post your chicken coop pictures here!

[ashirk]

Actually the inside doors open in such a way to allow a chute to be placed out the door to the tractor loader bucket and away it goes. easy peasy

 

[ashirk]

No splatters yet and I am deep littering so cleanup has been very limited. Chickens scratch and mix for me. I was looking into the additive you mentioned for the winter months

 

[ashirk]

Hey Bruce Thanks for your comments. I am happy to report the eggs do roll back and out of the box and that has been good because the girls only seem to use one box and sometimes two hens in at a time. I posted a picture but ill put it here again.

she is looking to see where her eggs went, Lip prevents her from gathering them back. The reason for the design is to protect from breaking and pecking eggs if we are away overnight and can't get a sub to collect the eggs. The whole coop is designed to have some flexibility with care. Deep litter, Automatic waterer, and feeder, electric chicken door and predator proofed run.( I hope )

 

[LindaB220]

Actually there are 3 roosts at different levels...4 counting the nest board.. The coop isn't but 5' tall at best...down to 4'.. They get on this roost at the lower point and walk up.. LOL... The only one who is really big for that end is the nosy one. I think she goes up there just to see what I'm doing.

Most of them stay at the other end which is probably at least 6" lower.. I cut down those young trees, drug them up from the back of our lot.....holding on to them with my car door open! I'm telling you,,this whole process would have won me a $100,000 on AFV's

My Mama's favorite say was, "Where there's a will, there's a way." I personally hated that saying because usually she was right.

Great ingenuity.

 

[TJordan]

What to do what to do if the deep litter option is out due to space limits in the coop..
So many options so little space lol... Also... Should I use only sweet PDZ in my coop for bedding or put shavings on top of it?.... I've heard it both ways... I'm planing to start using it when we build the 4'x8' coop ..... Oh I think I'm also going to build an add-on area like a green house area for the coming winter .... I hope....

 

[arkansas55]

I'll play...

bought the plans online for $20 from http://www.thegardencoop.com. We modified the plans to make it bigger.

Good luck, I know from experience that the planning for chickens and a new coop can be overwhelming. It will all be worth it in the end.

love your coop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[jtbass2756]

Hey Bruce Thanks for your comments. I am happy to report the eggs do roll back and out of the box and that has been good because the girls only seem to use one box and sometimes two hens in at a time. I posted a picture but ill put it here again.

she is looking to see where her eggs went, Lip prevents her from gathering them back. The reason for the design is to protect from breaking and pecking eggs if we are away overnight and can't get a sub to collect the eggs. The whole coop is designed to have some flexibility with care. Deep litter, Automatic waterer, and feeder, electric chicken door and predator proofed run.( I hope )

Just seeing that chicken poking her head thru the back looking for her egg....too funny.

I'm sitting here trying to figure out how I could make something like that work....

 

[jtbass2756]

I am so celebrating tonight....(I'd drink a beer or something except I don't like their taste!)...Came up short on my48" wire going around my coop..Had 18" left and only needed 7 1/2'..LOL.. another 3' section was fixed with some 1/4" hardware wire.. but when my dh said he was going straight on to church to take care of some business...I hurried back out there and found a piece of 48" x 2"x4" wire.

But it was going to go on the last panel to the right side of the coop. Don't like the size hole so I might put chicken wire layer on the inside of this panel. Tomorrow is another day! You really have to look close to see the different wire on the other side. By this weekend....hope to pop the pop door and let those girls out!!

Thought it would be able to see the panel thru this wire but it didn't happen. Still have to rip some of the old boards to use as reinforcement and be able to screw and secure the layers.. Hopefully will trim top of posts tomorrow also...Depends on the heat!!

 

[Sylvester017]

I had a Newfie/chow chow mix who lived to be 17 and he was a medical disaster so I have the hope of many more years with Willie. We take 4-5 mile hikes a couple of times a week and his joints are great but I know a little about his history and genetics and it's not so great. He's also allergic to everything which has been our biggest challenge so far but if that's the extent to his health problems from here on out then I'm thrilled to pieces.

I know what you mean! All this eye candy is making it difficult to settle on certain features for finishing my own coop but then again, I think there will always be room for improvement.

I heard about a product called Dinovite on the radio - it is not manufactured with cooked ingredients but has natural stuff like alfalfa and live enzymes that get rid of ear itches, skin allergies, and grows shiny coats on dogs. Ever hear of it? I heard it advertised on KFI 640 radio channel. You can probably Google it and/or order it online to see if it helps his coat issues. All our big Rotts had health issues of either heart, stomach, or hip problems but that was decades ago before organic, health, and pesticide-free foods were available for pets.

 

[Sylvester017]

How do I start selling them lol...

I don't think my husband expected this many in 1 week... Got another batch like this in the refrigerator....

I told him wait until they all are laying on a set schedule ....

You may want to hold off setting up a sales clientele because hens lay like crazy in spring/summer and drop off in the winter (even the so-called winter layers) and you won't be able to keep up with the demand once you start and it's a real pain getting those customers to bring back their cartons for re-use. Carton supply is a pain when you start selling to a customer base.

Sell to a couple steady acquaintances maybe at work or a neighbor but I wouldn't start thinking this is a constant supply. What we do with our glut of eggs in summer is make a lot of recipes for breakfast/lunch/dinners like Huevos Ranchera, Huevos Mexicana, Egg/Cheese/Sausage/Bacon Wraps, Egg Salad Sandwiches, Potato Salad, Egg in a Cradle, Souffle, Quiche, Omelets, Poached Eggs on Toast, Hard Boiled Eggs (to put on top of salads or soups or feed back to the flock for extra protein), Chinese Egg Drop Soup, bake quick Muffins or Cornmeal bread in the mornings, Angel Food or Yellow Food Cake, Cookies, etc etc. Because once the cooler months or December gets here you'll be lucky to see an egg in two weeks time! We bought an Egg Genie a couple years ago to quickly hard-boil or poach our eggs quickly in the mornings - it took a couple tries but we got the hang of it now.

During this past year the only hen laying in our winter flock was our Ameraucana and 4 eggs a week in winter will not meet your customer demands. My friend has 15 chickens and in the winter has a terrible time holding off customers who have increased their orders to 2 or more dozens and she doesn't get enough eggs for her own family. She's getting tired of customer pressure. Our pet store acquaintance has 40 RIRs and BRs and didn't get but 3 eggs one week in winter and was lamenting about the lack of eggs while feeding 40 hens.

After 3 years of our girls laying we plan on a lot of egg dishes during summer and then aren't so disappointed when they take a holiday to moult or regenerate themselves during the cooler winter months.