those are chickens' favourite delicacies LOL).

Once a year we replace a worn popup canopy top with a new tarp fastened down with camping ball ties and it looks almost as nice as the more expensive replacement canopy cover.  The metal frames of popup canopies are good for years anchored to the ground but the canopy tops wear out from sun and wind damage.  Right before rainy season begins we replace the cover with a fresh new tarp each year.  To give the girls a dry dust bath area we are putting a raised 4x4 cedar garden bed under the canopy so the girls will have plenty of dry dirt during sprinkling weather.  They won't need it in a downpour as they love to cavort around in the mud puddles in heavier rains to catch all the yummy swimming worms!  My hens dislike and run from the splashes of my watering hose yet they'll forage in pouring rain all day without blinking an eye.  Go figure?

Your door for the chickens to enter the coop could blow shut.  Figure a way to keep it securely open.  Our coop door blew shut in a bad wind and the hens couldn't go to roost.  They all huddled into a doghouse!

Great idea!!! I like that idea! I'll make some in the morning... It started raining and I had to get my kids to help round the birds up lol... Got two wise girls, and they hide :cd

Fun getting those two.. I'll mark them with bands and try to get them first from now on lol..l

 

[Sylvester017]

Had some visitors last night. They made a mess but all of my ladies are ok. Had to have been a dog of some sort...take a look and see if you see anything you recognize.

That feed bucket that's turned over was empty already. They did not get into any of my feed, etc. Broke my two landscape

lights.

Raccons are notorious for this type of damage - looks like the same kind of mess one did in my daughter's yard when I house-sat. I was picking up trash for an hour all over the yard because there is no way it was a dog - Coyotes come around her property but can't and never have gotten in. However Coons are so nimble with their manipulative paws along with collapsing spines to squeeze through small places, climb rain gutters, climb block or stucco walls, etc. It's hard to imagine a 20-40 lb animal being so strong to do that kind of damage. I watched a documentary on the American Raccoon and they become more clever and nimble with each succeeding generation and teach their kits these clever new innovations. A Raccoon's litter can be from 4-6 kits and the dutiful mother forces the kits to learn her secrets of manipulation, opening locks, finding loose wires and boards to tear open a small entrance, squeeze between doors to enter barns, coops, and sheds, etc. In Ontario Canada a Raccoon broke through a front door to viciously attack a man in own his living room! Even in the city alleyways Raccoons will not give up their status and hog the space from stray cats and rodents. They are becoming more aggressive coming out during the daytime now. The American Raccoon has populated from Southern America to Alaska. In Japan the imported and now feral American Raccons have so overpopulated the forests as to begin damaging Japan's historical temples with feces and urine rotting the wood and collapsing structures - there's an active program established to eradicate Japan's Raccoon populations. Chicago and Ontario Canada have the most severe city Raccoon problems and only getting worse everywhere in the U.S. Your landscape lights were probably broken because Raccoons are curious creatures and love taking things apart. They don't always kill chickens for food either but love the frenzy of killing just for the chase!

 

[Sylvester017]

My ugly old coop that we will be working on soon (And my broody hen on her eggs)

You are keeping chickens the way most people do - getting the chickens first and worrying about secure housing afterwards. Read my post #4939 about Raccoons. Just because you haven't seen wild critters around the property doesn't mean you don't have any and Raccoons are probably the most troublesome because of their easy manipulation of digging and tearing. For protection from digging critters like coyotes, dogs, wild pigs, foxes, weasels, raccoons, oppossums, wild rabbits, etc, is your hardwire buried in the ground? If not, make a paver stone walkway or use property boulders to line the outside perimeter of your gate and pen frame. Cover the bottom half or all of the coop pen with 1/2 inch hardwire - you don't want sagging roof wire. Where's the perch for the chicken's to use? Yes, I agree you have tons more to do with upcoming hatchlings to add on top of everything else that's not done. I love that you want chickens but rodents will love entering that broody's ground nest to eat her eggs. Broody hens are so unaware that if a rodent is under her she'll just think it's a hatching chick. If you can swing recycling some old wood make a raised coop house and attach the pen in your photos as a run next to the new coop but modify the pen with 1/2 inch hardwire - 1/2 inch hardwire will be the MOST expensive part of the build but necessary for the hens' protection.

May I say that your coop is not "ugly" as you state - just unsafe for housing chickens. Hope you can swing more modifications to make the chikens secure.

 

[TJordan]

Nice roomy yard!  So glad to see free-ranging hens. 

Set up a couple or more plywood plank shelters on cinderblocks around the yard or a couple large doghouses or popup canopy buried/staked to the ground for hiding/snoozing from aerial predators.  Hawks are quick to dive after open foraging hens so the girls need scattered shelters every few feet so they aren't running prey in a large open yard.  
......

Your door for the chickens to enter the coop could blow shut.  Figure a way to keep it securely open.  Our coop door blew shut in a bad wind and the hens couldn't go to roost.  They all huddled into a doghouse!

I've put a piece of string attached to a skrew to keep it from slamming... Thanks for pointing that out... It's fixed now

 

[Sylvester017]

I knew that when I saw my moms dog had broke her chain, that seeing all my birds un harmed was too good to be true... dang im so sorry, ill pay for the damage LMBO (im very glad that whatever it was left your birds alone! When my mom destroied my flock a few times before getting it dog proof, had upset me terribly. The last time i was in so much fear, i actually screamed and cried for my mom. My mom had to hold me. That is untill she saw a bird running and chaised it down hollering at our dogs. Sadly i was so shocked that i stood there shaking and crying. I had to have my mom stay up wi th me till I fell asleep. I was so scared. Took me about a month to beable to go to sleep easily again. The thing was it was late at night or early morning. Pitch black. All I saw was feeders n waterers going everywhere and heard screaching screams. Shined the light and I saw this HUGE dog. Turned out it was my moms german shephared. She looked toward the light and her eyes were huge and blood red, from the light I guess, and my mom and I both saw th e devil in her. That was the first time I saw the devil and I was petrified. Everyone was like no she was just in the mode.. no you had to have been there to see it. Then after fighting my moms dog out, yes fighting her out. I shined the light and I saw all feathers and a chicken or two and I screamed and thats when it started. In the morning all of my birds were dead, necked broken, viciously killed. Turns out only 4 chickens survived. All of my moms birds. I was just glad some survived. ) so sorry for the long rant. Once again, very glad your birds are ok

I am a firm believer in an animal is an animal is an animal and primal instincts unexpectedly emerge in domesticated pets. Heard one owner who trusted their dog and cat around chickens for 7 years and then one day they returned home to find both the dog and the cat had broken into the chicken pen and killed the whole flock - didn't eat them - just killed them all. This is one reason we did not invest in a pet dog or cat. I think I have my hands full enough protecting the chickens from the city raccoons, oppossums, and rodents with security lights and 1/2 inch hardwire over the cheap 1-inch poultry wire that originally came with our coop. 2 stray dogs (one was a German Shepherd) broke our yard gate and attacked our new 4x6 coop and mangled the cheap chicken wire but a neighbor chased off the mutts and saved my little flock. It was good we had a paver stone walkway around the coop or they might've dug under it too. It's sad to lose any pet but losing chickens from brutal vicious pet attacks is the worse! There are a few good guard/herd dogs that are good with flocks of poultry and most of them are mountain herding breeds like Ovcharka, Malinois, Sarplininac, Italian Mountain Dogs, etc that are specifically raised/trained as flock guardians - other dogs like German Shepherds, Dobermans, Rotts, Labs, etc are best at police type guard duty that's not around livestock!