post your chicken coop pictures here!

[RJSorensen]

We are gearing up for fall and have started to outfit our banty winter coop in the style of the season…



Best to all and your birds,

RJ

 

[Sylvester017]

My coop is "finished" sort of. I haven't taken pictures yet because it is still a work in progress.

I also modified my armoire. The lady above turned hers upside down. In my case, I live in a high wind area, and I was worried about the armoire getting blown over.

While I was working on the build, it did blow over. As I was looking at it lying on its side, I decided I liked it better that way, so my coop is an armoire laying down. I just put it up on legs and built the run around it with a lame-o roof. I cut up some 1/4" plywood that I had and that is the temporary roof. It leaks like a sieve, which is not normally a problem in my dry desert. But El Nino is coming. I have the whole run, with the armoire coop inside, temporarily covered with a tarp until I have the funds to finish the roof.

I will take pictures and show you what I have as of now.

There is so much room for my 5 hens and 2 chicks in there that I'm considering chicken math ....... I do still have the tiny old coop that would be perfect for chicks ......

My big girls are now 26 weeks and nary an egg from the lot of them. Grrrr.

We live in sunny SoCalif but still worried about rain so we put a pop-up canopy over our 4x6 coop in addition to using tarps over the roof of the coop because with expanding and contracting in weather something inevitably leaks on coops. We buried the legs of the pop-up canopy about 6 inches into the ground so it didn't para-sail away in a storm. Once a year we buy a new tarp and use ball ties to replace the canopy cover (cheaper than a replacement canopy and the ball-ties make the tie down look nicer.) The canopy also shades the little coop throughout summer.

 

[clucklady]

Here's an update on my coop.

Here's how it started:

Those are two very large slide-out drawers at the bottom. I haven't decided what to do with those yet.

While we were getting started on the build, the unit blew over. I live in high wind area, so I decided to leave it that way, and we built the coop around a sideways armoire. Here is the build partway through. The armoire is now sideways and up on legs leaving about 18 inches underneath for run space. We put a thin temporary roof on top. And yes, that is my bedroom window there. I worried that might be a problem. So far it's been fine because there is so much ventilation, but if it becomes a problem, we can move the whole unit somewhere else in the yard.



Because El Nino is coming, I've covered the whole unit with a tarp until I can finish the roof properly.

The human access is this set of shutters I found along with the armoire at the resale store fo $20. I'm not tall, so it works fine for me. You can get a good idea of the sideways armore here.




Here's the inside. I haven't put up perches yet and the girls actually just spend all their time in the run area, but I'm sure we'll all figure it out. The big square holes on the left are where the drawers were. I'll be disassembling the drawers and making cabinets where those holes are. Eventually. That's one of my juvenile easter-eggers there looking things over. I got a couple of used drawers at the resale store and those are the nesting boxes. My girls are 25 weeks and nobody has laid an egg yet, so I don't know if those will work out, but we'll see. Food and water is also temporarily there in the box, too. Eventually I'll figure out a real solution, but for now, it works.




So, where are the girls? When I get home from work, I open the shutters and they all charge out of the coop like they've been shot from a cannon. I have no problem with them free-ranging all the time, but when they start laying, I want to be sure I know where those eggs are, not hidden around the yard, so right now, they only get one hour a day for free-ranging. Here they are



furiously digging holes in the dirt to roll around in.

While I have your attention, can you provide any suggestion on whether this EE is a boy or girl? He/she is about 9 weeks, and while the comb seems to be orange, not red, and there is no redness on the shoulders - only around the neck - I'm apprehensive. His/her feet are the same size as the other one and I'm pretty sure that one is a girl. Any guesses?

 

[Latestarter]

I am no expert by any stretch and don't own that breed, but based on what I'm seeing with the shoulder feathers and the very large/long tail, I would lean toward rooster... But from what I understand, it can be very hard to tell until they start to crow.

 

[kristaschics15]

Finally got the big coop done! 16 x 8 with a 5 x 8 storage and feed room. It has a automatic pop door that we set to open 60 minutes after sunrise and set 30 minutes after sunset. The pop door has a wireless feature that tells us when it opens and closes and allows us to remotely open and close it. It also has a temperature sensor so we can monitor the coop in the summer and winter. It also has a 3 foot long clean out door under the roost which lifts up and locks for easy cleaning, 3 nest boxes that are accessible from out side and 4 PVC feeding spouts that can be filled from the feed room. It has 4 screened windows and 2 screened doors to aid with ventilation. The girls are loving their new digs

Please come help me build this!!!!! Wow!!! Gorgeousness!

 

[beginnergirl]

Sooooo ... The English study may show 5x weight on the keel BECAUSE the roost is flat?? Maybe the weight would be more evenly distributed if the perch were round and sized to the bird's feet????? After my last post on the subject I was looking at a piece of hand rail and wondering if that shape would actually be better than either round or flat if the bird needs to support its keel. Mine look like this and are 2 1/4 wide. Or is this the "mushroom" shape mentioned in the English study? They also mention rounded edged flat roosts being preferable but it didn't say HOW rounded. At some point, if I ever have time, I think I will put up a bunch of round poles of increasing diameter and see if I notice a size that is "easy" for the birds to grasp. Though I think walking on a smaller diameter pole would be seriously difficult for a chicken. I don't think they would "scooch" side ways real well. Perhaps the distance between the extended toes side to side would need to be taken into consideration for this reason. I would have guessed that the "roosts" in front of the nesting boxes were access perches, not meant for roosting. They may be poopy because the birds are on the upper board with their butts hanging out over the perch. Like Latestarter said, they will perch as high as they can get.

I put up two different roosts. One a 2 x 4 with the wide side up (this was the higher roost). My girls only started using it at the beginning of October. They still prefer the lower roost which is about 2.5" but is beveled so it is sort of round. I was going to remove the 2 x 4 but it was attached in a way I couldn't. So my EE, BR and SLW prefer a narrower roost.

 

[smcgill]

Love the security force you have!

 

[missbrit2006]

whats the white powder?

 

[missbrit2006]

Here's my front, I plan on siding it come the spring next year with some shake to look like a ginger bread house.

Here's my side entery,

We also have a 4x4 kennel next to it for new or sick birds. The day I took these it was cleaning day.

whats the white powder?

 

[perchie.girl]

white powder could be a number of things for dust bathing....

Some use Diatomaceous Earth. Fireplace ash is a better one I believed
Sand or A mixture of any of it....

IF your going to put it in a container best to make some holes in the bottom unless you have it where rain cant get in.