post your chicken coop pictures here!

[Red Star Hens]

Nesting box attached. Next gotta put on shingles.

 

[TJordan]

I know I've said it before... But.... You fall in love the first time your standing there when a chick hatches..

Keep in mind that this chick and the other egg that's pipping were abandoned by the momma who went to raise her other 2 chicks and 4 adopted chicks. I thought them dead but I am so glad I didn't toss them. I must of misjudged the lay date on them. That or momma started sitting them later than I thought.

Point is. I didn't toss them. I've hatched them under a heat lamp and sprinkled water on them 3-4 times a day. Not much. Just enough to give them moisture. I hope they survives and the hen adopts both like those other 4. They were store bought and she took them like her own.

 

[LeslieMerrill]

We just finished this last night! Still have a lot of work to do to build the run but we are very proud of this! Made all by hand and with about 50% recycled materials.

 

[TJordan]

We just finished this last night! Still have a lot of work to do to build the run but we are very proud of this! Made all by hand and with about 50% recycled materials.

Very nice. We hope to finish ours as soon as the weather lets up. After that storm Saturday we have to push up our building. Add in the 6 chicks with momma and the 2 hatching under the headlamp and we need more room. That will be a total of 16 chickens if all littles survive. Need bigger digs. Momma will stay in smaller coop until babies get bigger. 4 or 5 depending babies will go to my mom-n-law so that will help.

 

[peastix]

We just finished this last night! Still have a lot of work to do to build the run but we are very proud of this! Made all by hand and with about 50% recycled materials.

We just finished this last night! Still have a lot of work to do to build the run but we are very proud of this! Made all by hand and with about 50% recycled materials.

Very Cute! Well done.

 

[Sylvester017]

We have 6 Isa Brown beauties that should be ready for move in next weekend! They will be 6 weeks old and other than a few fly away fuzzies on a couple of their necks they have their feathers.

This is our 1st time owning chickens so it's definitely a work in progress and learning adventure! I'm very grateful to my wonderful husband for putting up with all of my "changes" as this project goes along.

The coop itself is 4 x 8 x 6 with 3 nesting boxes and their run is 16 x 8. We used 1/4" hardware wire on the entire thing. A lot of the material was already on hand or donated. We had to improvise in some areas to make do but i think it turned out pretty good for a couple of 1st timers! We put blocks under a couple landscape timbers(much to my husbands disliking) as they were too short but then buried the rest for stability. Not pretty but functional.





They've got a swing, 3 perches, a couple of logs to climb on, a hanging basket for treats and a hanging treat ball for some tether ball fun! Also, I built a box for them to dust themselves (filled with wood ash and dirt) that will go in the corner where they are huddled in this pic. I hung their waterer up but still have to figure out the best place for the pvc feeder we made. I used their little yellow one from the house as they were only outside for the day.



OH.... and also get the dog out of the hen house!! Guess he wanted to help dad insulate the coop! The other 2 boys would rather watch chicken tv than help out.

I love the space you've allowed for your Isas. I love the entertainment you provided for your penned girls. Chickens will pick on each other in an enclosed space without fun things to peck at other than each other! Your DH is a keeper! In your last pic with the 2 dogs looking at the chicks I noticed the hardwire mesh looked loose - is it buried in the ground? Just wondered what you did to discourage digging predators like skunks, raccoons, oppossums, even curious pet dogs lol!

 

[Sylvester017]

Keep in mind that this chick and the other egg that's pipping were abandoned by the momma who went to raise her other 2 chicks and 4 adopted chicks. I thought them dead but I am so glad I didn't toss them. I must of misjudged the lay date on them. That or momma started sitting them later than I thought.

Point is. I didn't toss them. I've hatched them under a heat lamp and sprinkled water on them 3-4 times a day. Not much. Just enough to give them moisture. I hope they survives and the hen adopts both like those other 4. They were store bought and she took them like her own.

I'm curious with so much time elapsing between the momma's other brood and these new chicks whether she'll accept the newbies. Ameraucana flocks are nurturing and accept orphaned chicks or injured birds into their flocks willingly but other breeds are not so nice. Keep us posted.

 

[chicchic25]

I love the space you've allowed for your Isas. I love the entertainment you provided for your penned girls. Chickens will pick on each other in an enclosed space without fun things to peck at other than each other! Your DH is a keeper! In your last pic with the 2 dogs looking at the chicks I noticed the hardwire mesh looked loose - is it buried in the ground? Just wondered what you did to discourage digging predators like skunks, raccoons, oppossums, even curious pet dogs lol!

Thank you so much Sylvester017! At the time of the picture you are correct it was loose. The wire was was not buried under the coop either (guess we were thinking the boards around the coop would be deterent enough)...mistake on our part for sure! We have to give our min-pin credit for finding the weak spot. He gave us a quick reminder of how fast a predator could get into it if they were determined. So we reinforced that corner an are now in training mode to get the dogs to understand the chickens are not on the menu.

We went ahead and buried the wire under the coop as much as possible, but hubs says he still may need to add some chicken wire for more reinforcing as we go along. We've never had problems with any wildlife other than squirrels, bats and birds in town and our neighbor has had chickens for 3 yrs without incident. Hope i don't jinx them or us by saying that out loud. LOL We will remain vigilant and keep our fingers crossed the predators stay out of our area. Thank you again, Take care!

 

[TJordan]

[COLOR=0000CD]I'm curious with so much time elapsing between the momma's other brood and these new chicks whether she'll accept the newbies.  Ameraucana flocks are nurturing and accept orphaned chicks or injured birds into their flocks willingly but other breeds are not so nice.  Keep us posted.[/COLOR]

Wow. Took my words from this morning with my husband right out of my mouth. At around 5:30 am I heard a lot of noise and feared something was after my baby. Guess what I found!!!

My second baby hatched from small pip to solid zip from 2:30-5:30. I was up all night checking lol. Nearly a pip at 2:30. Full on baby at 5:30!!! Yeah!!!! And the first one will run over and hop in my hand every time I go in.

 

[chicchic25]

something is going on with my chickens, fri i went to clean yard and coop i found a dead chicken under the camper, today i went out and was cutting the grass gave chickens some of it, happened to look at the wheel and laying there was a chicken, i went over to check it, it was dead, it was alive last night, i am not sure what is going on hubbie checked it and no marks on it still had all feathers, nothing was eating it. god i hope we don't have a bad thing going on with them, we lost one whole flock once a couple years ago, we move the yard and got new coop for them things have been going good for 3 yrs.

Oh no!! I'm too new to chicken keeping to offer any advice, but there are so many knowledgeable people here that I'm sure will help you. I hope that your dear ones will be ok.