post your chicken coop pictures here!

[Sylvester017]

Good to know about the ramp, it just wastes floor space. The roost is about 12"from the wall, but I might just run one roost bar the 8 feet across the front and then shift the nesting box to where the door will be instead of adding a egg door.

Having Silkies, bantams, or old or feeble hens would be the only reason to need a ramp. I had two Silkies in the flock so we kept the ramp. Occasionally our Ameraucana used it just because she could. She's always been a wary kooky spooky type and likes the secure footing going up or down from the nestboxes.

OUR OLD LITTLE 4x6 COOP - WE LEFT THE RAMP ON & IT SURPRISED US HOW OFTEN THE CHICKENS USED IT.

 

[Sylvester017]

The coop I clean out about once a week, but I see that others don't. I'm afraid a snake might decide to hide out there though. My nest I haven't had to clean out yet. I have had to add some straw because it was compacted. I use a bigger flower pot instead of an actual nesting box right now.

Tika75 - One BYC post said they hang socks filled with mothballs around the outside of their coop and it keeps the snakes away. Couldn't hurt to try it?

 

[gator75]

Finishing this up now. Was going to be 4x4 ish for a couple of hens. Ended up 6.25 x 4.5 with and extra 1.5' kick out in the back side since I had left over materials. Should house 3 comfortably. About 5' tall going down to 4.5'.

I didn't do an attached egg box with a lift top. Instead have a swinging door to gather eggs.

Get my 3 pullets tomorrow!

 

[Sylvester017]

LOL! I was thinking about that but I think she just doesn't have enough space or doesn't respect me or whatever so I'm gonna try enforcing some rules and try with a bigger coop, whicb we're building now and hope she improves

You are more patient with her than I ever was with the 3 nasty girls we re-homed. We didn't eat them but found egg-seller people who wanted them for their eggs. That's what's nice about getting pure-bred chicken breeds - not hard to find them homes when needed.

 

[TJordan]

Well the coop is officially started. 3 wall frames and the floor are together. The final wall frame, walks themselves and roof will be going up as soon as the weather allows.

My feet hurt

 

[ridingtailboard]

Oh no! So sorry to hear that. I read somewhere on putting a bar (PVC or conduit) or something a couple inches off the ground near the back of a xhicken tractor so that as it moves along, it urges the chickens to move forward too with a little warning time from that bar. Not sure of its effectiveness but maybe look into it.

I will look into something like that.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

Well the coop is officially started. 3 wall frames and the floor are together. The final wall frame, walks themselves and roof will be going up as soon as the weather allows.

My feet hurt

So what kind of floor did u go with

 

[gpeters3]

Well the coop is officially started. 3 wall frames and the floor are together. The final wall frame, walks themselves and roof will be going up as soon as the weather allows.

My feet hurt

That's the only thing in my body that doesn't hurt at the moment. It's another advil nite :-( After tomorrow I'll take a break and enjoy my flock

 

[ShrekDawg]

Since our unhappy circumstance having heavier dual-purpose breeds mixed with docile or lighterweight breeds we saw that the bigger hens (even the sweet ones) pushed their weight around and picked on the gentler birds because they could get away with it.  That's when we made the backyard decision to keep breeds 5lb-&-under to avoid the bigger birds being tempted to pick on the smaller ones -- it's a chicken thing.

I never thought of it like that before, they probably do it just because they're smaller and can? Wonder if it's the lower pecking order ones picking on someone even lower than them? Seems sad but suppose it's just chickens being chickens. Fortunately our EEs haven't been picked on but my Buff Orps are also kinda small so maybe that's part of it.

You are more patient with her than I ever was with the 3 nasty girls we re-homed.  We didn't eat them but found egg-seller people who wanted them for their eggs.  That's what's nice about getting pure-bred chicken breeds - not hard to find them homes when needed.

Yeah, I realized she was probably just being curious and I got my face at the wrong place, wrong time, and for the others, maybe with more space she will calm down. At least that's what I am hoping. I like having her around and her talking to me so I'm more willing to give her a second chance. But this is her last chance.

 

[bigmrg74]

EPIC FAIL!!! I put my pullets in my nice New tractor. My dogs would not leave them alone for 5 minutes. So to keep from stressing my chicks out, I grabbed a hold of the tractor and moved it forward about twenty feet. Then I noticed I had steam rolled two of them.




I will be redesigning this death trap!

That was the first time you had them in the tractor. They do kinda need to learn to keep moving with the tractor when you're moving it. I would suggest just moving it a lot slower at first, get them used to the idea of that they should probably avoid that wall coming at them.