post your chicken coop pictures here!

[Kmac1]

Done with the plywood siding and decking, nest boxes in place, door hung, windows covered with chicken wire for now. A few curious tenants checking out the accomadations giving their approval at least for the nest boxes. The nest boxes are 18" from the floor to the bottom of the nest, the perch in front of the nest is 20 inches. I have since covered the nest box with an angled piece of plywood to keep them from roosting on the nest boxes. The roost are 31.5 inches from the floor and are 3.5" wide.
While I know I have some things left to do such as cover the roof and walls with tin, build some kind of cover for the windows that can be locked or latched down from outside, put hinges on the chicken door next to the walk through door and build an auto door with opener with a remote or sensor or timer. Should the roost bars be higher than they are? What do you think. Willie

 

[Latestarter]

The higher you put them, the more the birds will like it, and they WILL try to get to the top one if you give them a way to get there. Just make sure there's enough horizontal separation between the higher and lower so that the upper chickens don't poop on the lower ones

The big thing is, coming down off the roosts, they like to fly and their glide slope is about 45 degrees, so if the highest is 5' up, they need at least 5 feet (plus a small cushion, say another 2 feet) of horizontal glide room to land without hitting a wall. Most LF birds can fly straight up 2-3 feet without much issue. Many can clear a 4' fence with a bit of a start.

 

[Kmac1]

The higher you put them, the more the birds will like it, and they WILL try to get to the top one if you give them a way to get there. Just make sure there's enough horizontal separation between the higher and lower so that the upper chickens don't poop on the lower ones   The big thing is, coming down off the roosts, they like to fly and their glide slope is about 45 degrees, so if the highest is 5' up, they need at least 5 feet (plus a small cushion, say another 2 feet) of horizontal glide room to land without hitting a wall. Most LF birds can fly straight up 2-3 feet without much issue. Many can clear a 4' fence with a bit of a start.

Thanks I will raise them up. I have 2 roost bars now that are 7 ft long, is that enough for 10 guineas, 11 full size chickens and 5 bantams. How far apart should the roost be? Thanks Willie

 

[magicstorm]

Love it lvoe your your horses too.  I envy your pasture,,,  I have to tie my horse up every time i work in her space because she Borrows tools and Tries to "help". 

deb

Mine too!! You cant do anything with her around.

 

[bruceha2000]

Quote:
No. You need 1' of roost per LF. Don't know about bantams and guineas but you only have 3' left for all of them.

For LF, bars at the same height should be 18" apart. They can hop between them but not easily pick on each other.

You really do need to make sure they have landing room especially if you move the roosts to 5'. Maybe a ramp to get at least part way down. I'm generally not a big fan of ramps but my birds hit the ground fairly hard from the 4' roosts and they have ~ 7-8' of horizontal before the wall/door. It can be a problem when they are all coming down at the same time. Chickens are not real good with "no, please, you first."

Since you have the coop sitting on the grass, have you put in a wire fence or 1/2" hardware cloth skirt all the way around to keep digging predators from getting in ?

My big BA can fly straight up to the 4' high roosts. MOST of the time all the birds use the parallel roost 2' up and 9" forward of the parallel 4' roosts to stage but one day I watched her skip that step. She is a hefty bird.

 

[Latestarter]

Hey @Kmac1 Bruce pretty much covered it!

I know nothing about guineas... I know @perchie.girl had a lot of guineas back in the day and maybe she can address that aspect for you. From what I understand about guineas, they are contrarian in nature so will do exactly the opposite of what you want/expect them to do. They'd rather perch/roost outside on TOP of the coop rather than inside for example... I know there are other guinea owners/specialists on the site, but can't remember their names right off. Maybe @casportpony ? Or @MeepBeep ? Sorry, I can't recall

Bantams, being smaller birds, don't need quite as much space on the roost, so maybe not a full foot each. From what I understand, some bantams aren't all that good at flying either, so may have difficulty reaching a high perch without some sort of intermediate step/ramp way to get up there. Or they may prefer to just pile up in a corner on the floor...

Space on the roost also has to do with temp... in the cold, they all huddle together, in the heat, they all spread out (SHE'S TOUCHING ME!! SQUWAK) <--you've probably heard it...

One other thing that I can't really tell from the pics is the diameter of the roosts... especially with that many LARGE/heavy birds, a nice 3"-4" (4" is better) diameter round fence post or fence rail or even tree branch would make a much better, more sturdy roost to hold all that weight. 10-11 10 pound+ birds sitting on that 7' long roost is going to be a LOT of stress. Also, it will give them a much more secure and sturdy platform to roost on. Just a few thoughts.

 

[tomphot]

I just added my Gypsy Chick coop in the Coops area.
6'x10' with a 400 sqft run.

 

[MeepBeep]

Hey @Kmac1
Bruce pretty much covered it!

I know nothing about guineas... I know @perchie.girl
had a lot of guineas back in the day and maybe she can address that aspect for you. From what I understand about guineas, they are contrarian in nature so will do exactly the opposite of what you want/expect them to do. They'd rather perch/roost outside on TOP of the coop rather than inside for example... I know there are other guinea owners/specialists on the site, but can't remember their names right off. Maybe @casportpony
? Or @MeepBeep
? Sorry, I can't recall

Yes, guineas have their quirks and lots of them... They really need 'segregation' or at least the ability to segregate to really peacefully exist in a mixed flock... Very rarely do my guineas roost with the chickens on the designated roosting bars, sure a few do here and there but they much prefer finding their own roosting area and the higher the better away from the chickens... And when they do roost with the chickens they usually 'demand' their own personal space from the chickens...

In Kmac1's case I would expect to find the guineas all piled up on the window sills... A better design for the roost in that coop design would be a ladder that swings up and out of the way with 3 or 4 perches depending on how much length you have vs fixed...

 

[OSDad]

Update, Cleaned my coop out and wow it is easy. My tractor trailer fits right under the door and I picked up a roof snow scraper and had it cleaned in minutes!3

 

[OSDad]

Video of how easy it was to clean.