post your chicken coop pictures here!

[bruceha2000]

Mostly rocks in foundation with concrete holding it together. Found scrap lumber for forms, dumped in rocks (I have a never ending supply here on the Canadian shield) and added concrete.

The house I lived in before was built in the early 1900's. Exact same foundation method. Smooth concrete on the outside, chunks of redrock of all sizes and concrete on the inside. I pity the concrete boring company that comes across one of those without knowing it beforehand. I don't think their bits are meant to go through solid rock.

 

[liz72703]

Wow!! Can't wait to see this one finished!

 

[bigmrg74]

I LOVE the straw bale idea. Utility plus something for them to scratch around on. Then come springtime when the snow melts and it gets wet from rain, excellent garden mulch. Straw is really high around here now though - small wheat straw bales are bringing $4.25+ each! Last year I got them for $3.

That's what I did with my tractor last winter. I covered most of the top of it with shower curtains, and around the bottom I sacked bales 2 high around it to block the wind. Wrapped a couple of bails in plastic so that I could move them for the door and to just allow extra ventilation on really nice days. When Winter was over and I could move the tractor again, the straw bales got broken down and we used the slabs in the garden to keep the weeds down. And right now with the garden out, I have their portable fencing up around a part of the garden and they love tearing up the old slabs when I move the fence to a new spot where they can get at it. Lots of bugs to be found, and they even got a mouse that I know off. Mr. Mouse was not a fan at all of being involved in that merry game of chicken football.

 

[Chipper Chicken]

Inside finished outside to follow. Any other scribe fit log chicken houses out there?

What an awesome coop! And I see you have a very nice log house that it goes with! We would love to see more pictures, house and coop! I knew a finish (maybe Finnish, too) carpenter who built one with his wife near Salem, Oregon. Incredible. Was my dream once to build, but I found (a house with) a kitchen that I was willing to trade for.... I guess if you built the house the coop would be a piece of cake. What Is the coop about 3 meters square (or 10' ?)and tall? Will you be putting windows in the dormer and above the door for ventilation? More pictures please. Maybe do a coop build page?

 

[JasonVideo]

Finally got the door painted, window frames stained and the whole thing water sealed.

 

[blue bird of]

Here is our coop modeled after the witchita kansas coop here on BYC

 

[blue bird of]

The screen door look is awesome. ..inviting

 

[walkonwatereh]

The coop is about 12' x 12' inside. Up under the eaves and the dormer will be a quiet winter place for my wife to scrap book etc. 2 downstairs windows open for ventilation. In the winter everything freezes solid, think 40 below, so ammonia smell isn't an issue from November through early April. The windows in the upstairs dormer etc will be used windows I am replacing in our home.

 

[walkonwatereh]

A bear would have a difficult time breaking in, All windows have 1/2" hardware cloth plus solid metal grating over that for larger critters. I already have a smaller chicken house built the same way and no animal has ever broken in and that includes weasels (fingers crossed).
No I'm not a logger, hauled the logs with a skidoo and sled in the winter on a hard packed trail when it was cold. You can haul up a 25' mid sized log with a skidoo on a good trail if its cold. Just don't stop once you get going and don't waste your time if its over -20 C.

 

[gpeters3]

Not going to quote for space reasons but regarding the 16x16 and chickens not destroying the grass...I have 8 hens and it only took them a few hours to dig up all my raking efforts. If they are in an enclosed run on grass I'm sure they will dig it up quickly. Mine free range (no run) but my previous coop setup had a concrete 8x20 run in chicken wire. This winter I will try free ranging on no snow days and keep them in when its nasty. I've noticed a dramatic drop in feed consumption since I started letting them out which won't happen in a run due to over grazing. This morning I threw out some bread crusts to see what they would do and it was gone in minutes.