Hello,
I have been lurking on these forums for quite some time now. I have to admit, almost everything my wife and I have learned, was from searching the forums here. I love this website, thanks for all of the help! Now we have established our flock and have a little experience under our belts, thought to share with y'all the fruits of our labor.
Our chicken coop is a two-level, open air design. built by my talented brother-in-law. It has 14 nest boxes, and one long roost. With a separate left and right section for two different groups. I know one group is Cornish Rock, the other are unknown brown chickens that we bought a couple months after brooding the white fatties. The run is secured with chicken wire from top to bottom with blocks of limestone sealing the bottom.
Our duck pond and run is our labor of love. It's approximately 3500 gallons with 1 8000 gph pump creating a small waterfall and a smaller 300gph pump pushing the fountain. Each pump has UV and mechanical filtration. The pond is lined with this fantastic liner made by firestone that carries a crazy-long warranty. The limestone was sourced locally from a quarry. Each one-ton load was hand loaded in and out of the back of my pickup. I put up the 4-foot horse fence by myself, in the rain mostly. We got a small metal shelter for the quackers recently, and they are finally using it when hailstones fall from the sky. We also planted two cherry trees, and two peach trees around the run for some future shade. The feathers and algae are driving me crazy, but I still feel its worth it.
Thanks for all your help!
This is what I got started today before work...the nesting box opening for the chickens to get in is 1'6" the floor is 1'6" and the back wall is 1' so it has a 6" incline for rain to run off ..And the spacers are going to be placed every 1'2" so there will be three boxes
