post your chicken coop pictures here!

[beautifulpirate]

Thank you! I've had a few other people tell me to bury chicken wire around the edges I just haven't got the chance to yet. I've placed rocks around it in spots there's a noticeable gap between the ground and running boards. I will definitely take your advice though. I started with 12 chicks and lost 10 of them to raccoon's. First I didn't have the top finished then once I did I only had a hook lock on the door that they popped pretty easily. Since then I've installed much better locks and I found a really nice lady that was thinning her flock down that sold me some 15 month old hens. I still have two of the chicks I started with that are 9 weeks old now and are in the separate pen I added to the back. Once their old enough to join the others I plan to remove the separating wire and it will be one pen. I read in another post on here the "see no touch" method of introducing chickens and luckily I am already doing that. Once again I really appreciate everyone here! Thanks!

You are off to a good start in that you are so willing to accept advice and help. So here is another tidbit, switch that chicken wire out for hardware cloth asap. Chicken wire will keep your chickens in but won't keep predators out. Dogs, raccoons, foxes, coyotes can tear through it. And some weasel breeds can just slip through the large holes, as well as snakes. Chicken wire is pretty useless as predator proofing goes.

 

[shell12]

Here is our chicken coop we built out of exterior doors

 

[junebuggena]

They have a window

Only one?!
Read this article on why ventilation is so important.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/...-go-out-there-and-cut-more-holes-in-your-coop

 

[Latestarter]

They have a window

Greetings and welcome to BYC! Very nice basic coop. Your hubby and F-in-law did well. There are a couple of concerns you might want to look into however.

As has been mentioned, the ventilation is completely and totally inadequate. The window by itself is virtually useless for ventilation as it's too small. The window will not be opened at night when they are roosting, and will most likely be closed during bad/winter weather, when they would also be inside. No idea your climate, but in winter, if freezing temps, their breath and poop will add so much moisture inside that you'll have frostbite and frozen combs/wattles/toes. In summer, if hot, they could easily die from heat inside there. Ideally, you want low opening to let fresh air in and high openings to vent out moisture and odors. In addition, you do NOT want the draft this will create to hit the birds when they are on the roost in cold weather. Their down jackets don't work so well if wind is constantly ruffling their feathers.

Second, I see you've used chicken wire as the security around the run. That is fine for keeping the chickens in but will not stop a raccoon, fox, coyote, dog, weasel, mink, etc. from getting in and making a meal of your birds. You may want to back up the lower 3 feet with small hole welded wire fencing, or best case, with 3' 1/2" hardware cloth all the way around. You also have to be concerned about diggers who can dig under the sides to get in.

 

[stephkcole]

I'm not sure on how to add ventilation holes to my coop. My chickens are only in there at night, they roam around our yard all day.

 

[junebuggena]

I'm not sure on how to add ventilation holes to my coop. My chickens are only in there at night, they roam around our yard all day.

'Only in at night,' accounts for about 10 to 18 hours of the day. How people think it's just a small chunk of time just baffles me. They are in there all night long, breathing in bad air. Extend the roof overhang, and start cutting in holes around the roofline. The amount of moisture and ammonia generated by even a few chickens, overnight, is extraordinary. Ammonia buildup will cause respiratory illness; moisture build up, in the colder months will cause frostbite. A single window will not provide enough airflow to move out the bad air.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I'm not sure on how to add ventilation holes to my coop.  My chickens are only in there at night, they roam around our yard all day.

If they roam around all day it probably won't be as much of a concern but if you can perhaps add hardware cloth to the inside of the window and leave the window open all the time?? And maybe you could add a second window for cross breeze?

And it's too late now maybe (although maybe not if you take off the roof) but another thing youyou you could do is to raise the roof a bit so that you have eaves under the roof and then you can add hardware cloth under the eaves. That's what I'd do since it's a simple way to add ventilation and your coop is too small for a gable vent or similar. Lots of people with sloped roofs do that actually. And I thought it was too late at first but I think you actually could still do it and it would be simple and fast I think, just take the tin off, add a bit more wood to raise the tin above the house, add the HC, put the tin back on. Would take a couple hours at most probably. Your husband and father in law should know how to and would probably do it if you asked

Otherwise I love the coop

 

[Sylvester017]

So my coop is 4' wide at the narrowest point, and we are moving into a house where the gate to get it to the back yard is 3' 6" wide. This thing is all 3/4" pressure treated ply and pressure treated 2x4, so it would take an army of hulks to lift it. Any ideas how to Houdini this thing in?

Maybe the gate can be disassembled to give you a few more inches? We had the same problem getting our newest coop if it arrived in an assembled product so we searched a long time to find a coop that would disassemble and reassemble somewhat easily. Our gate and side yard only has 4'5" easement and all the coops we wanted to order already assembled were all 5' wide. When we removed the old chainlink fence to build a block wall it gave us even less width. If you don't want to get injured trying to move the coop into your new yard as one piece my suggestion is to determine if it's worth the effort to take apart to fit thru the new house gate and reassemble again. Personally I don't think it's worth several guys' hernias trying to lift your old coop into the new yard.

This is our easy to assemble/disassemble coop from Chicken Condos. It is mfr'd to assemble like dog kennel panels. The coop walls are connected with nuts/bolts fitting into connecting hinges. Each wall panel has two hinges top and bottom with very thick sturdy nuts/bolts you slip in to connect the hinges. The only part screw-drilled are the roof pieces which will unscrew again if needed to disassemble the coop - easy/peasy if you're handy with a simple hand drill. If ever a day came that we do longer had chickens (the day I die) then this can be disassembled to move off the property in 4x6' flat panel pieces which will fit going out through any size yard gate. Personally we thought it would make a good dog house for a couple large dogs if future owners of the coop wanted to utilize it that way.

 

[Intheswamp]

stephkcole, if you do raise the roof a bit for ventilation you might also consider sandwiching a piece of rigid foam insulation (1/2-3/4 inch thick) between the metal roofing and a sheet of 1/4" or 1/2" plywood. It will *definitely* help with heat. Whatever you do, though, you need more ventilation. If I lived in NC(?) I would probably extend the roof on out over the run and cut most of the wall out that is next to the pop door...replacing the wood with 1/2" hardware cloth. I would save the cut out and saw several inches off the height of that piece. I would modify that piece of wood so that it could be placed back in/over the hole in cold weather...this would block off cold wind but still leave a nice vent at the top. It looks like there is a 2x4 in the middle of that area so some creative carpentry would be needed, but nothing too exotic.

I would think that most of the winter the piece of wood could be left out. Be sure the coop faces south/southeast.

At times a small piece of plastic could be attached to the walls of the run just either side of the large screened opening to block rain from wetting things in the coop....no biggie, though.

How many chickens do you keep?

As for the security issue...chicken wire/net/etc only keeps birds in...it does little to keep predators out. 2x4 welded wire fencing will stop *most* predators from tearing through...coons can still reach through, though. Naturally 2x4 woven wire is better but it's also more expensive than welded. You could run a 4' tall piece of welded wire around the perimeter and take care of most issues other than a coon reaching through. Naturally, a climbing coon might tear through the upper chicken wire where heavier 2x4 fencing isn't covering it. Is the run bare-bottomed? And...do you move it or is it stationary? If it's stationary then you might want to dig down a few inches into the ground, bend a foot or two of the 2x4 fencing at a right angle, attach it to the structure and then cover back over the fencing that is down in the dugout area...this would stop digging animals...I would want a wider roll of fence to do this. Naturally, wrapping the enclosure in 1/2" hardware cloth stops coons from reaching through.

Just some thoughts. If you have a thermometer set it inside the coop and see how warm it's getting...you might be surprised.

Ed

 

[yochickiemomma]

my new bantam coop. Im going to add more windows on each side and stain the outside. made of mostly recycled material.