post your chicken coop pictures here!

[LindaB220]

Work in progress... Start with a firm budget. Nail a few boards together. Revise plan. Repeat process until your coop cost comes to no less them 3x your original budget. When 80% complete, relocate the hens from the garage to make your wife stop complaining about the smell. Put off completion to allow wife sufficient opportunity to complain about yet another incomplete project. Realize it will take about 50 years of eggs to recoup your investment. Then realize it was never about eggs; and that you can't put a price on the enjoyment of the hobby.

Great coop. And yes, it's never about money.

 

[TeriMarie]

Absolutely right on! Very fun!

 

[gilcamp4]

Quick calculation. I put about 900 euros into the coop, hens, incubator and other stuff. Here they charge 2,50€ for 6 organic eggs, comes to about 42 cents per egg. Let's say 45 to make it easy, so I need 2000 eggs to get back my investment. With 6 hens laying maybe 180 eggs per year per hen, I get 1080 eggs in a year. Factoring in feed cost, they'll be paying for themselves in about 2 years. Not actually that bad, and it's quite small scale. With a bigger coop and more hens the cost per egg would go down. Comparing to battery hen eggs it would take closer to five years.

Nice work with the coop.

and by then you will need new coop, we started with 1 chick from a snowy corn field then we need a buddie, could not get just 1 had to get 15 gee that coop was already to small, make coop bigger to fit 30 chicks by now we have 60 and counting need a 2nd coop. and that's the way chicken farm here is

 

[vehve]

and by then you will need new coop, we started with 1 chick from a snowy corn field then we need a buddie, could not get just 1 had to get 15 gee that coop was already to small, make coop bigger to fit 30 chicks by now we have 60 and counting need a 2nd coop. and that's the way chicken farm here is

I might be able to add a hen or two once we've processed the two extra roos we've got, but in this coop I won't add any more than that, and I made the coop as big as the only sensible spot to put it on could fit. So before adding to our flock, we would need to move to a bigger place. To me, keeping chickens is cooky enough, I'll try to keep the cookyness to a level that allows the chickens to live with as little stress as possible. This amount will produce enough for us to eat, and then some, so I don't see a need for a bigger flock. If I would want to make money with the chickens, I would set it up as a business. Probably there would even be a market for eggs from happy chickens, and then I would have a whole lot bigger setup. But I prefer to keep this on a hobby level. To me, having a flock of 60 chickens would mean more work to keep them in livable conditions than I am willing to do. Same goes for dogs, I don't want to hoard them because I wouldn't have time to spend a few hours a day with each dog to give them the level of work I believe a dog needs to be happy and stable. So we only have three dogs. They are obedient, they do not destroy things when left alone, and they have a job to do.

 

[bruceha2000]

@iwiw60 Thank you first of all. The roof is going to overhang the nest box about 4 inches, however I am still undecided whether I want to make the nest box top accessible or back side accessible. If I go with the back side accessible option, I can always add flashing on the angle, but if I go for top accessible I can always .... I wouldn't know what to do to keep the water out. Any ideas?

Flashing! Tuck it up under the siding at the top of the box lid and lay it over the top of the lid before you put the roof material on. Put some sort of "open lid" support in the plan. Either cord on the outboard side of the lid and a hook on the wall or a support rod.

I was wondering if you plan to put pulleys on the extended ridge poles so you can get hay to the 'loft'

Almost done. First chickens ever coming Friday.

Nice job. My wife works at the PO, it is animal "season". Three boxes of chicks came in yesterday and a queen bee. She had ducks last week and chicks the week before that.

Work in progress... Start with a firm budget. Nail a few boards together. Revise plan. Repeat process until your coop cost comes to no less them 3x your original budget. When 80% complete, relocate the hens from the garage to make your wife stop complaining about the smell. Put off completion to allow wife sufficient opportunity to complain about yet another incomplete project. Realize it will take about 50 years of eggs to recoup your investment. Then realize it was never about eggs; and that you can't put a price on the enjoyment of the hobby.

Looks really good. Seems like you have most everything covered (including the nest box and access doors, Sylvester will be happy. The only issue I see are the branch heights relative to the nest boxes. Perhaps they are temporary until the birds are big enough to get to roosts that are higher than the nests?? If so, close of the nest boxes now so they don't use them to sleep in. Chickens are creatures of habit and if they get used to sleeping in the nests, they will be heard to break.

'how long' depends on how many layers you have, what you can charge for the eggs, how many you eat yourself and how long between the time they moult and the time they start laying again - BIG drought this past fall and winter after our girls' first moult. Start collecting egg cartons now (get your friends to do so as well) because if you have to buy them, the cost of your 'production' goes up. Tractor Supply sells them for $0.49 EACH. You can buy them cheaper but do you REALLY need 500+ egg cartons? I have my customers (all 3 of them

) give me the cartons back. They can be used quite a few times before they break down at the 'hinge'.

and by then you will need new coop, we started with 1 chick from a snowy corn field then we need a buddie, could not get just 1 had to get 15 gee that coop was already to small, make coop bigger to fit 30 chicks by now we have 60 and counting need a 2nd coop. and that's the way chicken farm here is

Chicken Math explained in real experience terms

 

[OldMcContri]

I agree. If you still have the 'choice' at this point, by all means make it accessible from the side...too many chances of leakage into the coop if the lid's on top...good luck!!

Now when you are speaking of the side, are you meaning the left and right sides or backside (North most wall)?

 

[Sylvester017]

I am in the midst of building my first chicken coop, in fact building my first anything actually. The main house is 6' x 4' x 5', the nest boxes are 14" deep x 14" wide x 17" height at apex and 9" at end.

What do you think, and any suggestions or complaints?


The raised foundation (constructed with 4x4 studs and 2x4's, and weather sealed for environment and water protection)


The wall frames have been put into place (wall frames are 2x3's)


The Entry Breeze Way frame is installed


The plywood sheathing is going up (The east side window framing is 14x21, which a sliding shed window will be going in there)


Oops, forgot to put the roofing frame on.


View of the nest box, north side of the coop to keep the daytime scorching sun off of it (Don't know why the image is sideways when I uploaded it)


View of the south side of the coop, with a 14x21 window frame, and underneath a flower box with an organic herb garden and roosting perch will be put up later. (Again no idea why the image is sideways)


All the plywood undersheathing is complete along with the roofing plywood


Aerial view


Probably the hardest part so far was making these access doors.


But hey they work and fit perfectly


Time to put the Tongue and Groove Siding on...

More pictures coming soon.

Very nice custom job. Aren't those just the most fun!

After we stood in the rain to collect our eggs the first time we had to put up a popup canopy and a tarp over the coop so the nestbox and we didn't get soaked. A cute little awning from the hardware store or construct one yourself over the nestbox area to keep out leaks.

 

[vehve]

Now when you are speaking of the side, are you meaning the left and right sides or backside (North most wall)?

Backside.
Here's what I did.

 

[Sylvester017]

not done yet but extending my coup, for more chickens, my rooster is so badass and big, hawks don't circle, they just keep flying

I love chickeneers who give lots of room to their flock - or is this addition to ADD yet more chickens?

 

[Sylvester017]

Here is our coop about finished, just need to add my herb garden on top of the nesting boxes

Pretty design.

I see daylight over the nestboxes. Hope you use good sealants or a removable watertight bin to hold your herb garden. I have an herb garden on plastic shelves and each variety in it's own drain base and still I get leaking but then I don't have them over my nestboxes.

Lovely wood finish and great hardwire protection. Is there anything to prevent critters from digging under the coop pen? We had a stray German Shepherd and his mutt friend break down our gate and then attack the coop. It was a lifesaver to have the coop set on paver stones with a 3 foot wide paver stone walkway around the coop and pen which prevented the mutts from digging under to get to the chickens. Lucky we had a neighbor who chased the mutts away.