post your chicken coop pictures here!

[Peggy O]

Making progress on project chicken house double plus.

Our kit coop would only hold maaaaybe 3, and we intended to have 3, but in chicken math 3 = 6, so we are adding on.


After this we will start the walk in run, 14 feet by maybe 9. not sure. It will go around and over this, with a solid roof and buried skirting. The house now sits on a 2 x 4 frame, also skirted and buried. predators are not a huge problem here though. Our neighbors both have chickens, less protection, no losses.

 

[KittieChick]

Brand new to chickens. I'm raising 6 meat birds, and think that even though they'll be dinner in 4 more weeks, they may as well have the best chicken life I can allow them to have. Today they got a new pen and coop. Well, coop may be stretching it, but I already have plans for mods for when I do this again! In the meantime I'm breaking apart my pallets and planning for the layers.

My husband over-engineered a dog house that the dogs NEVER used. This is almost perfect and 6 birds will fit fine. There's even a little roost in there for the chickies. I propped the roof open with a 2x4 for ventilation. Hopefully no raccoons will visit. The chickens have been overnighting up to tonight in a pen in the shed with the doors shut. I have a feeling tonight will be restless.



Kittie in NC

 

[weluvchickies]

Our first coop made from an old shed

 

[conina]

Apart from being an adorable portable I just realized what makes it so attractive to me - it's the white paint job with just a touch of trim color.  I really like the white - it sparkles.

actually is beige

 

[bruceha2000]

Making progress on project chicken house double plus.

Our kit coop would only hold maaaaybe 3, and we intended to have 3, but in chicken math 3 = 6, so we are adding on.

After this we will start the walk in run, 14 feet by maybe 9. not sure. It will go around and over this, with a solid roof and buried skirting. The house now sits on a 2 x 4 frame, also skirted and buried. predators are not a huge problem here though. Our neighbors both have chickens, less protection, no losses.

Glad you figured out chicken math before it hit! And that you recognize that what the coop makers claim for capacity is a joke. I swear, they must look at battery hens stuffed in cages to calculate capacity. And why don't they put windows in them? Unless one is up at the crack of dawn every day (or has a photo sensor controlled door) the birds are in the dark. If 12-14 hours of light a day is what it takes to keep them laying consistently, I can't imagine that is a good thing. Your kit coop does look nice otherwise, even with a roof over the ramp.

Have you considered only having half the roof of the enclosing run solid with hardware cloth on the rest? Actually, since hardware cloth is so expensive and you don't have a predator problem in the area (knock on wood it stays that way), you could probably use chicken wire on the non solid part, just to keep the arial predators out. Shade is good but so is sun

As for the size of the run, what the heck, make it 14x14 or 14x20 or 20x20 or 30x30 or oops got carried away

What ever it is, figure out your materials before deciding. Nothing like having it 2" too big in a dimension for the material. And if it is smaller, lots of cutting. Make your (relatively) short life easier! Dimensional lumber is 8', 10', 12', 14', 16'. Wire usually comes in 2', 3', 4' widths and you want to overlap it a couple of squares where it is on solid wood, more if 'in the field' between posts. As with many things, the longer roll is less than twice the price of 2 rolls half the length and ten 10' rolls are over 2.5x a 100' roll. If you are wrapping the bottom of the run in hardware cloth (of course you are!) a 100' roll will do a run 25' on each OUT side. You could frame the whole thing up including the 'people' door, wrap the wire around and washer screw or poultry staple it on, then cut it around the door. One stop shopping! As for skirting, I wonder if we can't get away with 2x4 welded wire? No dog, coon, coyote, etc will fit through the holes and vermin that can, like ermines, will dig longer tunnels anyway so they could easily get under even 2' of horizontally buried skirt.

Brand new to chickens. I'm raising 6 meat birds, and think that even though they'll be dinner in 4 more weeks, they may as well have the best chicken life I can allow them to have. Today they got a new pen and coop. Well, coop may be stretching it, but I already have plans for mods for when I do this again! In the meantime I'm breaking apart my pallets and planning for the layers.

My husband over-engineered a dog house that the dogs NEVER used. This is almost perfect and 6 birds will fit fine. There's even a little roost in there for the chickies. I propped the roof open with a 2x4 for ventilation. Hopefully no raccoons will visit. The chickens have been overnighting up to tonight in a pen in the shed with the doors shut. I have a feeling tonight will be restless.



Kittie in NC

My step father once made a dog house for 3 dogs. I think it was about 4'x8' and 6' high. As with yours, the dogs NEVER used it. It became a 'short ceiling' storage shed. Not so sure about 6 birds in your 'used to be a' doghouse. Seems tight. And with that big dog door, I would think it is pretty well ventilated when the slide door is out. Probably no need to ventilate with the open roof. Of course, it doesn't hurt either.

 

[Sam3 Abq]

We still need to add our nesting boxes (sometime before early September) but it's a functioning coop for our girls.

 

[iwiw60]

Making progress on project chicken house double plus.

Our kit coop would only hold maaaaybe 3, and we intended to have 3, but in chicken math 3 = 6, so we are adding on.


After this we will start the walk in run, 14 feet by maybe 9. not sure. It will go around and over this, with a solid roof and buried skirting. The house now sits on a 2 x 4 frame, also skirted and buried. predators are not a huge problem here though. Our neighbors both have chickens, less protection, no losses.

You've done a great job with expanding...chicken math...get's ya every time!!

With that said, I'd sure rethink the size of your run...sounds like it will be a tad "tight" seeing how your coop(s) are within that framework....JMHO...

 

[Pinkaboo]

Do you need special animal friendly paint? I'd love to add some colour to a wooden untreated coop
But not sure what to use, sam3 yours looks amazing

 

[Family Farming]

I use Behr Livestock paint from Home Depot. About $15 per gallon. My chickens peck at everything, so I go with the livestock paint to avoid any chemicals getting in to there system and into our eggs.

 

[Pinkaboo]

I use Behr Livestock paint from Home Depot. About $15 per gallon. My chickens peck at everything, so I go with the livestock paint to avoid any chemicals getting in to there system and into our eggs. 

Thanks I'll look for a livestock paint then
Not heard of behr in UK but I'll try a search