post your chicken coop pictures here!

[Paganrose]

Quote: 3' is needed to stop the ram from pushing thing out of the ground- ignoring the frost line.

Technicaly in Wisconsin 4' is the official frost line. But being in the Architecture field I know that the actual frost line varies- up in the far north, you need more than four feet, but where I am right next to the Illnois boarder, it is closer to the 36-42 mark.

Hubby actually buried them a bit deeper than 4'- he likes to err on the side of caution.

 

[Paganrose]

Chicknanny that is an awesome set up!

 

[gpeters3]

I made the smaller one out of scrap lying around and liked the design so much I bought $60 of new material from Lows and made a bigger one. I'm hoping I have enough space now to let them grow til I can let them out safely. I think the screen is 1/2" hardware cloth. I put the older chicks in the new one. I can't believe these were as small as the others 2 weeks ago. All they do is huddle under the light and eat. Believe it or not, the big ones can actually fly a little.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

Are they connected together or is there a board in between each one

 

[ChickNanny13]

Love it!! Looks so simple yet so cute at the same time!! Your birds are pretty too and very cute

THANK YOU for your compliments!

love love love it..... and a shower curtain too.... VBG.

Oh and to combat the damp you should be able to get rice hulls in Hawaii. I find them excellent for water wicking away from the surface. They have tasty bits in them the chickens go after and give the bedding a good stir. Id pile the whole bag in the middle and by the end of the day it was nice and flat and evenly spread about. Gives em something to do...


deb

Took a while for me to convince Hubby shower curtains were a good idea, his was shade cloth but with wind/rain I know it wouldn't work. He's originally from San Diego (Bay Park/Mission Bay area) where I ended up moving in 1997 - 2004, LOVE SD! Not sure where I'd find "rice hulls" here, will be looking into finding them & I'm sure they'd LOVE them. Thanks for the info.

 

[bruceha2000]

Paganrose, very nice! I am jealous. My husband wouldn't let me have part of our 130' long barn for chickens. I do have two awesome coops though to make up for it.Good luck on the run build and I hope you have a post hole digger for a 3 point hitch.

130'? And he can't spare even a 12'x12' corner?

TPosts are awesome... Here pasture fence is run a hundred feet with Tpost and reinforced with a Timber post. on each end.

TPost come in varying sizes.



You drive them in with a post driver no digging.




example of fence using them



timber posts are used when there may be animals pushing on the fence.... Like Cows and horses.. Or if your soil is soft.

deb

And if you have lots of rocks and ledge? I'm thinking fence post installation here will be kinda painful.

For corners and at gates you can go here: http://www.wedgeloc.com/

I'm sure it would be more expensive but a lot less work.

Well heck it's a normal post for pasture! I may have went full crazy chicken lady mode planning my runs. So did i??Lolololol!

Must take a mighty big post hole digger for a telephone pole!

I made the smaller one out of scrap lying around and liked the design so much I bought $60 of new material from Lows and made a bigger one. I'm hoping I have enough space now to let them grow til I can let them out safely. I think the screen is 1/2" hardware cloth. I put the older chicks in the new one. I can't believe these were as small as the others 2 weeks ago. All they do is huddle under the light and eat. Believe it or not, the big ones can actually fly a little.

Nice brooder build. You need to read here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/956958/mama-heating-pad-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: http://www.hawaiilibrary.com/articles/rice_husk

Ask at the feed store.... And Garden supply shops. Rice hulls are used heavily as a soil ammendment You might ask for Rice husks.

They do compost but very slowly so they add air to the soil to keep it loose.

I am inland from Mission bay about twelve miles. For now. I am living with my 99 year old grandmother. Shes going to be 100 in July. But My home is 60 miles east near the Mexican border.... Waay drier than San Diego... but surprisingly moderate temp wise. We only peak out at 105-110 in summer for a few days.... most times its the same temps as San Diego. Oh and we do get snow about 72 hours worth...

I used them up there when I had chickens The ground is decomposed granite I keep my perches high so they have to fly a bit for exercise The rice hulls make a perfect landing cushion. Plus the poo just desiccates disappears in short time.

coconut fiber is also used as bedding.... but I am not familiar with its properties.

deb

 

[cabinchicky]

bruceha2000, I wanted more than 12x12 of the barn. It's pretty full of tractors, motorcycles, 4 wheelers tools and such.So I got the entire side yard!The post hole digger is an older John Deer one that fits the 3 pt hitch. Not high tech but it works. Think of the old wooden fence posts that were treated like telephone poles. Many of those still around here and there in Ohio.

 

[Sylvester017]

Kept mine REAL simple....In Hawaii the only big worry is RAIN! Hence the shower curtain all the way around.
Added the roost over the "house" with poop board Works great! They sleep there & the other roost are used during the day. House I'm hoping they use for nesting, so far they've explored it. They love sitting in the tray under the house, my intention was dust bath. They grub the (fenced) yard when I'm home & we just strung up a roll of bird netting (hawk prevention) over the Ti Leaf plants where they hang out when not in the patio.

I have 4 dog houses positioned around our cottage backyard and the chickens love them to stay out of the rain or hot sun, or just to snooze away their afternoon. They do not lay eggs in the dog houses - they will use the secluded coop's nestboxes that have straw in them to lay their daily eggs. If you want your hens to use a dog house to lay eggs then maybe add a half-curtain taped to the inside of the dog house - hens love darkened seclusion to lay their eggs.

 

[cabinchicky]

Kept mine REAL simple....In Hawaii the only big worry is RAIN! Hence the shower curtain all the way around. Added the roost over the "house" with poop board Works great! They sleep there & the other roost are used during the day. House I'm hoping they use for nesting, so far they've explored it. They love sitting in the tray under the house, my intention was dust bath. They grub the (fenced) yard when I'm home & we just strung up a roll of bird netting (hawk prevention) over the Ti Leaf plants where they hang out when not in the patio.

Very nice! Question though, do you not worry about dogs or wild pigs(heard the islands have them) possibly pushing into you coop? Chicken wire is not very sturdy. And the shower curtain idea, brilliant!