post your chicken coop pictures here!

[sara1226]

I just felt like sharing a picture of our coop. My husband is pretty handy and built it with no plans, just did some research and started building. It is a work in progress, and we are thinking of ways to winterize it, as we live in northern wisconsin, and unfortunately (and much to my disgust) it can get down to 20 below zero here.

I have heard of people putting hay bales around the coop, but the down fall is you have to be careful about mold growing in the hay, etc. I'm not sure we need to try that, the inside part of the coop is insulated.

If anyone who deals with this type of brutal cold can give me suggestions that would be great!

 

[loujeany]

I am almost finished with my coop and run. Finished enough to share. Since I used many ideas on this site to construct mine I felt compelled to show my coop and share for those out there looking for ideas like I was. The first thing I did was buy 1x6 blocks for around a buck a piece. I buried these upright in case something wanted to dig underneath the coop. I then laid the same blocks flat on the ground and built my coop on top of them. Sort of looks like a T if that makes sense. My coop is 2 feet off the ground with hooks underneath to hold the water and food. I dug out a trench about 12 inches wide by 8 inches deep and filled it with sand for them to dust bathe in. My coop is 6 x 8 and. 4 foot high walls. I did this because I knew the plywood would be 4x8 and did not want to have to buy extra. I used a 2x4 for the roost and built the poop tray underneath. I filled the tray with PDZ. You can see the door on the side. I just unlatch that and let the door hang down. I can reach in with a kitty litter scoop and get all the droppings out without ever going in. The pop door has a rope attached to it and it runs outside to a cleat. I can open and close the door without ever going inside. The eggs can also be collected from the outside. My ventilation is the 6 holes on each side drilled with a 2 inch hole saw. I have vented soffits running the length of the walls except the last 2 or 3 feet where the roost is. Those are solid. I was not sure if a draft would come in and bother the hens. I have 5 hens and looks like 1 rooster.

Regrets: I should of framed a window in but got ahead of myself and did not do it. Thought I could do it afterwards and it does not seem worth the trouble. I did cut a small opening and covered with hardware cloth but not sure I can leave that open in the winter and I would of preferred to have some natural light shine in there.Still may tackle that later.

My pop door is facing the prevailing wind so in winter it might cause problems. Now when I open the back access door and the pop door is open I get a nice gust of pine shavings all over me.

Any problems or suggestions let me know. I appreciate input. Hopefully somebody can pick up a few ideas.






Side where the roost and poop tray is.

 

[junebuggena]

Thanks how many chickens would u think this would hold

2 or 3 medium sized breeds (leghorn, hamburg) tops. And you may have problems with them sleeping in the nest boxes since they are about the same height as the roost.

 

[junebuggena]

yeah, I plan on running some 2x4 welded wire on the inside of the 4x4 post so there will be a 3.5 gap between the chicken wire and the welded wire. Its in my back yard that's privacy fenced in except for the back that's 5" chain link. My dogs know fairly well to leave it alone. I have also considered running 2x4's or 2x6's around the bottom, between the bottom and middle boards. leaving 2-4" gaps between them.

Get that hardware cloth up ASAP. Coons will come right over your fence and shred that chicken wire.

 

[Spartan22]

Finally got them in there. I have a few more things to finish up with their roost and stuff. But I had to get them out of the tractor that was supposed to be very temporary. Its tough building something that big all by yourself. Do you know how hard it is to level a 10' long board?

Great job! I so know how hard to build it alone (no one to hold the other end) while working 50+ hours full time job. I love your design

 

[loujeany]

I forgot to post the inside but the boxes are floor level to your left.

Sorry guys i am new to this and got out sequence here.

 

[Latestarter]

I forgot to post the inside but the boxes are floor level to your left.

Sorry guys i am new to this and got out sequence here.

and very nice build! If I may make one recommendation... Replace the existing roost with a 2 x 4 with the 4" side on the flat. Chickens are really designed to stand flat footed, not grip a perch like other birds. It also helps them to settle down and keep their feet warm when it's cold. I'm sure your birds feel very spoiled. If not, they should!

 

[hbfarm]

Thought I would share a few of my pens. These are my breeder cages for bantams. They are from KW cages. They are meant for rabbits, but I took the divider out of the middle so there was plenty of room for a pair or trio of bantams. I put these on the floor of one of our horse barns but they could have been stacked but not all would get equal lighting.



This is one of my large fowl sheds. I built 6 3'x4' breeding pens. The bottom three had attached 4'x12' runs with netting over the top to keep the birds from flying out (and others flying in). Birds that were not in the breeding pens just lived in the middle. I don't have a picture but there was a 7th pen on the left that had a run on the left side of the barn. Now there is a roost that goes all the way across.



White Rock Bantams in the runs. I later added a sand and pea gravel mix right outside of their small doors so they wouldn't get too muddy in the winter. Next time I probably won't bother doing that again because it all got mixed around.

 

[GetClucking]

I am absolutely loving all these coops, they are all amazing and beautiful. My wife and I made our very first coop by ourself, still to finish bits of it but we had to get the chicks in there asap as they were out growing our garage pretty fast. The chicks are our first ones to have so we went a bit crazy. The top bit of the coop is done with reclaimed barn wood from old barns that were getting knocked down, and the majority of the inside and run were all done from wood that we picked up from the restore or scrap bits from old shelves and bunk bed ladders to old cabinet windows, i'm pretty chuffed with it and our chicks seem to be settling in just fine. enjoy the pics. - fiona

.

 

[Chipper Chicken]

...

I am almost finished with my coop and run.  Finished enough to share.  Since I used many ideas on this site to construct mine I felt compelled to show my coop and share for those out there looking for ideas like I was.  The first thing I did was buy 1x6 blocks for around a buck a piece.  I buried these upright in case something wanted to dig underneath the coop.  I then laid the same blocks flat on the ground and built my coop on top of them.  Sort of looks like a   T   if that makes sense. My coop is 2 feet off the ground with hooks underneath to hold the water and food.  I dug out a trench about 12 inches wide by 8 inches deep and filled it with sand for them to dust bathe in. My coop is 6 x 8 and.  4 foot high walls.  I did this because I knew the plywood would be 4x8 and did not want to have to buy extra. I used a 2x4 for the roost and built the poop tray underneath.  I filled the tray with PDZ.  You can see the door on the side.  I just unlatch that and let the door hang down.  I can reach in with a kitty litter scoop and get all the droppings out without ever going in.  The pop door has a rope attached to it and it runs outside to a cleat.  I can open and close the door without ever going inside. The eggs can also be collected from the outside. My ventilation is the 6 holes on each side drilled with a 2 inch hole saw.  I have vented soffits running the length of the walls except the last 2 or 3 feet where the roost is.  Those are solid.  I was not sure if a draft would come in and bother the hens.  I have 5 hens and looks like 1 rooster.

[COLOR=FF0000]Regrets:[/COLOR] I should of framed a window in but got ahead of myself and did not do it.  Thought I could do it afterwards and it does not seem worth the trouble.  I did cut a small opening and covered with hardware cloth but not sure I can leave that open in the winter and I would of preferred to have some natural light shine in there.Still may tackle that later.

My pop door is facing the prevailing wind so in winter it might cause problems.  Now when I open the back access door and the pop door is open I get a nice gust of pine shavings all over me.



Something you could try for the pop door, tho it may take some treat training to get them to use it, is to hang overlapping flaps of semi clear heavy plastic over it. Kinda like walk in cooler/freezer partitions. Hope that makes sense, it's late