post your chicken coop pictures here!

[TherryChicken]

Been lurking and learning since May, Took 2 months after work and weekends finally finished the Wichita Coop. Highly recommend www.facebook.com/WichitaCabinCoop I purchased their plans and what a help. Super solid perfect size for my 3 yard birds. Will ad more pics later. Rich

beautiful!

 

[Sylvester017]

Yesterday I got rid of the barrels.
We nailed a piece of plywood up to darken the area, and put in some regular nesting boxes.
Now my question is this… do we need to put a tall divider between each nesting box?
Or is just a 2x4 between them ok?

We also traded our bully EE for another Barred Rock.
I took Penny out of 24 hour restriction and the flock seems much more quiet right now.

Thanks to everyone for your help.
Here are a couple of photos of what we did with the nesting boxes.

The darker the better and the higher the divided walls between nests the better. My concern is about rainy blowing wind from the outside open wire wall will get the nesting material damp. Tarp or board up that open wire wall so rain or snow doesn't blow into the nests. It's been 3 years and we're still trying to make improvements as we watch what our hens like or don't like. Sorry about your EE or Penny. Our Ameraucana is one of our sweetest chickens and submits to the 2 Silkies half her size. She is such a gentle girl. But every chicken can be different and a problem one just can't be left in a flock if she causes trouble.

 

[lydzchix]

Been lurking and learning since May, Took 2 months after work and weekends finally finished the Wichita Coop. Highly recommend www.facebook.com/WichitaCabinCoop I purchased their plans and what a help. Super solid perfect size for my 3 yard birds. Will ad more pics later. Rich

Don't you just love their plans! We did the same only enlarged it a few feet Added electricity and poop board. There are pics under my article about it. Good luck with your chicks. Mine are 5 weeks now and have been in the coop for a week. Everything has worked out great!

 

[Sheysd1]

We have finally finished the coop and run. There is a covered run and an open air run behind, which you can't really see in the photos. There is a pop door that leads from the enclosed run to the back run, large enough for the chickens to get through. The people door was just a pre-made door that we picked up at Home Depot. It was too tall so we just cut it down to fit the opening. We placed a solar panel on top of the coop which provides light at night inside the coop and we installed a misting unit in the run as It gets really hot here in the summer months. There are three nest boxes and two storage areas for small items. This chicken house currently houses 6 chickens but



is large enough to accommodate at least 10.

 

[iwiw60]

Nice job and LUV the colors! But I'm confused a little...what is the exact size of the coop itself? I doubt it would house 10, especially during the winter months with the cold and all.

 

[vehve]

Nice job and LUV the colors! But I'm confused a little...what is the exact size of the coop itself? I doubt it would house 10, especially during the winter months with the cold and all.

I'm thinking that the Texas winter isn't all that harsh...

 

[iwiw60]

I'm thinking that the Texas winter isn't all that harsh...

I know that in Texas you won't be getting the harsh winters we do up here, but crowding of hens leads to bad behaviors, fighting, and then it's downhill from there...just thinkin' ...

 

[vehve]

I know that in Texas you won't be getting the harsh winters we do up here, but crowding of hens leads to bad behaviors, fighting, and then it's downhill from there...just thinkin' ...

Yeah, more room is always better. We have cut down to 6 pullets and a baby roo, from having three roo's, and the extra room that made for them really shows.

 

[Denwendairy]

UPDATE to our coop build from earlier this summer!
Well, Chicken math hit us and we are now at maximum capacity for our coop size. We expanded their coop run area by adding another dog run to the back of the coop along with a boardwalk tunnel leading to it! They now have lots of room for those days that we don't get as much free-ranging in.
We have 4 of our original 9 birds left (rest were Roos). Have since added 2 GLW, 4 BO, 3 EE and 2 SF. They spend a lot of their day free ranging, hunting down slugs and creepy-crawlies in my garden and keeping one eye open for any hawks that might fly overhead. Still another month or so before we see any eggs and we can't wait! We love our girls!

About 6 weeks ago, we made a trip to our local Peavey Mart to pick something up completely unrelated to chickens. Well, we happened to arrive there during the two days that they sell heritage chicks! After much deliberation, we returned later that day and chose 6 Barred Rocks, and 1 each of a Light Sussex, Rhode Island Red and a Brown Leghorn. I mean, we live on a farm - how hard can it be to set something up for chickens!? I'm sure many of us have said those words...and then realized how much work it really is!

We've re-homed 4 Roos and bought 3 Buff Orpingtons and 2 gold laced Wyandottes since then- along with a whole lot of construction!

We bought an 8x8 foot used mini- barn off of Kijiji and started renos. We added a window, made the door taller, re- sided with rough sawn lumber, painted the inside to brighten it up, added a chicken door and tunnel to the run, added a framed/hardware cloth roof to our former dog turned rabbit turned chicken run, put on a metal roof, and added a flower bed. We are still going to add eaves troughs but feel like we are just about there!

We have happy little pullets and love how this turned out!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/content/type/61/id/6441298/width/350/height/700
[IMG]https://www.backyardchickens.com/content/type/61/id/6441336/width/350/height/700
[/IMG]

 

[Sylvester017]

UPDATE to our coop build from earlier this summer!
Well, Chicken math hit us and we are now at maximum capacity for our coop size. We expanded their coop run area by adding another dog run to the back of the coop along with a boardwalk tunnel leading to it! They now have lots of room for those days that we don't get as much free-ranging in.
We have 4 of our original 9 birds left (rest were Roos). Have since added 2 GLW, 4 BO, 3 EE and 2 SF. They spend a lot of their day free ranging, hunting down slugs and creepy-crawlies in my garden and keeping one eye open for any hawks that might fly overhead. Still another month or so before we see any eggs and we can't wait! We love our girls!

I love APA Ameraucanas and EEs. Your EEs are absolutely gorgeous - don't you just love them? They are extremely skittish/wary/alert/savvy and for good reason. My jittery kooky spooky klutzy Amer is forever watching the skies and stray cats don't stand a chance in our yard with her chasing them. She was born to be a sentinel and at dusk will not roost with the others until we close the coop door. She'll sit on the nestbox ledge all night until we come home and once the door is shut and tarp cover dropped then she feels secure to go to roost. I also like that she plays nice with the Silkies. Rare to find non-combative LF that are also alert sentinels and excellent layers.

You free range your girls and they look so happy scratching around in the foliage. Good cover for them from aerial predators. We find our visiting hawks will not go after a hiding hen even 5 feet away. Hawks prefer to swoop in an open yard so we've scattered plywood sheets propped on cinderblocks, a couple large recycled doghouses, a pop-up canopy, some old recycled headboards on cinderblocks, benches, old wheelbarrow, and stickery evergreen, rose, and berry bushes for the girls to duck under. The hawks can see them but the girls aren't running because of nearby shelters so the hawks can't swoop on them. I've seen a Cooper's Hawk sitting on our patio furniture looking at our hiding girls but our clever girls won't come out until he's gone. He knows they're there but doesn't go after them - darnedest thing.