post your chicken coop pictures here!

[chicchic25]

Here is ours. We are going to be building a bigger one soon. I want one that I can walk into.

I love this one! Nice job!

 

[Sylvester017]

Well I'm finally getting near the end of the project. I knew I was going to get chick this spring after mulling it over, in my head, 1000 times. I had several objectives, all of which were mostly the comfort of my chicks and the ease of regular maintenance. I live in town, at least for now, so I can't have roosters & a limit of 12 poultry. I also am concerned with the food they eat, so having a diet of non GMO feed was on the list. I've had more than a year to study, build, grow & experiment before I got the chicks and I think it's paying off now. In Feb 2014 I started a mealworm farm so I would have enough to keep up with their treats. Also, just before I got the chicks I put down a 17 seed cover crop package that I saw on one of Gabe Brown's no till/permaculture videos & it came up very nicely, especially since I don't think I have green thumbs. I wanted it to be full on lush before the chicks got in there, cause I know they will tear it up pretty quick, but still have as much good nutrition they need as possible. I built the coop & run with no plans & had only a few mistakes which were easy to fix. The coop is 5X8 & the run is 12 X 14 and almost 6 1/2 feet tall. I'm actually not quite done with the inside but I'm going to build a poop tray & use Sweet PDZ. Nest boxes will be easy to clean rectangular plastic dish pans with straw. Right now they are in the brooder which is inside the coop. I think they will be grown up enough to go out of the brooder by the end of next week. When I first got the chicks they were all supposed to be the same age, but when they were delivered, 3 of them were obviously 4-5 weeks older than the rest. So I got 3 Buff Orpingtons, 3 Barred Rocks and 3 Black Australorps (the big ones). Wasn't really a problem. Today makes it 3 weeks & 4 days since I got them and how the time has just flown by. I make a point to handle each one several times a day to make the best bond. They get 3 mealworms each, each day, so I don't over do it. I also dangle a 1/2 raw corn ear with a screw down the middle & wire, maybe an apple, the same way, and some cooked oat meal. Everything except the apple make them go crazy! We were having fairly good weather and within the first week I made a 3' X 6' X 18" pen covered with chicken wire so they could enjoy the sunny days. I could tell they really enjoyed the pen instead of the brooder. The brooder itself used the Mama heating pad method, for heat, rather than a light bulb. They slept like babies. Not a peep. Thanks Blooie. And after 2 weeks I have been fermenting part of their food & they like it a lot. It's everything they said it would be as this wonderful site has so much great info. I also plan on doing fodder for them, too. I didn't get too crazy on the coop for the exception of an automatic, solar charged door opener with an auto engaging raccoon attachment I copied from a youtube video. Was a snap to build and cost less than $40 for all the parts. So I want to give a HUGE THANKS to all the people who spent their time posting ideas on this site to make this experience really great. .

I love it when people research their chickens in advance. Nice planning and I like the breeds you mxed together. They should all be on the same flock politics level with no timid or non-assertive types for them to bully. You made good choices. The area space and branch perches are great. Throw in a couple old chairs, tree stumps, or doghouses for them to snooze/hide in during their mid-day relaxation. Our girls can use the coop or pen under the coop for snoozing but they like the outside shelters and doghouses to stay out of the wind or rain yet still enjoy the idea of being outdoors. I assume the chicken poultry wire is just for daytime to keep chickens inside and not to keep predators out since you have a predator-secure coop for roosting? Still don't be surprised to find chicken wire torn open someday. It is so easy to mangle from predator teeth or claws. Ours got mangled by stray neighborhood mutts that broke down our yard gate. We erected 2 gates now in case one is broken there's another to challenge entry. Our new block wall will have iron gates.

 

[Sylvester017]

Thanks for the Welcome and the advice.
I like the paver idea, and will make sure I do so. The roof will have a layer of 3/4"x 6-8" wide planks installed first before I install the metal roof, to help minimize the rain noise.
I am really getting addicted to the BackYard Chicken site and forums. So much info and many ideas to steal from (they aren't patented I hope!)

You're welcome! Don't forget to close the gap between the walk-in pen door and the roof line. I'm telling you, those raccoons can really squeeze through the flattest of slits/openings. I watched a video of a full grown raccoon squeezing throuh a garage door gap barely enough for a bird to get in! I have a distaste for raccoons because they kill/chase chickens more for the thrill of the chase than for food!

 

[Sylvester017]

I think the name of the pg was ChickenSaloon.com. I just looked under the Rambler

Not 100% sure how to work this iPad yet to copy and post the link lol
As for the play yard..l yep. Was my sons ... Recycle reduce reuse right lol...
To bad it doesn't work!!! Just found all 6 littles out of it running around back and forth through the fence next door... Need to secure that fast!!! Grabbed my sons new butterfly net to herd them back into the yard and into the pin.

Guess I'll be stealing that hardware cloth my hubby bought for our yet to be built coop lol...

Our new coop is 61/2 feet tall 4x8 and the inside coop part over the run is 4x4 -- the manufacturer claimed 15-16 chickens but it would be a stretch to get 8 hens comfortably inside IMO. Manufacturers are getting more clever in their advertising by stating their coops are not intended for anything but roosting and to make sure to have outside space adequate for the number of hens you have. Even at that they still exaggerate their flock numbers. I always estimate half of what mfrs say. That aside, the Rambler looks like a good design - especially if raised on a platform or on reasonably priced cinderblocks to raise it off the ground a bit. One BYCer put 2 of them together - they never posted a pic of them joined so don't know how they did it. Someone said they used extra reinforcing bracks in the connecting wall pieces for security. The Rambler is a nice looking piece that will work well in the future as a brooder too after you get your coop yard built up again. High Santa Ana 100 mph winds in our area is why we and our neighbors chopped down our old trees and also to deter predators from easily jumping from yard to yard. We decided shade trees weren't worth our windows and roofs collapsing from broken boughs and limbs.

 

[towman27]

 

[Sylvester017]

Here is ours. We are going to be building a bigger one soon. I want one that I can walk into.

Looks similar to ones on Cackle Hatchery. I have yet to find a mfr who makes comfortable walk-ins. Even the well-built Amish syles require stooping. Even with our new coop we would have to stoop a bit to walk in but we don't plan to have feed/water in the pen since the girls free-range. The pen will just be a place for them to gather in the morning under the coop before we let them out for the day. It's just nice to have the pen space in case we need to pen them for the day because of gardening, or doing remodeling/construction in the yard, etc., where we can't have them loose as usual.

 

[Sylvester017]

With all those trees around your property you probably have an assortment of chicken predators lurking around. You'll be happy you covered up your chicken poultry wire with sturdier 1/2 inch hardwire or even cattle fencing over it because raccoons are clever at untwisting the poultry wire to get inside chicken pens. Stray mutts mangled our poultry wire beyond repair and would've lost our chickens if not for a good neighbor coming to the rescue!

Love the rustic look of the coop! Another good photo op for nostalgic art prints.

 

[Teila]

I hope the OP does not mind me sharing but I saw this on another thread. The OP could not believe that ‘something’ was getting to her chickens and had come to the conclusion that they were attacking each other.

I quote:

“My faith is restored in chicken kind. The reason we didn't see that hole is because light doesn't shine through it and we had covered it last winter. I hope I can explain how complicated it is for this guy to have gotten in there. He must have really worked at it for years maybe. The barn is a shed row with multiple rooms. Each room is separated by three walls. The walls that were the interior and exterior of the existing building and then the interior wall of the next room. He has to go all the way across a drop ceiling in another room in the barn, down a wall THEN underneath a wall THEN up the wall of the coop. Then he has to peel back layers of insulation, 2X4 welded wire and THEN climb through the sheet metal to get into the coop. The pics are from the floor of the coop pointing towards the ceiling. He knocked the game camera over, I'm assuming it was because he wanted to pose for the camera. UGH! Too bad I had to lose another chicken to figure this out. “

 

[perchie.girl]

Awesome build and

from San Diego.

You probably already know this but chicken wire is only good for keeping chickens in.... Predators will go through that like butter... Hardware cloth is your best friend at least 1/2 x 1/2 .... Not even chainlink is a deterrant I know....

deb

 

[Sylvester017]

I hope the OP does not mind me sharing but I saw this on another thread. The OP could not believe that ‘something’ was getting to her chickens and had come to the conclusion that they were attacking each other.

I quote:

“My faith is restored in chicken kind. The reason we didn't see that hole is because light doesn't shine through it and we had covered it last winter. I hope I can explain how complicated it is for this guy to have gotten in there. He must have really worked at it for years maybe. The barn is a shed row with multiple rooms. Each room is separated by three walls. The walls that were the interior and exterior of the existing building and then the interior wall of the next room. He has to go all the way across a drop ceiling in another room in the barn, down a wall THEN underneath a wall THEN up the wall of the coop. Then he has to peel back layers of insulation, 2X4 welded wire and THEN climb through the sheet metal to get into the coop. The pics are from the floor of the coop pointing towards the ceiling. He knocked the game camera over, I'm assuming it was because he wanted to pose for the camera. UGH! Too bad I had to lose another chicken to figure this out. “

Thanks for sharing. Predators have all the time in the world to figure out easy - and as this photo shows sometimes hard - ways to get to our poultry. All predators can be patient to figure a way to get a meal if they or their young are hungry. Raccoons are especially nasty as are Oppossums where poultry is involved. Chickens are very lathargic and practically catatonic when roosting and don't pay attention to noises or quiet activity around them so it's easiest for night predators to catch chickens unaware inside a henhouse. The smallest opening or weak timber is no problem for raccoons to squeeze. Foxes are very fluffy but their slender bodies, acrobatics, and fast digging ability allow them easy access through small apertures. Same with weasels. Something city dwelling chickeneers don't think about are the loose pet snakes like boas and pythons crawling around a neighborhood - not only dangerous to poultry but to other pets and humans as well. It's no wonder the seasoned chickeneers on this thread emphasize predator precautions like 1/2 inch hardwire, wire buried in-ground around a pen, boulders/blocks/paver stones around the perimeter of pens, covered/roofed pens, predator lighting, etc etc etc. For those of us who have been there we don't want others to experience poultry losses or heartaches.