post your chicken coop pictures here!

[oODaphne77Oo]

After watching all your beautiful coops, I decided I wanted to build one myself too. First time I ever build something

. I´m very happy with the result.
There is hardware clothing underneath the coop and small run (with the roof), and I added bird netting over the rest of the run (not in the pictures) to keep them safe.
The colorful part is where they stay at night. During the day, they have excess to the run. In the future, when I trained my little dog, they can use my whole backyard when I´m home and the run when I´m not at home.
The coop opens/ closes with a ChikenGuard electric door opener, but I only used the manual setting so far. The chickens are so much fun to watch... I watch them all day long!!!

 

[gpeters3]

This is,my first flock. I have the lamp off at night now. I think they could probably go out full time but the bottom of the run doesn't have any protection. Their brooder is only a largeish dog crate in my living room. Tell ya what though, I'm not doing chicks inside again if I can help it. Dust is everywhere! Lol

This is a brood pen that I made from 2 sheets of 1/2" ply and a few 2x4's. It's 2' x 4' x 42" high, has a hinged top (45 degrees) and uses a pipe for hanging the feeders. It has just enough room to place and remove the feeders without spilling and with the tunnel can be a safe haven among older hens etc.. It has only one side covered in 1/2 x 1/2 hardware cloth, the rest is plywood. In the small one I have 2 pipes, one for the feeders and one for the heat lamp. Uses a "C" shaped hoop rather than clamps to mount it and I actually like it better. In the larger one I use the clamp style and added a short piece of 2x4 to clamp it to. I raised 7 chicks in the larger one to about 1/2 size and they got along fine. They are all in the run now and pile up in a heap under the lamp at night. I have a roost in the run but, so far, none have tried to perch on any but the bottom rung. They prefer the floor to sleep on.

I will be integrating the chicks with the hens pretty soon or I would build another and leave them in the run for the chicks. The coop is big enough for all of them to roost and lay and hang out in bad weather so once they are integrated I really won't need the brood pens any more.


I've been trying to quote this post for 2 days and my tablet suddenly refuses to embed the pics and aborts every time I try. I'm on my desk top now and actually like it a lot better but can't post from my bed a 2am like a can with the tablet I think the browser that comes with android is less than robust. I might try Dolphin.

 

[beautifulpirate]

[COLOR=800080]After watching all your beautiful coops, I decided I wanted to build one myself too. First time I ever build something . I´m very happy with the result.[/COLOR] [COLOR=800080]There is hardware clothing underneath the coop and small run (with the roof), and I added bird netting over the rest of the run (not in the pictures) to keep them safe.[/COLOR] [COLOR=800080]The colorful part is where they stay at night. During the day, they have excess to the run. In the future, when I trained my little dog, they can use my whole backyard when I´m home and the run when I´m not at home.[/COLOR] [COLOR=800080]The coop opens/ closes with a ChikenGuard electric door opener, but I only used the manual setting so far. The chickens are so much fun to watch... I watch them all day long!!![/COLOR]

Ridiculously cute! Both the chickens and the coop!

 

[Haulinbass02]

Just need to finish a little trim and then paint it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[adkhunter1590]

Ok now it's pretty much all done. For now at least. Other than adding a roost bar or some sort of other obstacles to keep them busy it's done. Did 6 ft of metal roofing and 10 ft of the PVC stuff to let a little more light in. So far they love it!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[riccarr]

Add my coop in the Gallery section here, https://www.backyardchickens.com/g/i/7363584/reclaimed-kids-play-structure-coop/

It's a reclaim kids play structure.

 

[Sylvester017]

everyone has the chance of predators. They can dig under and fly in...

So many new owners don't want to think that they have predator problems. I mean, if you don't want to think large predators like coyotes, foxes, weasels, raccoons, possums, deer, mountain lions, rattlesnakes, then think about neighborhood stray pet dogs or feral cats. Two stray neighborhood dogs broke our yard gate and attacked our little coop which we thought was safe and nestled near our back door. Any wild critter or pet has to be thought of as a potential chicken predator. We had problems with two large rats a couple years ago until we cleared them out but I never relax - always looking for evidence of droppings, destructive chewing, etc, just in case!

 

[MeepBeep]

So many new owners don't want to think that they have predator problems.

It's foolish to believe that there are no predators...

Here is my go to argument, first I ask them if they have ever seen a cute little bunny in or around their yard or in neighborhood and also if there is any vegetation left in their yard or neighborhood... Without fail they will say yes they have seen a bunny and yes there is vegetation... I then ask them how many millions upon millions of rabbits they now in the yard and/or neighborhood since they have ample food and no predators and they generally look bewildered...

I then refer them to this site... http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/scary.html

More importantly this table that shows how fast rabbits reproduce and multiply if there is no predation and an able food supply, this from a SINGLE pregnant bunny...

One mother rabbit x 3 female babies x 12 months = 36 female babies (plus your original mama makes 37) Let's add the new babies to the reproductive population at the beginning of the following year. At that point, their average age would be six months--the time of their first litter. (This works if you consider this to be averaging the new females' reproductive output.) If--starting at the beginning of Year Two --each of the Year One female rabbits produces an average of 3 female offspring per month, then by the

• End of Year Two:
  37 mother rabbits x 3 female babies x 12 months = 1332 female babies
  (plus your original 37 will equal a total of 1369 total)
  
• End of Year Three:
  1369 mother rabbits x 3 female babies x 12 months = 49,284 female babies
  (49,284 + last year's 1369 = 50,653 total)
  
• End of Year Four:
  50,653 x 3 x 12 months = 1,823,508 female babies
  (1,823,508 + last year's 49,284 = 1,872,792 total)
  
• End of Year Five:
  1,823,508 x 3 x 12 months = 67,420,512 female babies
  (67,420,412 + last year's 1,872,792 = 69,293,304 total)
  
• End of Year Six:
  69,293,304 x 3 x 12 months = 2,494,558,944 female babies
  (2,494,558,944 + last year's 69,293,304= 2,563,852,248 total)
  
• Year Seven:
  2,563,853,248 x 3 x 12 = 92,298,716,930 female babies
  (92,298,716,930 + last year's 2,563,852,248 = 94,862,569,180!)
  
  That's nearly 95 billion female rabbits in seven years!

And that is only the females, assuming 50% of each litter is male that is another 95 billion or roughly 190 billion rabbits in 7 years!!! That is one heck of an extended family all originating from single pregnant bunny a mere 7 years earlier...

The next question is, if you don't have millions or billions of rabbits in your yard and neighborhood then you clearly have something preying on them and keeping their population in check, the same predators that will prey on chickens...

 

[gpeters3]

I wonder what the same 7 year math,would look like applied to protected hawks that have no natural predator. You dont see millions of hawks flying around? Only thing keeping coyotes under control is trapping, poisoning and hunting otherwise we would be overrun. I used to be ferral and stray animals worst nightmare but i no longer own any guns so i keep my chicks locked up and proactively protected with good fencing.

 

[TJordan]

I'll come tend your predator problems.

I've got 5 shotguns, 4 riffles, 2 pistols and idk how many knives, swords, traps and pellet guns.

That's before I include what I'll be getting from my parents when they decide to pass it to me.