post your chicken coop pictures here!

[Sylvester017]

AN ORIGINAL HOBBIT HOUSE!

 

[MandalaMaMa]

We decide to go with a holding/brooding pen in our new chickie coop. My wonderful HB worked late on it tonight. He is so ready to have the chicks out of his shop. Just a few small touches tomorrow and it will be ready for the little girls to move in. I can't believe their are 5 weeks today. Holding off on letting the big girls move in for a few days. Still need to attach to run to the new coop. I think we have decided to take down our old coop -- it's an eye sore now for my hubby. We have learned so much in the past 2 years of having chickens and he said it's time to move forward with the new coop. Let the old one go. I just want to thank everyone for the input and sharing their experience.

 

[Sylvester017]

if they are just laying eggs in there and not sleeping in there the nest should stay much cleaner than the rest of the coop.

If you are collecting eggs daily then collect them and clean the nest if you want to.

If you have a broody hen.... Walk away from nest cleaning... she wont appreciate it and you risk having the eggs get cold.

They should NOT be sleeping in the nest. Many people block the nest boxes off after the eggs have been layed for the day for that reason. Your roosts should be higher than the nest boxes.

deb

Hi Perchie - our hens have slept in the nestboxes of their little 4x6 coop for the last 4 years - even the roo before we rehomed him. The nestboxes in the coop/run were the only enclosed part of the coop (it came already custom-built at the feed store by a customer) and 3 walls were all open wire. Even though we tarp over the walls every night they feel more secure in the round-hole entrance nestboxes which are 16x16x 21/2 ft tall. Our hens can lay eggs even during the night - especially the bantams and it's good not to find these little eggs on a dirt floor under the roost but in the nestboxes where they sleep. The nestboxes are easy to maintain and we just collect any poops we find which is minimal and add clean straw if needed. It really is not an issue. We organic Poultry Spray the hens and nestboxes monthly for lice prevention and have no issues. We have one hen that will sleep on the roost during the summer and in the nestbox during the winter. We are free-will where the hens are concerned. I guess it all depends on what the individual owners want to allow their hens.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
My coops are dog runs.... six feet wide by six feet tall and twelve feet long. I run the perches from side to side. The boards are two by threes. When i first did my perchers the two by threes were perfect for shoving through the chainlink. they are very snug and can be turned so that the perch is flat So they have a flat surface to perch on. That was when I had a single partiition to deal with.

AFter I added a partition I realized the difficutly of having a small stub of perch stiking outside on one end and in the next partition on the other end. Moving perches was diffictult too. So I went with the eye bolts. Having them setup that way allowed me to adjust the hieghts of the perches for the needs of the chickens.

When I do them over I will go ahead and up grade to Two my fours. And I will paint them with a good coat of paint to keep them from deteriorating so much in the sun.

Natural perches because branches are hard to come by here. But If I were to do natural perches I would do Eucalyptus. Its bug resistant having natural oils that keeps bugs at bay. That whole mite thing. My nest boxes will be made of either Terracotta or steel for the very same reason.

Here is a Floor plan of my future coop.



I hang my guinea roosts and they hold foot races along them sending them all wibbly....

I will be primarily into guineas when I get setup again so that's why the biggest partition is 24 x 6 with a 6 x 6 ell.

The dog kennel panels are either twelve feet long or six feet long. All the door panels are on the aisle where the stall mats are. I get about with a walker at this point but by the time I get this poultry house built I will be using a wheel chair. Planning for the future.

Oh and the side opposite the perches to the outside will be a 25 x 50 foot run covered with aviary netting... There will be the option to run it another fifty feet ... when I get the materials. All the materials up to that point I have already Including materials for the tin roof. and two major walls.

deb

ps... another over engineered project.

 

[perchie.girl]

...

The only thing I'm going to change is to mount a platform up high for the watering bowl, with perch access to it, as I found it has to be very high in this DL in order to escape the flipping of the bedding into the water. Other than that, I'm tickled pink with this coop design.

Ooh I like the idea of putting that water up off the ground. Not only does it give them more floor space but puts the water up at a height easier to clean from my point of view...

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
You cannot have chickens sleeping in nest boxes. You get poo on the eggs, Chickens poop all night long.

I saw your original coop and know you had no chioce but you need to retrain your girls to sleep on roosts. It was not a choice on their part because of the limited space you had.

I am afraid its not a matter of Allowing it.... Its a matter of good chicken husbandry. Sorry this is one I feel strongly about. We need to be the best caretakers we can be.... Which means giving them as natural an environment possible

Low nest boxes simulate their natural desire to nest on the ground. Higher perches give them a sense of security from ground predators.... Getting out to scratch in the dirt is important too... I fail in that respect.

I do know Silkeys will sleep in a nest box if allowed. But you can provide a perch for them that they can get up on and bring them up off the ground. I had one Silky that had enough wing tip feathers to power flap up to a perch that was two feet off the ground.... Little reprobate... he was a roo and thought he was all that....

His brother wasn't as capable so I built him a saw horse arrangement he could hop up on for roosting.

also for those who have broody hens... they will get off the nest once or twice per day Where upon they will do a mad dash for food water Dust bath AND deposite a Broody Poo which will be GINORMOUS.... If that poo goes into the nest and isnt cleaned out your eggs will suffer.

So if you find a broody and you suspect she hasnt gotten off the nest its a good idea to remove them from the nest and set them near food and water and dust bath material at least once per day.

yes you can move the eggs if you need to clean.... but be quick about it. do not wash hatching eggs wipe them clean as you can with a damp cloth if necessary. But you dont want to seal up the pores on the eggs which allow oxygen in.

deb

 

[Teila]

Delurking to agree with both Deb and Sylvester017 on a couple of things

Agreed that it is not a good idea to have chickens sleeping in the nest box but, also agree that keeping the nest box clean is fairly easy, depending on the chicken .. I had a bantam who slept in the nest box because the matriarch hen used to pick on her. There was room for her on the roost but she seemed to prefer the nest box. She only did a couple of large poops overnight; easy clean up in the morning, all good.

She slept in that nest box for a good 8 months and I thought that was just what she preferred.

However, when I extended the coop and roost I got a huge shock when she jumped up on the roost. I was wrong in my thought that her preference was to sleep in the nest box and while there was what I thought was enough room on the roost for her, there probably wasn't and since extending the roost, she has not slept in the nest box again.

Same with Silkies; I had two Silkies who slept in the nest box on the floor of the coop. When they got a little older I noticed them roosting on the edge of the nest box, not in it. I rigged up a Silkie friendly low roost for them and they slept on that; never slept in the nest box again.

So my thoughts are; while there are chickens we believe prefer to sleep in the nest box, it could just be that the roost we think is appropriate for them is, in fact, not?

 

[vehve]

Deb, over engineering is what makes it fun

 

[perchie.girl]

Deb, over engineering is what makes it fun

Yah you can take the engineer out of the office but Engineering is permanent i am afraid... I spend too much time thinking instead of doing.

deb

 

[MandalaMaMa]

We finally have chickens in our new coop. We move our 5 week old girls into today. Last night we put together this holding pen for them. It is designed to be easily removed when finished if we want. The girls have adjusted well to their new home and even took to a PVC nip water system my HB build for them. They are enjoying looking out -- since they were in a 4x4 crate - I'm sure the world looks a bit different. It was funny -- after we moved them out my HB said that he was missing the chirp chirp that they were making. He said the shop was too quite.


Here's the finished coop on the outside -- I love my yellow door.


And the girls have one too!


We are not quite ready for the 4 older ones. Still need to make a ladder for them and attach to the run. But we are getting there.