post your chicken coop pictures here!

[Pinyon]

I have been lovingly teased by my in laws that I have built a chicken palace for our little flock of sixteen. Wow,my coop and run is a diy mess compared to the amazing coop pics I've seen posted here. You have all have inspired me to give my coop a face lift.

 

[RoosterCogburn7]

I have been lovingly teased by my in laws that I have built a chicken palace for our little flock of sixteen. Wow,my coop and run is a diy mess compared to the amazing coop pics I've seen posted here. You have all have inspired me to give my coop a face lift.

Hey, don't feel bad. I haven't built a coop in my life and I am learning by trial and error. Make an error, do a work around, etc. A DIY mess isn't a problem. Does it provide shelter from the elements and predators? Does it have a method of keeping them in food and water and a place to lay eggs? Then you have succeeded. The chickens really don't care. My goal was to make the exterior as nice as I could, and I could care less about how the interior looks as long as it functional. So, don't be intimated by master builders or the folks that could have their own obsession show on A&E. If you did the best you could, be proud of what you could do.

 

[Pinyon]

Thanks for the encouragement. As this is my first winter with chickens, I realized that my biggest mistake was using plastic grain bags to cover my run. It gets very cold and windy here and my birds won't leave the shelter of the coop. I heard that chickens will behave badly when cooped up. The issue has been the condensation dripping from the ceiling. I have a good opening at one end of the run but I sill get the moisture. Their coops are dry and have a 12 inch layer of sand on the floor. I hope they can take the moisture.

 

[bruceha2000]

Hey, don't feel bad. I haven't built a coop in my life and I am learning by trial and error. Make an error, do a work around, etc. A DIY mess isn't a problem. Does it provide shelter from the elements and predators? Does it have a method of keeping them in food and water and a place to lay eggs? Then you have succeeded. The chickens really don't care. My goal was to make the exterior as nice as I could, and I could care less about how the interior looks as long as it functional. So, don't be intimated by master builders or the folks that could have their own obsession show on A&E. If you did the best you could, be proud of what you could do.

I TOTALLY agree. The birds don't know a shack from the Taj Mahal as long as they have what they need for a healthy life. The beautiful coops are made for people to look at and there is NOTHING wrong with having a beautiful coop in the back yard!

My son is a big EE fan, Im an Australorp fan, so we are planning a few of each.

I have 6 breeds (see sig) and the EE and Australorps are my faves. The BIG BA isn't a great layer but the normal size one is and she is a forager par excellence! If I were breeding, she would be my choice. Never gone broody

so I'd have to put the eggs under the Partridge Chantecler or the Faverolles, even the big BA if she happened to be broody at the time. The smaller BA and the EE are my best layers, both 54% of the days since they first laid an egg. That includes, of course, the long dry spell after moulting and I don't add winter light. The EE that was taken by a predator in April was my 4th best. 3rd best is the PC at 48%, amazing since she goes broody at least 3 times a year. The big BA and the Anconas are running about 40% and the Anconas have never gone broody. The Faverolles and Cubalayas? Well, let's not talk about their productivity.

 

[Free Feather]

Thanks for the encouragement. As this is my first winter with chickens, I realized that my biggest mistake was using plastic grain bags to cover my run. It gets very cold and windy here and my birds won't leave the shelter of the coop. I heard that chickens will behave badly when cooped up. The issue has been the condensation dripping from the ceiling. I have a good opening at one end of the run but I sill get the moisture. Their coops are dry and have a 12 inch layer of sand on the floor. I hope they can take the moisture.

I would get that sand right out of your coops. That stuff is no good in cold climates at all. It provides no insulation and it does not keep dry in the wet and cold. People have made their chickens sick with respiratory issues by using sand in the winter coop. Switch to straw.

 

[RoosterCogburn7]

I would get that sand right out of your coops. That stuff is no good in cold climates at all. It provides no insulation and it does not keep dry in the wet and cold. People have made their chickens sick with respiratory issues by using sand in the winter coop. Switch to straw.

I put down a cement slab, and I am going to put hay down. An easy clean up. A rake, a shove and a wheel barrel and it is clean.

 

[apteryx]

Thanks for the encouragement. As this is my first winter with chickens, I realized that my biggest mistake was using plastic grain bags to cover my run. It gets very cold and windy here and my birds won't leave the shelter of the coop. I heard that chickens will behave badly when cooped up. The issue has been the condensation dripping from the ceiling. I have a good opening at one end of the run but I sill get the moisture. Their coops are dry and have a 12 inch layer of sand on the floor. I hope they can take the moisture.

Is the condensation dripping from the ceiling of the coop or from the plastic grain bags covering the run? Also, are the grain bags a solid plastic or the solid-looking woven kind (e.g. Purina/layena)? If it is dripping from the bags and they are the woven plastic kind it is possible that it is not condensation, but water seeping through the bags. Just a thought.

 

[Pinyon]

To give you a clearer picture I'll explain a little more. We have two coops. One for the hens and attached to it is another for our six friendly roosters. Because a flock that had been free ranged on the same property was lost to predators,I in closed two car port frames with chicken wire. When The weather turned cold I in closed one port with the plastic. The grain bags that I used are very large and durable. It is designed to hold many ton of grain over winter. I have many bales of hay around the inner walls and have made places for the chickens to roost. The floor is not covered with anything, it's just dirt. There is a door that I open to give them the option of going to the other port for some fresh air. Having said all of that, I will double check for leaks, but other than getting a fan of some kind, I'm at a loss for quick solutions. In reply to free feather's comment, thanks, I will clean the sand out of the coops ASAP.

 

[bigmrg74]

To give you a clearer picture I'll explain a little more. We have two coops. One for the hens and attached to it is another for our six friendly roosters. Because a flock that had been free ranged on the same property was lost to predators,I in closed two car port frames with chicken wire. When The weather turned cold I in closed one port with the plastic. The grain bags that I used are very large and durable. It is designed to hold many ton of grain over winter. I have many bales of hay around the inner walls and have made places for the chickens to roost. The floor is not covered with anything, it's just dirt. There is a door that I open to give them the option of going to the other port for some fresh air. Having said all of that, I will double check for leaks, but other than getting a fan of some kind, I'm at a loss for quick solutions. In reply to free feather's comment, thanks, I will clean the sand out of the coops ASAP.

Pictures are always useful.

How big are the bags themselves? You could be getting your moisture in from the seams where the bags overlap. My thought would be to drop a couple bales of straw down on your dirt/sand, maybe try to set up one corner somewhere where they can still easily get to the sand for dustbathing.

 

[RoosterCogburn7]

External Egg Box build, looking for some good plans. I have 11.5 wide by 15" black plastic bins I want to use for removal (Easy clean). I have 22 chicks coming in may (straight run) so I am guessing it may be a half/half group. So, that being said, doing some chicken math that would leave me with about 11 hens all said and done. I am planning on making 6 of these. I have a wall already tacked up of T-1 siding into my wall studs. So I am going to have to cut the holes on the inside to go to the external egg box. So, I am having a head scratching experience looking for a good plan for an external egg box. Yes, an internal set up is an easy solution. However, my wife doesn't want to go into the coop to collect the eggs. So, I am looking for a good external egg box plan based on the dimension of the bins. Any help from the experts would be greatly appreciated. A picture of the wall that is already painted. The other wall is just like it on the other side, only not painted yet.