post your chicken coop pictures here!

[Sylvester017]

I will try that.
Wow those are some good sized eggs!!!

I haven't had a problem with my birds, they're little babies, besides the Australorp. They do sometimes squabble but nothing more than wing flaps. My Lorps can be mean. But I'm going to give them a second chance though with the bigger coop and run. Maybe it's just because we don't really have any smaller or timid breeds?

At one point in our backyard chickeneering we needed to decide if we wanted production layers and deal with their big hen politics toward each other, or if we wanted more docile pet-type breeds that maybe didn't produce so many eggs. Since we don't eat our birds (my DH can't even imagine it

) it was easy to decide on the sweeter natured smaller breeds to keep. They are all 5-lb-&-under breeds and have reputations as docile or non-combative breeds. It took 13 chickens and 5 years to finally get down to the 4 compatible birds we have now. Healthy chickens have a good lifespan average of 10 years more-or-less so I don't contemplate getting any more soon. Rather than a dog or cat for a pet my DH decided on chickens since he never had them before. He is absolutely hooked on their pet attitude and utility for eggs and fertilizer as a plus!

 

[Sylvester017]

Chicken math has gone WILD! On GoodFriday my wife and our youngest daughter picked 6 Isa brown chicks up at TSC. Since then they got 6 more black star chicks and this past Thursday we got these new laying hens!!! This is the koop I thru together with some s rap materials I had around. Since Friday, these ladies have provided us with 7 eggs! We are living the chicken dream!!!

Chickens are a wonderful investment both as pets and utility.

I'm concerned about your run. It will not keep hungry winter critters away from free chicken dinners. Do more to fortify your pen against digging critters or from heavy critters that can jump on the wire and tear it down.

We never knew we had raccoons in our city neighborhood until we saw one the size of a goat crawl out of the sewer drain. Two stray dogs broke our fence gate and attacked our coop and mangled the flimsy chicken poultry wire -- a good neighbor chased the mutts off or we would've lost the flock. Those of us chickeneers who've had close calls or lost birds are paranoid about chicken predators.

 

[ShrekDawg]

At one point in our backyard chickeneering we needed to decide if we wanted production layers and deal with their big hen politics toward each other, or if we wanted more docile pet-type breeds that maybe didn't produce so many eggs.  Since we don't eat our birds (my DH can't even imagine it ) it was easy to decide on the sweeter natured smaller breeds to keep.  They are all 5-lb-&-under breeds and have reputations as docile or non-combative breeds.  It took 13 chickens and 5 years to finally get down to the 4 compatible birds we have now.  Healthy chickens have a good lifespan average of 10 years more-or-less so I don't contemplate getting any more soon.  Rather than a dog or cat for a pet my DH decided on chickens since he never had them before.  He is absolutely hooked on their pet attitude and utility for eggs and fertilizer as a plus!

That makes sense! I wanted mine for pets but also eggs, to my dad and brothers they're working animals (though they love them ), to me they're pets. I tried to pick breeds that were really friendly to me but also nice to each other. I think part of it is they outgrew their brooder by 2 weeks and were in it till 3 and the last day or so the roof caved it which i didnt notice till later. But maybe some of it is just big girl personalities. Maybe Australorps are just a bossiet breed? My Orpingtons are just the sweetest little things but one of them stands up for herself. My EEs and Barred Rock are extremely friendly and personable but I can't hold them. I don't know, I think they're all fairly gentle besides the one Australorp but hopefully they'll be okay when they move

 

[cabinchicky]

Just as pets? Well maybe 25 out of 40 are at this point. Some I really am tired of their shenanigans and think yup dinner. I have yet to do so. The quail though are the beginning of our meat supplies. Empty nesters almost so we don't need much.

 

[nfowler76]

Thanks so much for the suggestions!! The box is actually bigger than it looks, it is 5ft x 8ft give or take an inch. The roosts I will be switching out to 2x4's in the very near future but right now my ladies are still small and love those little rods, I have read different ideas on the roosts some say flat footed and other say no. I think I am going to try both and see what works best and they like the best. But will have to def get something a little strudier as they get heavier. I have installed vinyl floor in the bottom of each milk crate that I can remove to clean and to keep stuff from falling through, eventually I want to do the sloped roof on the top boxes. I find as we are building it the ideas I originally had I am scraping as I see it take shape. I also want the metal hardware cloth (I think that is what it is called) to put all the way around, however it is on the more expensive side so I have to buy in a little at a time. The whole coop is 12x8ft and then roughly 10 ft high at its lowest point so that is a lot of wire. Lol.. Please keep your suggestions and advice coming, I appreciate it very much!!!!

Oh and the girls are already in there... This is their first night in the box, as the have been in their brood box inside the coop for almost 2 weeks.

I do have one question, how often are y'all cleaning out the coop and the nest area??

 

[Latestarter]

Save some bucks... you don't need the hardware cloth all the way to the top... Buy a 3' roll, and just run it around the bottom 3' of the run. That will be more than adequate. You'll still need to give some thought to an apron around the outside... I use deep litter in my coop (elevated with plywood flooring covered by Blackjack #57) and in my run... Just keep adding more material over time. when it gets to be 2'+ deep, then I shovel some out of the coop into the run. When the run gets too deep (hasn't happened yet as it's much bigger than the coop area wise) it will get dug out and put to use in the garden. I use mostly pine wood chips in the coop with additional stuff added; weeds, grass clippings, sticks, leaves, twigs, whatever.

 

[3riverschick]

well you could see the coops better before the 80 ft. pine tree fell on the grow out run last fall. It actually missed the 2 red coops by inches, smile. tree is gone now and this year will be restoring the smashed yard.
Best,
Karen

 

[nfowler76]

Ok wonderful, I am using pine shavings now in the run but love the idea of putting a few weeds and grass clippings. I have some twigs in there from where I pick them up out of the yard. In the box itself where the roosts and nest boxes are it is elevated with plywood floor with vinyl flooring on top, should I put pine shavings in it as well??

Ok so 1 more question... Did you have to put your hens in the nest boxes so they knew to go in or did they just start investigating them on their own??

 

[ShrekDawg]

Ok wonderful, I am using pine shavings now in the run but love the idea of putting a few weeds and grass clippings. I have some twigs in there from where I pick them up out of the yard. In the box itself where the roosts and nest boxes are it is elevated with plywood floor with vinyl flooring on top, should I put pine shavings in it as well??

Ok so 1 more question... Did you have to put your hens in the nest boxes so they knew to go in or did they just start investigating them on their own??

I heard wood chips were better becausw of the different particle sizes but I don't know if that's true. I do know I tried ahavings2in my run and now have lots of dirt on top from when I toss it in as a treat and the shavings haven't broken down, there are 2 distinct layers of shavings. Not broken down and neither are either compost pile. I think they eventually can but it takes way longer, I just saw a post from someone who had in for over a year or two and it still hadnt. Not to be discouraging but assuming you want to break,down? So if you can, I,would try to get you hands on some wood chips too and put those down then the leaves and other stuff. You maybe could get them free from a local tree company or your dump if you have one. Or rent a chipper like we're gonna do lol

 

[ShrekDawg]

Oh and I'm gonna do deep litter (few inches of wood chips then few inches of all the other stuff) in the new ru but for the coop I'm just going to use regular pine shavings and a droppings board. Plenty use DL in the coop too though but I just like the ease of the pine shavings ha

And as for the nest boxes, I put fake eggs in mine to show them where to lsy but other than that they checked them out and laid in them all on their own