post your chicken coop pictures here!

[BonRae67]

It's not pretty, but we built it ourselves and I'm very proud! It does the job and my girls seem to enjoy it. There's room for the new coop when my chickies grow up too! Xx

That is something o be proud of because you built it yourself. Great job!

 

[jtbass2756]

Building it yourself if the most awesome part,,,...lots of energy and muscle goes into that,....Now when you can afford it, put some 1/2" hardware wire around the bottom and a bird netting over the top...lot more muscle so be ready for that! Yuk! The chicken wire is very easy for dogs /racoons to tear.. going to put a picture of what it looks like. My son lost 8 pullets this way. It is not fun to have to go pick up pieces of your ladies! Broke my heart.

 

[viacky]

Luckily in the UK we don't have to worry about raccoons but I'm certainly looking into doing something to secure the bottom of the wire,am using some heavy duty tent pegs as a short term solution. It seems to be effectively stopping bunny from getting in, and he's very good at squeezing into any gap

luckily my chicks are in a secure garden, but obviously a fox can scale a 6' fence if he's hungry, so I am planning on securing the bottom when the ground softens a bit in spring (it's rock hard at the moment,making digging a real labour)

Thanks for the advice xx

 

[birdman55]

nice work on the pens.....here its a non stop building seems to never end...as for coons I would put a live trap right by the pen you will catch whatever is out there...we had a coon somehow get into our quarantine pen and got one chicken and injured another and then we caught it...called the animal rescue place and they wanted 20 bucks to pick it up so we drove it like 30 miles away and let it go...never had an issue since

 

[birdman55]

had to share the pic...its just for storage the eggs get donated to a local egg artist and the fridge is not plugged in

close to 300 eggs and counting....she will have many eggs to paint that's for sure




these two sets of coops are not done yet they are going to get some roofing after winter...roofing is so expensive its crazy...im going to use corrugated fiberglass that is 85 percent light penetrated....I built my two greenhouses out of it..

if you can get super thick plastic that's a lot cheaper then putting in metal...and works great I cant even push my finger threw this plastic...if you find a factory that makes plastic rolls and such you can get this stuff for free...

inside of the coops before I put the tarp on

 

[Bjarke]

Planned this combined coop and greenhouse. Details changing along the way.

Basic concept is recycled materials only.

Progress so far is some tiles lain and 4 columns erected.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[WOJO]

 

[birdman55]

very nice coop

 

[Sylvester017]

I would say its a old wise tale....pepers don't deworm birds either...that's y they make actual dewormers. safeguard and valbazen are great for worming...as for laying...I would say protein intake as well as calcium play a big role...as well as temp and lighting...you can add lighting and your birds might lay more....hope this helps
http://www.answers.com/Q/Do_hot_peppers_help_chickens_to_lay_eggs_faster

Hi - don't know why or if hot peppers do anything for getting hens to lay but my birds occasionally eat the seeds of sweet or hot peppers and one hen curiously pecks at the leaves as well but peppers are not a real favorite w/the flock. As for stimulating hens to lay -- my Mom on the farm never believed in artificially inducing laying. She felt the seasons were created to give all livestock a productive cycle as well as a rest cycle and lights or feed stimulants were never forced on her farm. She never tried to "break" a broody either. She let nature take its 3-week course w/ a broody in her empty nest and just made sure the hen took a couple breaks every day to eat/drink/dust-bathe until the hormones subsided. Just my take on nature since our hens are pets rather than utility. We just don't want to see our hens "spent" after only a couple years of laying.

Where do you get your Safeguard from -- is it put in water or in the feed? A link to a website for ordering it would be helpful since I can't figure out what Safeguard form can be used with chickens. I've been using Ivermectin but want to alternate w/another dewormer. ty

 

[Sylvester017]

It's not pretty, but we built it ourselves and I'm very proud! It does the job and my girls seem to enjoy it. There's room for the new coop when my chickies grow up too! Xx

Building it yourself if the most awesome part,,,...lots of energy and muscle goes into that,....Now when you can afford it, put some 1/2" hardware wire around the bottom and a bird netting over the top...lot more muscle so be ready for that! Yuk! The chicken wire is very easy for dogs /racoons to tear.. going to put a picture of what it looks like. My son lost 8 pullets this way. It is not fun to have to go pick up pieces of your ladies! Broke my heart.

Luckily in the UK we don't have to worry about raccoons

but I'm certainly looking into doing something to secure the bottom of the wire,am using some heavy duty tent pegs as a short term solution. It seems to be effectively stopping bunny from getting in, and he's very good at squeezing into any gap

luckily my chicks are in a secure garden, but obviously a fox can scale a 6' fence if he's hungry, so I am planning on securing the bottom when the ground softens a bit in spring (it's rock hard at the moment,making digging a real labour)

Thanks for the advice

xx

It looks like there's been a lot of advice given and I concur with them and with your actions to be more secure. You never know what predators live in the neighborhood until you get chickens. I never knew we had raccoons until we saw one crawl out of the sewer at 2 a.m.!