post your chicken coop pictures here!

[Sylvester017]

It is a work in progress, two of three walls up so far.

Nice, Rooster! With all the predator-friendly forest around the coop it looks like you are off to a solid safe beginning!!! Use a heavy paver stone walkway around the foundation to deter digging varmints -- a paver walkway to set our coop on top of the stones kept out a couple of stray digging dogs. I love the barn-red color and white trim! I've been indecisive about whether to go with a neutral beige or a zippy barn-red for our next coop. We're still on the fence about color. It took us about a year just to decide on a coop manufacturer but they offer color choices - beige, medium blue, bright red, lemony yellow, and sage green. Decisions, decisions! Thanks for the photos!

 

[Sylvester017]

Beautiful! Love the blue with white trim!

You may need to treat/paint/coat the particle board walls really well. After 3 years our walls didn't do well and we're so disappointed because we love the design. Our coop was already custom-built assembled when we bought it so we didn't have a say in the materials used. I know plywood is more expensive but it lasts better against moisture and chicken contact. Our next coop will not have OSB.

BTW I like the gentle slope of your chicken ramp with ample width.

 

[crc310]

We recently were given a modified shed/coop. It's 10'x10' wood shed with a window and sliding door. The previous owner put 3 low roosts in. There is no ventilation though. Even with the frigid temps, I keep the window open 2-3" and the sliding door cracked 1" to help vent the moisture. In spring I want to add vents up high, raise the roosts, add a door to the run, paint the wood trim and get better nest boxes. Until the weather gets nicer, this will have to do!

 

[Sylvester017]

We recently were given a modified shed/coop. It's 10'x10' wood shed with a window and sliding door. The previous owner put 3 low roosts in. There is no ventilation though. Even with the frigid temps, I keep the window open 2-3" and the sliding door cracked 1" to help vent the moisture. In spring I want to add vents up high, raise the roosts, add a door to the run, paint the wood trim and get better nest boxes. Until the weather gets nicer, this will have to do!

That is a lovely gift to receive. If you keep the window open for ventilation is there a screwed on wire mesh heavier than just a window screen to keep out predators? And in the winter when food is scarce predators may find your chickens an easy target to reach through the unlocked door. Raccoons are especially adept at climbing walls, rain gutters, and can easily open unsecured doors and windows. They are strong for their size and like to tear apart poultry not just for food but for the sheer thrill of the chase. Your ventilation additions will be a great needed modification.

 

[crc310]

It really was a great gift! A guy down the road knocked on our door with a hen under his arm. Said she was AGAIN the sole survivor. They no longer wanted to deal with chickens anymore and needed a home for her. He picked the right house! Our chickens are all rescues and will be buried as they pass away. He offered us his coop too! He even helped us bring it home. He used his truck and trailer with a few of our friends/ family helping and hauled it a mile down the road to our house! Thank you for your concerns about the coons We do have coon around here and some may even live in our tree line... I have hardware cloth stapled and screwed over the window and a piece of wood on top of the window (on the inside) so it can't be opened further than 3" The sliding door takes a lot to open it. I can't do it with one hand! To open it, you must put one hand above the handle and one below for it to slide in the track I like the sliding doors for the winter as it has a green house effect and allows it to warm a little more with the sun but I know when it gets warmer out, it will be very bad. Thinking of adding another window for cross breeze in the summer too since I won't be able to leave the door open. Probably covering most o the door on the inside with a cheap second hand light colored flat sheet that I can throw out once they get messy. The shed did not have a floor so we placed 14"x14" patio blocks, that stick out a few inches past the shed. No tunneling under either!

 

[RoosterCogburn7]

Nice, Rooster! With all the predator-friendly forest around the coop it looks like you are off to a solid safe beginning!!! Use a heavy paver stone walkway around the foundation to deter digging varmints -- a paver walkway to set our coop on top of the stones kept out a couple of stray digging dogs. I love the barn-red color and white trim! I've been indecisive about whether to go with a neutral beige or a zippy barn-red for our next coop. We're still on the fence about color. It took us about a year just to decide on a coop manufacturer but they offer color choices - beige, medium blue, bright red, lemony yellow, and sage green. Decisions, decisions! Thanks for the photos!

I have a cement slab inside. Though there is a decisive gap on that wall, between the slab and the wall. I plan on putting down a gutter as that is the wall I am going to put the waterer and feeder, and any excess I wanted to be able to clean out. On the back wall in the interior will be the roost, and the opposite wall (next project) will be the egg box. I have never built a coop before. My 6 EE's are in a converted dog kennel. The south side will be an enclosed run for about 15 yards. I plan on putting in a screen door large enough that I can get the wheel barrel in and rake out the dirty hay and bring in new.

The coop is tall enough that a 6'5 man can walk in and not bang his head.

 

[Free Feather]

We recently were given a modified shed/coop. It's 10'x10' wood shed with a window and sliding door. The previous owner put 3 low roosts in. There is no ventilation though. Even with the frigid temps, I keep the window open 2-3" and the sliding door cracked 1" to help vent the moisture. In spring I want to add vents up high, raise the roosts, add a door to the run, paint the wood trim and get better nest boxes. Until the weather gets nicer, this will have to do!

Laser-eyed alien chicken creeping in the rafters...

 

[islandgirl82]

Hamburgs are gorgeous! If they weren't so self-willed and on the wilder temperament side it was a breed I was considering for their foraging skills and good egg production along with the prolific Jaerhons, Spitzhauben, and Icelandics. But alas these breeds along with Fayoumis and Campine-colored gull breeds were too overly active for our gentle backyard flock mix. It's difficult to train these self-willed types to stay put. It can be done but takes more effort on the owner's part and they especially don't do their best in coop or tractor confinement. Mediterranean class breeds (like Leghorns, etc) fit in the active category but can be more readily trained - except that Meds are assertive/aggressive breeds in flock politics and are considered more shy of human contact. There are so many gorgeous and prolific breeds to choose from but just takes knowledge about what environment and/or climate fits them the best and what the owner prefers - pets and/or utility birds. Like your Hamburgs the Leghorns are considered flighty birds yet I never found them hard to train - they are intelligent alert birds and learned and respected our yard boundaries and were tame enough to jump into our lap as long as we didn't pet them - our only issue with these wonderful birds was that they were overly assertive with non-combative breeds within the flock.

When I had made the decision to expand my flock last spring and came across the Hamburg while researching various breeds, I had decided, despite their beauty they were definitely NOT the breed for me. I ended up reserving a few EE pullets (going with what I already had/knew) but when I went to pick them up I was completely captivated by the Hamburgs, forgetting everything I'd read about them and forgetting this was the very breed I had sworn I'd never get. I traded one of my reserved pullets for a Hamburg and she's won me over 1000 fold. I did really have to work to earn her trust but she has been my little shadow ever since and I can't go anywhere without her right by my side. She seems to prefer my company over that of her flock mates, though my oldest and top two hens have taken a liking to her despite her being at the very bottom of the pecking order. They seem to prefer her quiet, serious nature over the goofy EEs. During the warm months I leave the doors to the cottage open to get a nice cross-breeze and she will often let herself in and find a spot next to me while I work to preen herself before settling down for a nap. She is very territorial...much more so than the rest and charges at anything that doesn't "belong" here; squirrels, robins, my neighbors' Australian shepards (a hilarious sight), etc. I was cat-sitting for an elderly woman for a few months and though my entire flock is fine with my own cat (and dog), she would corner the intruder cat and warn the others he was there. Her reaction to him was completely different than any I'd seen from her before from the very first time he went outside here. I felt bad for him when they would surround him making all kinds of vocalizations but then I saw him nearly catch one of my big girls one day and lost all pity. She knew from that first moment that he was bad news and wasn't to be trusted. Had she not warned the others (and me) I likely would have lost one of my girls that day. I would absolutely recommend the breed to anyone who has the space to free-range.

This is not at all what I would consider "flighty":

 

[Sylvester017]

It really was a great gift! A guy down the road knocked on our door with a hen under his arm. Said she was AGAIN the sole survivor. They no longer wanted to deal with chickens anymore and needed a home for her. He picked the right house! Our chickens are all rescues and will be buried as they pass away. He offered us his coop too! He even helped us bring it home. He used his truck and trailer with a few of our friends/ family helping and hauled it a mile down the road to our house! Thank you for your concerns about the coons We do have coon around here and some may even live in our tree line... I have hardware cloth stapled and screwed over the window and a piece of wood on top of the window (on the inside) so it can't be opened further than 3" The sliding door takes a lot to open it. I can't do it with one hand! To open it, you must put one hand above the handle and one below for it to slide in the track I like the sliding doors for the winter as it has a green house effect and allows it to warm a little more with the sun but I know when it gets warmer out, it will be very bad. Thinking of adding another window for cross breeze in the summer too since I won't be able to leave the door open. Probably covering most o the door on the inside with a cheap second hand light colored flat sheet that I can throw out once they get messy. The shed did not have a floor so we placed 14"x14" patio blocks, that stick out a few inches past the shed. No tunneling under either!

The guy down the road must've left the door to the shed open once too often to have lost all but one sole survivor! I'm so glad to hear he found you to give you the shed AND the surviving hen! I love happy endings. Did she blend in ok with your existing flock?

Don't underestimate raccoons or stray dogs from using their craftiness or weight to jump and push open a heavy door if it's unlocked. My DD's 60-lb dog can open their sliding patio door by jumping up on it and using her weight and paws -- and that brand new door is double paned glass and heavy. When I visit I have to be mindful to keep it locked or the dog will work it open. I can't imagine a predator to a chicken coop would be any less able to figure a way to push open an unlocked door and raccoons figure out and fabricate their own fulcrums and tools to pry or open things that is sometimes impossible to believe for such a small creature. I think of raccoons as rural wild animals but they are multiplying in the cities so forgive me if I delight in seeing one occasionally as road-kill on our street. A single female can give birth up to 6 kits in each litter! In a suburb situation like ours they overrun the golf courses and slink out of street storm drains at night. Some get as fat as small goats. We occasionally hear them scampering across our roof at night. We keep a patio light on near the coop and will be investing in some blinking predator lights too.

Patio stones/blocks are perfect for floors as we found out for our situation. We used paver stones like a foundation for the coop walls and left a 2 x 4 center of dirt open for our hens to have dry dirt to dust bathe in when the outdoor dirt is muddied from rain. The dirt gets dug down and a few times a year we cart in another few buckets of dirt to fill in again. The coop dirt only gets used by the hens when it is really wet outside otherwise they dust bathe outdoors all the time.

Would adding on a porch roof at your shed entrance help shield the sliding doors from sun? Or maybe a ready-made large window awning to attach over the sliding doors? I know there are window films that can be added to glass to cut down heat/sun yet still allow you to see through them but they probably will peel or crack after a while and then not look good but that's another option. My DH salvaged a brand-new unused bamboo curtain with a roll-up feature (still in it's original package!) that we use for shade on one open wire wall on our little coop. Just some ideas. Since we've had chickens we've become really good at scavenging the neighborhood on trash days

I'm sure you'll find a solution that works for you!

 

[Sylvester017]

When I had made the decision to expand my flock last spring and came across the Hamburg while researching various breeds, I had decided, despite their beauty they were definitely NOT the breed for me. I ended up reserving a few EE pullets (going with what I already had/knew) but when I went to pick them up I was completely captivated by the Hamburgs, forgetting everything I'd read about them and forgetting this was the very breed I had sworn I'd never get. I traded one of my reserved pullets for a Hamburg and she's won me over 1000 fold. I did really have to work to earn her trust but she has been my little shadow ever since and I can't go anywhere without her right by my side. She seems to prefer my company over that of her flock mates, though my oldest and top two hens have taken a liking to her despite her being at the very bottom of the pecking order. They seem to prefer her quiet, serious nature over the goofy EEs. During the warm months I leave the doors to the cottage open to get a nice cross-breeze and she will often let herself in and find a spot next to me while I work to preen herself before settling down for a nap. She is very territorial...much more so than the rest and charges at anything that doesn't "belong" here; squirrels, robins, my neighbors' Australian shepards (a hilarious sight), etc. I was cat-sitting for an elderly woman for a few months and though my entire flock is fine with my own cat (and dog), she would corner the intruder cat and warn the others he was there. Her reaction to him was completely different than any I'd seen from her before from the very first time he went outside here. I felt bad for him when they would surround him making all kinds of vocalizations but then I saw him nearly catch one of my big girls one day and lost all pity. She knew from that first moment that he was bad news and wasn't to be trusted. Had she not warned the others (and me) I likely would have lost one of my girls that day. I would absolutely recommend the breed to anyone who has the space to free-range.

This is not at all what I would consider "flighty":

I really like this photo. Sometimes it happens that one particular hen or pet in your lifetime grabs you like no other you've had before and that sounds like your Hamburg. I have read a few reviews where people really adored their Hamburgs yet hesitated to recommend them for novices. You're correct about the "goofy" personality of EEs. Our Amer is a kooky spooky jittery jumpy alert active wary girl but we adore her for her consistent gentleness/kindness toward her flockmates and is a sweet approachable pet for us. Getting XL blue eggs is just a bonus! Like your Hamburg our Amer is our guard against stray cats. Our White Leg used to chase them but when she was rehomed the Amer took over the duty -- guess she learned it from the Leg. Hated to rehome the Leg but after 3 years she turned aggressive toward all her flockmates. Legs are known for being assertive so we considered ourselves lucky to have her for 3 gentle years before her assertiveness kicked in. Our Buff Leg became aggressive at 1 y/o so we didn't get to enjoy her for long before rehoming her too.

All our hens feel free to walk into the kitchen following us if we forget to close the gate so we turn around to have them follow us out again. We just got through pampering a sick Silkie in the house and after two weeks she's outdoors again. We have house diapers for every size bird for whenever they need indoor medical confinement. Since being indoors the Silkie believes she has the privilege to come into the "hospital" pen to lay her egg every day. My DH is spoiling her and letting her do this and will gradually wean her back to the nestboxes in the coop. He's such a pushover for his "girls." People who have never had chickens just can't imagine that chickens aren't robots to coop up 24/7 and especially not in battery cages or tiny outdoor pens.

Spangled birds are beautiful - Silvers are very pretty but the Golden is suitable for blending with outdoors. The Penciled Hamburg is a unique variation but the Spangled patterns "wow" me more. Your Hamburg has an RC to die for! Rose- and Pea- combs are the best. Over the years I've had a few breeds with SCs and it's a pain worrying about them in the winter. Since I've rehomed the SC Marans and Legs there's been no more comb worries for me. We live in a very warm drought State but we do occasionally have below-freezing in December.