post your chicken coop pictures here!

[napdognewfie]

Can you put her in a dog crate or a big box? Wait till she is asleep and put the babies under her.

I bet she is looking for her chicks. Sadly there may have been more that didn't make it.

 

[perchie.girl]

That is a very nice setup Deb.

Thanks I love it up there... you can see the Milky Way at night... I never thought you could see it without a telescope.

Quote: Oh yeah... I will . When the well pump died I had NO way of supplying my animals water... But If I set it up right I want a reservoir of about five hundred gallons that will serve both horse and chickens and goats and dogs. This I can set up with two water totes so the well can fill them with a float valve... and If the well or the electricity dies I can still haul water up from the city and fill up those totes.

The water table here has dropped a hundred feet in the last five years. My well is 450 feet deep.

As far as starting I could start now but wont till I am in a position of digging that trench. But right now my family needs me to live here in the city. I am living with my 99 year old grandma so I just plan and gather up supplies and do an occasional home run to deliver...

Quote: EXACTLY... here we have pretty hard soil too... so It will have to be done with a ditch witch. If I do one I will dig em all because I will have rented it or hired someone with one. The shortest rout will to be capp off a faucet in the driveway dig across the road to the coop T-ing off for the horse at the corner of the horse corral then down the outside to just under the corner of the shelter. Two hose bibs along there one at the original water tank position and one at the corner of her pipe corral. and maybe one at the cross ties to use it as a wash rack.

But in that same ditch I need to run from the house to the coop and corral... So I might as well offer up a connection to house water for the livestock. Set it up to turn one off and use the other if necessary. Long story. second pipe for wiring.... set in the same trench. I want to run half inch... But maybe I need to think bigger diameter.

Ideally I should setup a DC power circuit to run lighting out there from a single Solar panel. It would be a good experiment I am not unfamiliar with electricity... Not a pro either... but I would love to tinker up something. BUT I need standard 110 out at horse and within the coop. For the horse regular lights for night time wellness checks. And for Clippers and a shop vac... Similar for the coop. regular lights to really see. and possibly a cool box for the eggs. Oh and incubator.

All setup with GFI and maybe even inline fuses.... my construction is mostly steel so Minimal worry about fire.

IF i do pop doors they will each have their own solar cell.

Quote: You never can tell . I didnt search out mine but they needed homes so I had the space....

The little A frames would be good for all the chickens.

 

[ShrekDawg]

You never can tell .  I didnt search out mine but they needed homes so I had the space....   The little A frames would be good for all the chickens.

I'm not sure I've ever seen one for sale or rescue here, mostly heritage breeds/New England breeds or mixes or roos haha

That's true about the A frames though

 

[Sylvester017]

I'll second the suggestion to paint the inside.

After I built my coop (and before I got my chickens) a friend suggested the same thing to me. I took his advice, and am very happy I did.

If you don't have leftover paint from previous projects to use, you can go to Lowes/Home Depot/any-paint-store and buy up their mis-colored paints. (People who aren't happy with the color that got mixed up usually can return for a refund, and then the paint store is stuck with colors that nobody wants, so they sell them for CHEAP (like $5/gallon), and you shouldn't care what color you are putting on the inside of a chicken coop!)

Painting the inside is EASY. You don't have to care about drips, you can slop it on quickly and thickly -- even do two coats -- and really put a good seal on that raw wood. Multiple colors? Who cares! It's the seal that you are looking for, not the artistry of the work. The chickens certainly won't care. REALLY slather it on the floor. Poop won't soak in once that dries to a nice seal.

Just my 2-cents.

I bought a gallon of paint and a gallon of Thompson's Deck Water Sealer for the inside of a 4x4 coop. Question: Is it safe for the chickens if we use the Water Sealer over the painted interior - no harmful chemical emissions/fumes in the long term use of the coop?

 

[Sylvester017]

A patio does sound nice! And that's good she doesn't go after big chickens.

I think ours must come back every spring too because I don't hear them in winter. Except she only just recently left. Unless they leave the babies to find their own way? Cause they migrate right? I'm not sure we could handle keeping them inside that long haha and yeah, crows can be annoying but recently I've also seen so many posts elsewhere and stories/articles about how intelligent they and other birds in the family (corvid, I know it includes ravens and I think jays but not sure what. Else. Crows and ravens are the smartest) so I've definitely come to like them now haha I'm not sure ours keep them away considering the hawks still come back but I've seen them chase them. Sometimes just one,often two or three, chasing the poor hawk all over the sky and making tons of noise LOL I think the hawks must go after their eggs or chicks or something. They sure keep them away though. Haven't seen it in a little while though.

But oh wow, that is getting slow! I should probably add one too when they get older but I'd probably get maybe two so they're not alone for integration. You've never had issues?

I think the wild bird populace all hatch their young in the Spring including hawks, crows, sparrows, doves, hummies, etc etc. Other than the wild escaped parrot populations from the L.A. Arboretum we don't see much birds in the winter other than a couple resident hummingbirds and flying rats (annoying sparrows). Some wild avians stay through our mild fall/winter season but the wild birds chase off their offspring to diversify their own gene pool - smart eh? The mother hummies will tolerate their fledglings for a couple weeks aroiund the hummie feeder but then chases them off to find their own territories.

We went through 13 chickens to get down to the 4 girls we have now - some were re-homed cockerels, some were re-homed bullies, a couple died young, one had to be put down. I'm sorry to say that the cockerels, young deaths, and the euthanized bird were all from breeders who shipped the wrong sex or sick birds to us. The 4 re-homed bullies were my mistaken choice to put with docile breeds.

I came from a 25-acre farm where there was no limit on livestock/poultry but in retirement our cottage is zoned for only 5 hens/no roos. So I have had to learn how to integrate a single pullet into an existing little flock with as little drama as possible. The key for me is to have only non-combative docile breeds to start with. I put the new pullet on one side of a rabbit fence outdoors while the flock on the other side see her for several days. Then I screen a nest in the coop so all wake up in the morning seeing the same pullet. Eventually we remove the screen in a few days and let the girls sort out their pecking order which has been amazingly mild with docile breeds like our Silkies, Ameraucana, and Breda.

I'm not keen on lethal-gene chickens like Creepers (Dumpies) or Araucanas. But if my Ameraucana won't resume her blue egg-laying this winter then I may have to resort to getting a little Araucana for blue eggs - a lot of Araucana breeders have to cull rigorously to get SOP so there are a lot of pet quality available with flaws but still lay the blue or blue-green eggs somewhat steadier than the Amer's or EE's - at least that's the feedback I've been getting. But if my prima dona Amer decides to finally start laying again my next breed then will be a Dominique (we had a Dom before and really liked her but was one of the pullets that died too young).

It's an adventure with chickeneering and you never know what surprises or adjustments come your way!

 

[4T-Bird]

"HAPPY HENS" I love it!!!

Originally Posted by kbreak

 

[alltransmogrify]

I love free/recycled! Great job!

Are your walnut trees the "black" or "English"? If the black I'd be concerned about the toxicity....probably ok if the English type.

Shoot.. That's a good question... I'll ask my land lady tomorrow, I was wondering about that but read someone else using walnut and oak leaves. Pretty sure it's an English walnut tree by the looks of the nuts, but I'll be sure to check. Thanks!

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: I have only heard of the caution towards horses regarding Black Walnut... so I dug a little.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1148.html

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/plants-that-are-poisonous-to-chickens.html

and finally a discussion about black Walnut trees right here on BYC

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/671317/black-walnut-tree

I think the consensus here is chickens wont eat it if they are fed well and in foraging they dont seek it out.

deb

 

[jbblack]

Great medium size coop. Built from easy to use plans from The Garden Coop. Easy to modify to your needs. Our flock loves it!

 

[perchie.girl]

Great medium size coop. Built from easy to use plans from The Garden Coop. Easy to modify to your needs. Our flock loves it!

First and foremost

From San Diego in the High desert.

As a designer I have ALWAYS loved the Garden coop. its flexiblitiy and modularity makes it soo simple to build from scratch and It looks good too. AWESOME job.

My only concern with this design is the use of corrugated plastic panels for the roof. In cool climates its awesome... The use of materials appropriate for your climate is pretty important decision. If you get snow at all or are in a very hot climate everyone should consider the use of different roofing materials... Just a general comment on the design NOT your workmanship or choices of materials.

deb