post your chicken coop pictures here!

[TJordan]

Well I know I'm doing my job right. I just talked to my mom who will have my aunt moving in with her to help tend my dad and guess what they are thinking of doing....

BUILDING A CHICKEN COOP!!!! They called ME to get ideas and information regarding this idea.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

I don't mean to interrupt, just excited to share a picture of our coop addition. We just finished it and we have 10 silkie babies and 2 bantam Dominique babies waiting for it to warm up a bit so they can move in!

My husband said.. "Ok.. so now there's an East wing and now a West wing addition... There will never be a North and South wing addition". Hahaha!! n

Never say never

 

[DamnYankee]

It took a little longer than I expected but it's finally done. Boy, are my girls happy about that!

 

[bruceha2000]

I bought pure-bred Blue Wheaten Ameraucanas - two sisters - but lost one and have this 3 yrs old left. Sweet bird with blue eggs, from a show breeder, but the sweet Am is just not a good layer. Nice XL pale blue eggs which we love but she is a disappointment in the amount of time, or lack thereof, in egg-laying. Just wish I could transfer her great personality to the prolific White Leghorn we used to have. Leghorns got too aggressive with our Ameraucana and Silkies so we chose to re-home the bullies. There's always a tradeoff in what you need from a breed so we chose to keep the gentles but it did cut into the egg output.

I believe that IN GENERAL the big hatcheries are trying to sell egg layers that lay well and do not particularly concern themselves with the APA SOP. Obviously that depends on the breed, some will not be good layers year after year no matter what. Cubalayas for example are more of a Yard Art bird than a layer.

I would GUESS that among the small breeders there would be a range between "breed in hopes of getting a greater quantity of show bird quality birds not concerned with egg quantities nor # of laying years" and "my breeders meet the spec, breed true, are decent looking and now I would like to increase the egg laying capability". Just how you find the latter type is probably difficult but both the Ameraucana Breeders Club ( http://www.ameraucana.org/ ) and Ameraucana Alliance ( http://ameraucanaalliance.org/ ) have lists of breeders in their clubs. When it comes time to replace your BW Ameraucana, you might check with the breeders and see if any do have an emphasis on SOP and egg laying ability.

 

[TJordan]

Never say never

Very nice

 

[Sylvester017]

Oh wow! I'm hoping she lays longer than that!! Maybe not likely though. Although she did come from a hatchery so maybe their stock is more for producing? Maybe? I'm hoping. Although, don't a lot of hens slow down around 2 years anyways?? Or is it more just the EEs and Ams like really really slow down and almost stop??? I am hoping mine keep laying. But fortunately they're pets so even if they slow down, they won't be going anywhere

plus I also may add some more once they start slowing down.

If you're able to add new Ams or EEs every year, whatever your preference for birds, then you'll at least get a good supply of colored eggs before a 2-yr-old slows down production. With the 2-yr-olds slowing down, you can have a new group of pullets to keep you supplied with colored eggs. The only thing is that when the 2-yr-olds become 3-yr-old layers, the 2-yr-olds behind them will be laying less too. So what do you do then? add yet more new pullets again? Too many birds for me to keep as pets just to have a few blue-green eggs in production for only a couple/three months each year. Meanwhile, I had a White Leghorn that was laying 4 to 6 XL eggs a week in her 3rd year and only stopped for about 21/2 months to molt and regrow new feathers. That kind of layer spoils you for eggs compared to an Am or EE that can't even produce as often as a little Silkie! I do credit the Ams and EEs for their XL+ size eggs but not reliable layers after their pullet year - JMO. Great gentle pets if your neighbors don't mind hearing their noisy cackles. If I could tolerate the more assertive behaviors of the large or heavy production birds like Legs, RIRs, BRs, Orps, Lorps, Wyans, Marans, etc, I'd be overrun in eggs for a few years and happy. What doesn't make me happy about those breeds is their bigger appetites and flock dramas so I made the choice to keep the gentler smaller breeds which usually means smaller or less eggs. It was a trade-off on my part. Our coop is only 4x5 floor space for roosting and egg laying so the 4 smaller breeds work for us - the rest of the day they free range the yard. I cycled through 13 chickens in 5 years to get down to the compatible 4 we have now.

Well I know I'm doing my job right. I just talked to my mom who will have my aunt moving in with her to help tend my dad and guess what they are thinking of doing....

BUILDING A CHICKEN COOP!!!! They called ME to get ideas and information regarding this idea.

For Heaven's Sake! You've been through enough calamity and experience to be a pro in THEIR EYES! Now you'll have family members to chat up about chickens and coops every time you get together! TOO FUN!

 

[Sylvester017]

I believe that IN GENERAL the big hatcheries are trying to sell egg layers that lay well and do not particularly concern themselves with the APA SOP. Obviously that depends on the breed, some will not be good layers year after year no matter what. Cubalayas for example are more of a Yard Art bird than a layer.

I would GUESS that among the small breeders there would be a range between "breed in hopes of getting a greater quantity of show bird quality birds not concerned with egg quantities nor # of laying years" and "my breeders meet the spec, breed true, are decent looking and now I would like to increase the egg laying capability". Just how you find the latter type is probably difficult but both the Ameraucana Breeders Club ( http://www.ameraucana.org/ ) and Ameraucana Alliance ( http://ameraucanaalliance.org/ ) have lists of breeders in their clubs. When it comes time to replace your BW Ameraucana, you might check with the breeders and see if any do have an emphasis on SOP and egg laying ability.

My Ameraucana breeder WAS on the breeder's list but is retired from it now. I know she was hoping to get deeper blues in the eggs from her Wheaten/Blue Wheatens (she used to show birds) and apologized to me that she didn't think her eggs were very blue. We were quite happy with the pastel blue eggs and we had no idea why she apologized for the color. She said Ams were not prolific layers but I had no idea how very little since at the time of our purchase there wasn't popular emphasis on quantity of eggs from these birds but rather more emphasis on the color of eggs. Since our girl is such an unreliable layer, I'm kinda glad her sister didn't live or I'd have 2 deadbeat layers on my hands now

. Really, I do love our sweet girl but probably won't try another - my thinking is that these hens would be great pet chickens for families with young children since a common trend is that these birds have sweet non-combative temperaments. I don't know how breeders are going to be able to get APA SOP blue egg layers rather than greenish and have consistent layers past their pullet year. Too much stress for me if I were a breeder so I appreciate owner efforts to pursue these challenges.

 

[Davidel57]

Here's my coop de villa. All that's left is attaching the wheels.

 

[gpeters3]

Here is the black hen that lays beautiful green, jumbo eggs every day.

Here is what 3.5 gallons looks like. No one carries the horizontal nipples so i ordered some. Im hoping they all use the 1/8 pipe thread. How many believe all animals are color blind? Im thinking the nipples are bright red to get their attention so they peck, discover water and go back for more. Im going to let the fumes dry up befre i put water in it. All i have to do to get the horizontal nipples in is pull it out a few inches and rotate it 90 deg and i can drill and tap the side for 5 more nipples then the turkeys will be happy Just have to build a little support for the end to support the water weight.

 

[the poppster]

Here is the black hen that lays beautiful green, jumbo eggs every day.

Here is what 3.5 gallons looks like. No one carries the horizontal nipples so i ordered some. Im hoping they all use the 1/8 pipe thread. How many believe all animals are color blind? Im thinking the nipples are bright red to get their attention so they peck, discover water and go back for more. Im going to let the fumes dry up befre i put water in it. All i have to do to get the horizontal nipples in is pull it out a few inches and rotate it 90 deg and i can drill and tap the side for 5 more nipples then the turkeys will be happy Just have to build a little support for the end to support the water weight.

As far as I know...chickens are NOT color blind...as matter of fact, they have some sort of UV vision! So they are seeing colors we as humans can't! That would probably mean that they have feather markings that we can't see! How cool is that!