post your chicken coop pictures here!

[TJordan]

Ok... Coop update. I'm sunburned but the framing is all done, most of the roof is on (walls today) and the pieces for the nest boxes are cut and 1 put together.

 

[bruceha2000]

This is for your little ones TJ?? Or did you lose the coop the layers were using? I ask only because nest boxes are really low priority until the girls are 5+ months old.

 

[gpeters3]

Ok, Lightimg update: I may have been premature to asume the light was the problem although common sense should dictate that if you leave the lights on all night the chickens wont get much sleep and thus not function as well. They are not producing as well with no light as they did with partial, morning and evening light. It may be time to remove the heat lamps and add another red light to the coop so i can reset the timer to twice a day. Typically that should only be necessary in cold months but may add something even in warm months? I see another experiment coming into focus Ive also been doing a lot of work around the coop and run, hammering and moving stuff around so the noise and disturbance may also be the issue, not sure.

When do chickens typically moult? Mine seem to be all over the place. Im thinking it should be in the fall and I know they can moult if not properly fed and watered (most mine ever went hungry was part of a day, they still act like they are starving) I know they stop laying during the moult but mine were so beat up by the roosters I couldnt tell if they were moulting last fall. They are all fully feathered and shiny and healthy looking so I dont think thats the issue.

 

[bruceha2000]

Laying is related to light, not temperature. There should be plenty of light this time of year without supplemental unless they are locked in a coop with no windows. ALL of my 10 month old pullets are laying regularly (and as pullets do, laid all winter even at -15F) as are most of the almost 4 year olds (fewer per week as would be expected of the older girls). People add light (14 hours) in the fall/winter/spring to try and force the girls to keep working. But in my limited experience they will start laying in late winter when the hours of daylight are not yet up to 12 so I don't know just how factual the 14 hours number is.

It is dim in my coop except when the sun has passed well over its apex and can hit the windows on the west side of the barn. It is still not all that bright in the coop since the stall is set back 8'-10' from the west wall. Their auto door opens and closes with the sun so they are out in the barn alley until I open the barn door, then they come and go as they please. Mine have not seemed to be affected by my activities, they seem to be used to it.

Are your birds piling on the floor under the heat lamp? Not up on the roosts? I think that in general they will hit the roosts on their own by about 4 weeks. My broody raised chicks did and it wasn't because "mama" told them to. I think she went up when there were only 2 left in the nest with her. The others had gone up with the big girls on their own over a period of a few nights. I wonder if the heat lamp thing is pure habit. Chickens, if nothing else, are creatures of habit. Get the heat lamp out and they will likely roost on the highest thing they can get to.

 

[mobius]

I had mine built, and then I got decorative with electric fencing...see the stars?

 

[perchie.girl]

I had mine built, and then I got decorative with electric fencing...see the stars?

cute but where are the insulators.... or is it just decorative?

 

[mobius]

cute but where are the insulators.... or is it just decorative?

With this system (I really should start a thread about it) we don't need no stinkin' insulators...per fish wildlife and parks bear expert, who taught me how to do this. At my house, he came by, AND demo'd it and GAVE me the polywire. Staple gun and charger, done...it is electrified...no grounding stakes....uber simple...

Thank you, thank you very much, I'll be here all week...

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
ok i WANT to know how this is done...... Is there a website for the product. Is it a bipolar system? I cannot put up hotwire because its so dry here the ground doesnt work.

deb

 

[mobius]

ok i WANT to know how this is done...... Is there a website for the product. Is it a bipolar system? I cannot put up hotwire because its so dry here the ground doesnt work.

deb

here, just for you! lololol...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1099772/simplest-electric-fence-ever-cheep

I just did start the thread...it is too good to keep to myself!

No website, it is not bipolar, I was told it did not have to be at all...

 

[TJordan]

This is for your little ones TJ?? Or did you lose the coop the layers were using? I ask only because nest boxes are really low priority until the girls are 5+ months old.

I lost the big coop. We will section off a 3'x7' section with hardware cloth for younger birds and have the nest boxes where the older girls can get to them. I hope to enlarge this one before the new girls start laying. They are only 5 weeks old so I'm good for the moment.