post your chicken coop pictures here!

[Idaho Dan]

Just perfect for rodents to take up residence, better to raise it up a good 18 inches if you can....place for chooks to shelter and enough room for you to crawl under for eggs or hurt chook. If you can't raise it up might want to put a 1/2" hardware cloth apron to exclude rodents. Apron, attach to coop instead of run mesh wall as shown, corner is out of scale but you get the idea - don't forget the corners:

The floor sits 2 inches above the ground but the framework and siding is on the ground. Plus I have a mesh wire under it. So I hope that will be good enough.

 

[iwiw60]

I LIKE it!! You did a very good job. Panhandle of Idaho, eh? I don't need to tell you then you have predators...lots of 'em. Your run won't hold up to attacks by the scumbags...what say you??

 

[Idaho Dan]

I LIKE it!! You did a very good job. Panhandle of Idaho, eh? I don't need to tell you then you have predators...lots of 'em. Your run won't hold up to attacks by the scumbags...what say you??

Well I say i may have wasted 50 bucks on wire hahaha! I can only hope the predators find easier targets. And if not I'm praying the wire and the dog and the motion lights help....

My girls are locked up at night In The coop. All of the vents are hardwire mesh.

Maybe I could double down on the run wire? Two barriers?

 

[Sylvester017]

It is only meant to be a free-ranger chicken shelter for 2-4 standard chicken or for urban environments where space is limited. Those cut-out holes actually have Plexiglass behind them. There is a video on that link as well that shows how the door on the other side of artwork actually become a ladder. But I do agree, for it to be practical for more chicken, it has to be enlarged to scale. Also I would probably build a cleaning tray as well in case you don't have open space for the droppings and wanted to use pine-shavings.

Those cleaning trays are life-savers. I'm opting for that feature when looking for our second coop.

If you do build/modify the Gypsy Wagon be sure to post photos if you go with it.

I figured the cutouts were covered either with wire or plexiglass but you never know. I saw someone's cutout design not covered and their chickens were sticking their heads out of the cutouts. Personally wouldn't want any open holes into the coop because of night rodents.

Someone said their chickens crowded for the spot on the perch closest to the window with a view. I never knew chickens were concerned about such amenities but I do notice all my girls want the nestbox closest to the door with a view!

 

[Sylvester017]

Well I say i may have wasted 50 bucks on wire hahaha! I can only hope the predators find easier targets. And if not I'm praying the wire and the dog and the motion lights help....

My girls are locked up at night In The coop. All of the vents are hardwire mesh.

Maybe I could double down on the run wire? Two barriers?

It isn't until you lose a chicken or a flock to predators that you think if only I coulda, woulda, shoulda. We doubled our wire after a stray neighborhood German Shepherd mutt pulled our wire with his teeth and claws and mangled it beyond repair.

 

[Sylvester017]

This is my temporary run 5x5x5. I am getting a 10x10x6 dog kennel soon. I just wanted to let the babies have some outside time.

Have I told you often enough how much I LOVE that Gazebo?!! I can see it in my garden mounted on a platform as I sit inside it at my trendy little iron table and chairs watching the chickens forage under the arched bridge over a fake pebble stone riverlet with ferns and flowers all around. Wake up Sylvester - this is NOT your Gazebo! lol

 

[bruceha2000]

Its not my chicken coop but I find it to be inspirational. I will try to build one similar to it (I am sure the original design is copyrighted). Its called a Gypsy Chicken Wagon.

http://sunnysideprojects.com/products/gypsy-chicken-wagon/

This is really cute. But it is so small that 4 nestboxes is too many as there should only be one or two chickens in it and only for transporting them like to a school science project or to the fair or as a free-range shelter. A school child had one built on a wagon that she used for her educational programs on chickens but only transported 2 bantams at a time.

However cute this is it's not too practical as permanent housing unless it is built many times on a larger scale and those cutout holes can be covered at night. Let us see your masterpiece when you've finished it! You might inspire some others of us!

I totally agree, very cute and very worthless for raising chickens. The website says SIX! Maybe 2 and the nest boxes are the same height as the roosts, the roosts cross over each other, etc, etc, etc. Looks like someone who likes to design and build (NOTHING wrong with that) but knows nothing about raising chickens made that.

Idahodan - forgot to mention a problem I had that you might experience. Your perch is at the same level as the nestboxex. My girls picked the nestboxes to sleep in since the perch on the opposite side was not higher but at the same level as the nestbox ledge. Our coop was custom pre-built and we had no say in its design but you have the option to raise your perch a little higher to discourage nestbox roosting.

Or lower the nest boxes. Raising the roosts is OK only if there will still be headroom for the girls.

Bruce

 

[NorthChicken]

Coop on the river. Here is my little coop for my girls.

 

[roostercantrell]

Coop on the river. Here is my little coop for my girls.

cool a coop with a view nice flower garden too

 

[happyhousefarm]

Good thing you are around for the 1/10 times! Somewhere here on BYC you will find a story of a chicken that was raised by a duck along with the duck's brood. A different 'Ugly Duckling' story I guess. Anyway, when it came time to learn to swim, all the birds dutifully followed mama duck into the water. The problem, of course, was that one of them didn't float. Fortunately the owner was close by to rescue the chicken.

Ah, Doofus, er Katie, looks like a fine dog. Very pretty. How old? Maybe she's just not run through her puppy years yet. My daughter has a cat that will be 3 next month. We still call him nut ball because, well he's a nut ball.

Bruce

Hi Bruce, shes 10 months old, so hopefully she'll calm down soon LoL We've been lucky so far but we shall see how we do.

Absolutely love the coop and that it was repurposed materials! Really a bang-up good job!

I'm assuming you've buried the fence wire into the ground to discourage digging predators? Do you have bird netting or something over the pen against aerial predators or at least a couple doghouses or low makeshift shelters in the pen for the birds to snooze/hide/dive under? Friend of ours came home to find his flock of free-range ducks and chickens missing and a couple feathers in the yard. He expected the worst and then found his entire flock sitting under the axle of his tow-trailer in the yard. Apparently they all dove under his trailer to get away from something aerial. Ducks and chickens aren't bosom buddies but that day they were! It really pays to have cover in a flock's open areas. Hawks don't like to go after hiding fowl.

We had ducks and chickens in the same pen on the farm but ultimately my folks screened off the ducks from the chickens. In spite of all the clean drinking water provided chickens will drink from the dirty duck water. My dumb girls will drink dirty rain water that collects in tarps so we had to put drain holes in the fence tarps to keep them from drinking bacteria - ok if fresh rain but after a few days it gets nasty.

Enjoy the nice long walk in the snow to collect eggs every day! We decided to put our coop as close to the back door as possible so we didn't have a long rainy walk to collect daily eggs.

Just joking - I envy all the wonderful space you have! We miss our 25 acres and find it very confining in retirement to be in the city.

TY for the kind words, yup I do love recycling things, thats a really big issue in the UK

The fence has black plastic under it, but that is under observation right now, if it needs replacing then that will happen. A shelter and an outside perch is on the to do list of tweeks this week. So far hawks havent been an issue thanks to Madam Doofus

As for the water issue, again thats being monitored as I noticed that yesterday, so, may well have to section off the coop & pen if the Chooks ignore the water bucket. The photo looks further than it really is, but yes, the snow will be a killer in the winter for me

But I do have a snow blower LoL With the space we have and if things work out, then we're hoping to take things further and expand as we have our hands full right now and also on a slightly steep learning curve too