post your chicken coop pictures here!

[Beekissed]

Very pretty colors and design touches! And the yellow door is lovely.

 

[SHemphill]

Wow quite exquisite coop Ya got there.

 

[Sylvester017]

Here is a Floor plan of my future coop.

Wow, Perchie! You do all of these things in a wheelchair? Kudos!

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Not yet but I am heading there... I can stand and walk about but not far. without a walker. If I am prepared and don't need it all the better.

I have spoken to people who train driving horses from a wheel chair... much younger than me you bet... but there are things you can do to adapt... For me its modular construction. Each of those panels has four clamps two on each end to hold them together.

I want a solid tin roof so I will be installing a line of vertical posts down the center they will stick up beyond the six feet of the dog kennel panels to provide supoort for rafters. I have a neighbor who is a roofer and for a fee will install the tin I already have. Even at 70 years old he can by hand, out shingle a guy with a pneumatic nailer....

deb

 

[Sylvester017]

You cannot have chickens sleeping in nest boxes. You get poo on the eggs, Chickens poop all night long.

I saw your original coop and know you had no chioce but you need to retrain your girls to sleep on roosts. It was not a choice on their part because of the limited space you had.

I am afraid its not a matter of Allowing it.... Its a matter of good chicken husbandry. Sorry this is one I feel strongly about. We need to be the best caretakers we can be.... Which means giving them as natural an environment possible

Low nest boxes simulate their natural desire to nest on the ground. Higher perches give them a sense of security from ground predators.... Getting out to scratch in the dirt is important too... I fail in that respect.

I do know Silkeys will sleep in a nest box if allowed. But you can provide a perch for them that they can get up on and bring them up off the ground. I had one Silky that had enough wing tip feathers to power flap up to a perch that was two feet off the ground.... Little reprobate... he was a roo and thought he was all that....

His brother wasn't as capable so I built him a saw horse arrangement he could hop up on for roosting.

also for those who have broody hens... they will get off the nest once or twice per day Where upon they will do a mad dash for food water Dust bath AND deposite a Broody Poo which will be GINORMOUS.... If that poo goes into the nest and isnt cleaned out your eggs will suffer.

So if you find a broody and you suspect she hasnt gotten off the nest its a good idea to remove them from the nest and set them near food and water and dust bath material at least once per day.

yes you can move the eggs if you need to clean.... but be quick about it. do not wash hatching eggs wipe them clean as you can with a damp cloth if necessary. But you dont want to seal up the pores on the eggs which allow oxygen in.

deb

Hi Perchie - ditto - we had no choice with the original little coop to allow the hens to sleep where they chose. Occasionally they used the roost bar but ultimately wound up in the nestboxes. I don't get much eggs from 2 Silkies - sporadic at 2 weeks of laying and then 3-4 weeks of broodiness w/ no eggs. The 3rd Amer hen lays approx every other day and her eggs don't get pooped on in the nestboxes during the night. Occasionally during laying season a Silkie will lay a night egg in the nestbox but it really is not a biggie and poops have not been the problem you might think but I'm not here to change your mind. Each chickeneer does what works for them and since we don't hatch or brood chicks a rare poop on an egg shell is not an issue for us. We all gotta do what works best for our flock and hopefully our newest coop will solve a lot of the problems we had w/ our small coop if you saw my earlier posts of old and new coops

.

 

[Sylvester017]

Delurking to agree with both Deb and Sylvester017 on a couple of things

Agreed that it is not a good idea to have chickens sleeping in the nest box but, also agree that keeping the nest box clean is fairly easy, depending on the chicken .. I had a bantam who slept in the nest box because the matriarch hen used to pick on her. There was room for her on the roost but she seemed to prefer the nest box. She only did a couple of large poops overnight; easy clean up in the morning, all good.

She slept in that nest box for a good 8 months and I thought that was just what she preferred.

However, when I extended the coop and roost I got a huge shock when she jumped up on the roost. I was wrong in my thought that her preference was to sleep in the nest box and while there was what I thought was enough room on the roost for her, there probably wasn't and since extending the roost, she has not slept in the nest box again.

Same with Silkies; I had two Silkies who slept in the nest box on the floor of the coop. When they got a little older I noticed them roosting on the edge of the nest box, not in it. I rigged up a Silkie friendly low roost for them and they slept on that; never slept in the nest box again.

So my thoughts are; while there are chickens we believe prefer to sleep in the nest box, it could just be that the roost we think is appropriate for them is, in fact, not?

Hi, thanks for sharing. That was our conclusion about why our hens chose the old nestboxes since the roost bar was too short and too narrow IMO. Even in our new coop (still waiting on replacement parts to finish assembling) there is no way 15-16 hens would be comfortable in it as advertised. It is roomier than the old little coop but I would wager no more than 8 LF hens would fit comfortably taking in the roost bar configurations, 4 nestboxes and only 4x4 coop floor space. We're hoping the 5 hens will like to roost on bars but we won't deter them from using nestboxes if that winds up their preference. They know better than me where it's best and most comfortable for them to roost. I wouldn't want to be forced to sleep on a couch if a downy mattress is my preference - LOL!

 

[gilcamp4]

Hi, thanks for sharing. That was our conclusion about why our hens chose the old nestboxes since the roost bar was too short and too narrow IMO. Even in our new coop (still waiting on replacement parts to finish assembling) there is no way 15-16 hens would be comfortable in it as advertised. It is roomier than the old little coop but I would wager no more than 8 LF hens would fit comfortably taking in the roost bar configurations, 4 nestboxes and only 4x4 coop floor space. We're hoping the 5 hens will like to roost on bars but we won't deter them from using nestboxes if that winds up their preference. They know better than me where it's best and most comfortable for them to roost. I wouldn't want to be forced to sleep on a couch if a downy mattress is my preference - LOL!

did you ever think of moveing the 2 coops next to each other and make one out of the 2

 

[Teila]

That is what we did with two 'kit' coops and we had helpers!

 

[Sylvester017]

did you ever think of moveing the 2 coops next to each other and make one out of the 2

If we had the room we would've loved keeping the old coop but it would cut down considerably on free-range space. It was time to reluctantly find a new home for the old coop. The new one is made sturdier and stands 2-ft taller and has 8 sq ft more run space when the hens are penned. The new coop will be very adequate for only 5 hens. We aren't zoned for more than that and intend to stay within the limit. We have a few raised garden beds and a patio full of potted veggie and fruit plants so we've taken enough space away from the ranging hens. Thanks for the idea which is lovely if we had space!

 

[Sylvester017]

That is what we did with two 'kit' coops and we had helpers!

Is it just me or do the Australian and U.K. coops look better-built than the crap sold in the USA? Those Lenham coops by Forsham are particularly solid looking!