post your chicken coop pictures here!

[Sylvester017]

This is our fenced enclosure around a kit coop. The fence is only high enough if I keep everyone's wings clipped. But they seem happy. We have 4 chickens at the moment, no plans to go over that number.

4 layers are perfect for a family. Easier to keep up the health preventative maintenance like organic Poultry Protector for lice/mite prevention and worming a couple times a year. Too many hens makes health maintenance a chore rather than fun. We have 3 hens but 2 are broody Silkies so we have to get 2 more non-broody layers next year. Still 3 has been a nice number to get eggs continually throughout the year. Even with 2 broody Silkies and an Ameraucana we've got 2-1/2 dozen eggs waiting in the fridge to get used! I've just been too lazy to bake in this heatwave!

How big is your enclosure? Do your ladies get any backyard free range time? Yard access keeps them busy running around and foraging to keep their svelt figure

 

[Sylvester017]

This is my coop. I have yet to paint it. We built it the end of May - Beginning of June of this year. Im thinking of painting it dark gray or some shade of blue with white trim. But we'll see.

This coop houses seven hens. The run is 8x10 ft and the coop is 3.5x8 ft

Absolutely too magnificent a build to use cheap poultry wire over the sturdy frame. Poultry wire is not interlinked and pushes apart easily as we found out when two stray dogs broke down our yard gate and attacked our coop mangling the cheap poultry wire - a good neighbor chased them off. All us chickeneers will suggest 1/2-inch hardwire over that poultry wire. You never knew you had wildlife (especially raccoons) until you get chickens. We live in the city and it's steeped in wildlife like oppossums, raccoons, rats, hawks, dogs, cats, etc. We also layed a paver stone walkway/patio completely around the coop to keep out digging predators. See my prior post #5041

 

[Sylvester017]

Different areas of the U.S. have different wildlife but the one growing menace common in every rural and city community is the American Raccoon that is propagating like roaches and getting smarter surviving in cities, housing developments, and any place that has food or hiding places for them - trash cans, chickens and eggs, fruit groves, vegetable gardens, city sewers, alleys, easy-to-squeeze into garages, sheds, coops, and even homes using pet doors to access inside houses to eat pet food or kitchen pantries, etc. They do damage in the millions if the U.S. damage was inclusively totaled from the Southern U.S. all the way to Alaska. They are too clever where ordinary barriers and fences keep out most wildlife the American Raccoon figures ways to get around these barriers to do their damage. What's worse is that they are aggressive not backing down from humans or other animals. And they love to kill for the sheer pleasure of the frenzy and not necessarily for food. I heard the distinct chittering sounds of a Raccoon just this late evening and my DH and I are trying to figure where we can get a trap to catch the bas*#%d !!!! I don't want it breeding 6 more kits this year!

I think it's gone - probably the raccoon road-kill we saw this past week!

 

[Sylvester017]

I would love a chunk of land with a barn or old shead to build my coop... A little house, space to let the kids run free....

who wants to give me 50 acres ?

50 acres? The taxes aren't worth it! We have an acre of undeveloped land and it pains us to pay taxes on it!

 

[Sylvester017]

Finally got it close to finished.... Nothing is ever finished at my place.... Total about 270 sq. ft. for 7 hens and 1 roo... about 33 sq. ft. per bird... For the complete build file, click on "MY COOP" in my profile.... All of the ideas for the build came from folks build ideas and pictures on this forum.... Thanks to everyone and their ideas.....

Cheap poultry wire on the rest of your magnificent build? It will keep the chickens inside the pen but certainly won't keep wildlife outside the pen. Raccoons are manipulative and tenacious. They'll love that cheap poultry wire on the pen. Our raccoons are getting so bold in our city neighborhood they're coming out during the daytime! Our cheap poultry wire was mangled by a couple stray dogs that broke down our yard gate. We have two gates now to keep out the stray dogs but nothing will keep out raccoons - they're too crafty climbing block walls, stucco houses, rain gutters, opening simple locks, opening windows and doors, pulling apart poultry wire, squeezing through doors using their collapsing spines and teaching their kits how to do it all too.

Wonderful paver stone walkway. That kind of walkway kept the two stray mutts from digging under my coop when they attacked. A neighbor managed to chase them off for me.

 

[Sylvester017]

Thank you! The EE's and SF's are the newest to our flock and they didn't get a lot of people attention at their first home. They have started to warm up to us but are definitely wary, like you mention! They are definitely gorgeous and its fairly comical how they seem to take themselves so seriously! We keep a fairly watchful eye on them when free ranging- we may not have the snakes and rats of the Southern States but we do have a lot of coyotes! It sounds like your birds have the hawks figured out!

Speaking of hawks - today our 3 girls spotted the Cooper's Hawk (chicken hawk) sitting on the telephone pole behind the backyard and all 3 girls dove into the big doghouse until he was gone. He just won't go after the hiding hens. Our numerous backyard shelters are not all beautiful but they sure help keep the girls safe!

 

[Sylvester017]

I was just showing the places where my chickens like to stay. There are a couple other pictures I took but they somehow got lost when I tried transferring them. when I took those photos the chickens, ducks, quails,etc. were under a giant maple tree low to the ground with just enough space only for them to crawl under.The branches under the tree are also many and sometimes when the chickens don't go in right away, I know one of them probably flew up to high in the branches and got stuck. We let our chickens out in the morning, making sure no early bird eaters are waiting, then let them out and they automatically go back in to roost, us closing the coop door. we also have a little bin for the chicks; and as they get older we move them to the chicken trailer where they grow to be pullets, then at night, we put them in the coop. Its funny, they never seem to leave the area we put them in. Must be because they are a little weary of their surroundings. But in all, my chickens have the same patterns as yours and if you find something about this habit, by all means!! Lets me know!

There's not much to guess why chickens do what they do - some things are easy to figure and other habits not so easy. Today we had a Cooper's Hawk (chicken hawk) sitting on the backyard telephone pole (he can't sit in a tree since we and all our neighbors chopped down our trees) so all 3 of our girls dove into the large doghouse and wouldn't come out til the hawk was gone and then they stayed in the coop the rest of the day. They only came out when I started to garden and felt safe I was out there with them. As soon as I went into the house they headed for the safety of their coop again. I have a lot of shelters in the backyard like plywood boards on cinderblocks, a recycled headboard propped on cinderblocks, a wheelbarrow, a couple large covered doghouses, a pop-up canopy, and some stickery rose bushes. They hang out under these things whenever they aren't foraging. I don't keep a large open area/yard and spread plants and shelters all around so the hens don't have to run far to hide/snooze during the day. You have a nice yard for ducks, quails, etc - my yard is too small for any more than 5 chickens since half the yard is fenced vegetable raised beds.

 

[bigmrg74]

So you had your feed in a Rubbermaid trash can instead of galvanized?

I know what you mean by digging their way to India! What I did was I took some scrap 2x12's, cut them about 4' long and made a "raised" dust bath for them. I then took a bag of peat moss and 2 containers of woodstove ash I had saved up, mixed them in, and voila! They absolutely love it! In this pic you can just see the dust bath off in the corner:


just an idea for you!

I like that idea. Might have to try it in my coop.

 

[Sylvester017]

So you had your feed in a Rubbermaid trash can instead of galvanized?

I know what you mean by digging their way to India! What I did was I took some scrap 2x12's, cut them about 4' long and made a "raised" dust bath for them. I then took a bag of peat moss and 2 containers of woodstove ash I had saved up, mixed them in, and voila! They absolutely love it! In this pic you can just see the dust bath off in the corner:


just an idea for you!

Metal galvanized can with a locking lid is the only way to go for feed storage and we keep it in the garage so raccoons don't sniff it out in the backyard!

We had a 4x4 raised cedar garden bed that we never used since I made the garden bigger than originally planned so we used it to set up a dust-bath under our pop-up canopy. When it rains the canopy keeps the dust dry and during heatwaves it offers a cool shady retreat - especially if we dampen the dust a little. At night we cover the box with a screen so stray cats don't use it as litter.

 

[DaveOmak]

Cheap poultry wire on the rest of your magnificent build? It will keep the chickens inside the pen but certainly won't keep wildlife outside the pen. Raccoons are manipulative and tenacious. They'll love that cheap poultry wire on the pen. Our raccoons are getting so bold in our city neighborhood they're coming out during the daytime! Our cheap poultry wire was mangled by a couple stray dogs that broke down our yard gate. We have two gates now to keep out the stray dogs but nothing will keep out raccoons - they're too crafty climbing block walls, stucco houses, rain gutters, opening simple locks, opening windows and doors, pulling apart poultry wire, squeezing through doors using their collapsing spines and teaching their kits how to do it all too.

Wonderful paver stone walkway. That kind of walkway kept the two stray mutts from digging under my coop when they attacked. A neighbor managed to chase them off for me.

Under the pavers is 2 x 3 welded wire..... above the metal roof panels, at the bottom of the "cheap chicken wire" is an electric fencing wire at 9,000 volts...... The "cheap chicken wire" and roofing panels are grounded to the ground side of the electric fencer...




We don't have raccoons here.... our neighbors are 1/4 mile away and one of them shoots all stray dogs and coyotes.. they kill his calves during calving season...
My thoughts are, each individual has to evaluate what threats are present and build accordingly....
Thanks for your thoughts.......