post your chicken coop pictures here!

[Sylvester017]

Move last week went well


First day free range....

Chickens absolutely LOVE free-range - like letting children loose onto a playground. If you can get a hose out to the free-range wet an area down and they'll have a blast digging in the wet soil. Set up some plywood planks on cinderblocks or a couple recycled large doghouses or a popup canopy with legs buried a foot into the ground for shade/snoozing/hiding areas from aerial predators. The hawks won't go after hiding chickens. We have rose bushes that our hens like to hide under besides a wheelbarrow and plywood shelters set on cinderblocks and a popup canopy. Our Cooper's Hawk (chicken hawk) won't go after our hiding girls. I guess they prefer swooping down on a running chicken in an open yard so we set up shelters all around for chickens to duck for cover. With those shady trees you probably have occasional predators stalking your girls and the shelters will provide them cover during their barnyard alerts. Love your barnyard brick red coop.

 

[TJordan]

Totally agree with you @Sylvester017
 on the DE. I, too, have OMRI Organic Poultry Protector (in the spray bottle) and that's what I'll be using!! :yiipchick

Thanks... I'll try that vs the DE

 

[Sylvester017]

I read your post and the first thing I said to myself was "SHOOT!!!" Why? Cause I'm still "putting my girls to bed" at night. Oh, they go in the coop just fine at dusk. I have a webcam and I've been watching them when they do go in. They stand around, looking up at the roost bar tray, looking at the nice ladder that leads up to it for them, shuffling around, looking around..drive me nuts! Then one or two of them will hop onto the ladder, looking up but never quite "getting there"....again, drives me NUTS!!

So after about 20-30 minutes of listening to them bwaaking for "mom" I give in, go out to the coop and put them all (4 of them) onto the roosting bar. They all look at me as if they're saying "what took you so long??" Chickens!!! Silly little things!

I have a couple Silkies that mill around like that. They go into their nestbox to settle in and then decide it isn't dark enough yet and jump down to go outside and mill around the coop or get one final drink of water, groom for a while, coo for a while, mill around the bottom of the coop for a while but I refuse to get them used to me putting them to bed. After about 45 minutes of going back and forth and milling and cooing they finally settle down - this must be normal roosting behavior since all my breeds have done that throughout our 3 years. I have an LED garden hummingbird that lights up at dusk. I can gear the chickens wanting to go to roost by watching when that LED turns on for the evening and know there will be at least another 15-20 minutes before the last hen finally goes to bed. My Ameraucana (my avatar) will sit on the nestbox ledge like a sentinel until I finally can close the coop door and when she see's this secure step, then she feels safe to go into one of the nestboxes for the night. Because of all this unusual behavior we don't feel safe setting up an automatic pop-door since it takes so long for our 3 hens to settle down all at different times.

 

[TJordan]

One of my girls sporting the new hide! We used the old truck bed liner, flipped over and a rod to peak it a little...

 

[ericaruth19]

 

[Sylvester017]

Sorry nope.. These birds might be considered 'heavy' but they can flap where ever they seem to want to go..l really funny when one flew up onto my shoulder and pooped down my hair!!

Heavy or dual purpose breeds can fly/jump really well when they choose to. We had a big 7-lb Marans that sailed over an 8-foot barrier where we were trying to keep her from attacking/clawing the gentler chicken breeds we had. We had to re-home her.

 

[Sylvester017]

Well dang! There goes about 20 hours of work! I have 4 chickens. I am guessing they are about 2 months old right now. I am currently renting and didn't want to get carried away with making a big coop until I buy again. Thanks for the info. I'm going to have to take another look and see what I can do.

I've had backyard chickens for 3 years and still am learning and haven't got everything done in the yard for them - but security should be a first priority and then worry about how fancy it looks.

 

[Sylvester017]

This will make you open your eyes and run to get a closer look...



Then she sat up and got upset that I interrupted her bath...

First time I saw a Silkie do that on a hot paver stone in the sun I thought she was dead or dying - nope, just sun-bathing!

 

[Sylvester017]

Totally agree with you @Sylvester017 on the DE. I, too, have OMRI Organic Poultry Protector (in the spray bottle) and that's what I'll be using!!

Using Poultry Protector about once a month on coop and on chickens per label directions is an excellent lice/mite preventative. I once had to scoop out a broken soft shell egg that ants were swarming over - a couple quck squirts of the Poultry Protector and it immobilized the ants so they weren't crawling up my arm while I cleaned out and sprayed down the rest of the nestbox crevices/corners (the whole box doesn't need spraying but just the crevices and corners of the box.)

 

[iwiw60]

Sounds like they are just lazy...

Get up there yourself you crazy

lol

And I love the poop tray!!!! Talk about idea!!!! We are about to build a bigger coop because ours is tight for the birds we have... I think we might incorporate at least the removable roost bar... Granted they only hang out in the coop at night because they semi-free range in a LARGE fenced in back yard but it's still a great tip for cleaning

If you build a roost/poop tray like I did and put a bag of Sweet PDZ in it....you will NEVER regret it! I bought a cat litter scooper thingie and it takes me less than 3 minutes to scoop out the poop, and I'm done..leaves the coop smelling really nice, too! Have a look at this:

TOLD YA YOU'D LIKE IT!!!