post your chicken coop pictures here!

[Adorkable]

Homemade Coop


Homemade Brooder



Homemade brooder


Water and food off the ground and covered saves a lot of time and prevents waste as well as keeps poop from contaminating the food and water supply. Made from left-overs from the coop.

I love the natural wood color of your coop. OH and by looking at your brooder I can tell that you have excellent taste in coffee!

 

[jdeoliveira74]

this is my second coop and I was thinking about a green roof for the run just trying to work out the logistics

 

[jdeoliveira74]

coop complete and little guys moved in.. total cost $110.00
















and its almost done

 

[4 the Birds]

Here is mine:

 

[David LaFerney]

I built this last fall, and have been using it long enough to have some ideas about what I do and don't like about it.
The covered run is 12'x12' which seems to be plenty for our 9 hens even when they can't go out to play for long periods of time.
Last fall I put a foot or more of litter - mostly leaves in the run, which has worked great - looks clean, little if any odor, and gives them something to do.
The main roof frame is made out of 12' manufactured engineered trusses - this was a great way to go, because it made the construction quick easy, and strong - and they were little if any more expensive than it would have cost to just buy the lumber. 12 ft trusses like these are so light that you can pick them up with one hand BTW.
If I had it to do over I think I would have ordered 15' trusses with a built in 3' cantilever to accomodate the hen house on the side - although I would probably not have been able to build it single handedly as I did with the 12 footers.
As you can see, the site is sloped - which has not been a bad thing, and actually insures good drainage during heavy/blowing rains. I've noticed that a lot of folks go to a lot of trouble leveling the site.

BTW, the chopping block is for apples and things like that - not for chickens.




The hen house is 8'x3'
The metal trash can houses feed, and this little open cubby is a great place to keep nesting material, tools, and to stand out of the rain.
The dealer where I got the roofing material also made me the gutter - $15 well spend to avoid being dripped on whenever gathering eggs in the rain.




These are the 3rd nest box design that I have tried, and my fav so far - the lids on the other end are cut in half (or a little less) and the buckets are actually held down with one wood screw each.
Egg gathering, feeding, opening the pop door and all other daily chores can be done without getting in the poop. The grand kids love to get the eggs. BTW, 3 nests are more than adequate for 9 hens - You almost never catch them all occupied at once. The roost/droppings pit is just to the left of the nests.
The egg door is hinged, but the other panels on the large side of the hen house are secured with a minimum number of screws so that they can be easily removed for spring cleaning.




When there isn't anything growing in our 30x50 fenced garden this door is opened to allow the ladies to stretch their legs a bit - they will be very disappointed when April rolls around.

So, our coop was built for efficiency, affordability and ease of use - not so much to please a home owners comitee. But the front side of it looks OK for our rustic rural setting, and so far it actually does work pretty well.

Cost to construct $6-700 in materials plus some recycled and scrap lumber. $0 for labor. Your mileage may vary.

 

[sianara]

Wow, these are all so nice you guys! I just love looking at coop pictures

 

[Kevmac]

HI David LaFerney I think your coop is awesome..... you're real talented being able to build something like that

it's most impressive.

We're new to keeping Chickens. Our 6 Isa Brown's only arrived on Monday. They seem to be pleased with their new home and appear happy enough. We're gonna let them free range around the garden after the weekend. Still working on names for them.

K.

 

[audiomilk]

It's not much to look at, but most of it was all free, we only bought the chain link fence. The coop is an old tool shed measuring 4 x 6 1/2; the run itself measures 16 x 20. It's still a work in progress. We are planning on covering the run with corrugated steel that my dad is giving us after he re-roofs his shop, and we still have to make a "porch" for the 5 nesting boxes and install a few roosting bars here and there. This will be home for the 14 chicks that we have including Yellow, Black, and Golden Sex Link, Barred Plymouth Rock, Rhode Island Reds and our Welsummer Rooster - they are all in the brooder right now, only about 2 - 3 weeks of age (by the grace of God we haven't lost any). We are first time chicken raisers as I have stated before; we live in Kingston, OK (down by the lake actually) and we are also preparing a garden not to far from the chicken coop. We have seedlings started in the house including corn, 3 types of peppers, 2 types of carrots, watermelon, brussels sprouts, cucumbers and strawberries; onions are already out in the ground and we got a box of mushrooms setting on as well.

 

[jobouss]

Mine is a work in progress. I primed the trim boards a few days ago and it has rained ever since. The trim will be the same color as the 2 x 4's on the roof. I need to make the big door on the side and the slim door on the front where I can remove the poop board. The idea was from the Purina mills plans, but I made it 4 x 6 and then made it a bit taller. I did not go directly by the plans but just used it as a guide. Edited to say, I am a women that is not an experienced builder. I built the roof separate and the only help I had was when my husband helped me lift the roof on. There are mistakes, but I just keep telling myself, "it's just a chicken coop", but I wanted something cute for my babies!

 

[Mell62]

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