post your chicken coop pictures here!

[Gundawg]

I'm sure you will get various answers Mike. I put my internal nest boxes up at 18" off the floor so the space under them is usable by the chickens. You want them LOWER than the roosts. Chickens like to roost as far up as they can get and if that is the nest boxes, that is where they will sleep. Not what you want unless you like cleaning poop out of the nest boxes every morning.

On the floor, I'm not sure. If you rake around the chips every morning they pretty well mix with the poop, but that is the kiln dried pine shavings I get in compressed bales. Not sure how "raw" chips would work by comparison. Your "poop issues" will depend on how many chickens you have and if they can get out of the coop early in the morning.
It is possible the rough cut lumber will take on an ammonia smell over time if untreated (and don't ask me what to treat it with because I don't know

)

I have rubber horse mats (because they were in the barn stall when we bought the place) over hardware cloth on a dirt floor.

I had not thought of using horse stall mats and the great thing is I have 2 - 4x8 mats left here by the previous owners, that is a great idea I will need one or two more.

I had not thought about the chickens walking under the nest boxes I am glad I asked.

Mike

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

I just use rubber roofing but since my uncle works for rubber roofing company we get left over peices for free and sometimes we can get huge sheets of it. And I understand that not everyone is able to find rubber roofing. If not if you have some left over Linoleum flooring it works the same as rubber roofing but they mostly in squares or rectangles so the cracks inbetween the tiles liquids can still seep through.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
I am using stall mats when i rebuild... 4x8 sounds like a different manufacturer than I see at places like Tractor supply. What I see are 4 x 6 and 5/8 thick You can cut them with a box knife or linoleum knife if you need to fithem around features. ffor the thick ones score using a straight edge then fold a bit to open the seam then you can work right through them.

The ones I have are over a hundred pounds. Best way to handle them is to use two vice grips and use those as handles.... Or C clamps Only farm equipment I have has four on the floor and weighs 2000 pounds but she can pull ALOT of weight.

deb

 

[K813ZRA]

Now, I am no carpenter so some things didn't go as planned and I had to improvise. For example I need to cut out some plywood covers to go over the 4x4's as I built two walls into the 4x4's and two on the 4x4's...Well, I have never built anything before. As such I just used what information I could about building houses. Studs at 16 inches, the pitch etc. Also I know that the door looks slanted but I checked like 30 times and it isn't. I guess it is because of the slant that it looks that way.

Anyway, I still need to build the roof for the run and enforce it. I also need to add windows and a roost. Obviously some paint too. I will have to add more photos when I finish and get the chicks out there this weekend. They sure are ready at 6 weeks I can't stand the stink in my garage anymore!

It is 8x8x4 and the run is 8x8x4 under the coop with an addition of 8x8x8. Ventilation is built into the eves all around, which I hope will suffice. It seems to have done well that way for my parents over the past two years on their coop.

On a final note, as you can tell I am no photographer either.

 

[Gundawg]

I am using stall mats when i rebuild... 4x8 sounds like a different manufacturer than I see at places like Tractor supply. What I see are 4 x 6 and 5/8 thick You can cut them with a box knife or linoleum knife if you need to fithem around features. ffor the thick ones score using a straight edge then fold a bit to open the seam then you can work right through them.

The ones I have are over a hundred pounds. Best way to handle them is to use two vice grips and use those as handles.... Or C clamps Only farm equipment I have has four on the floor and weighs 2000 pounds but she can pull ALOT of weight.

deb

I have 2 they are 4' x 8' and 3/4" thick my local Wilco farm store sells them that size they also have 4' x 6' x 3/4". https://www.farmstore.com/product-category/livestock-farm/stall-products/

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Ooh nice Love the standard 4 x 8 foot print.... not a bad price either.... serious envy here again...

deb "off to see if they are offered here somewhere"

 

[bigmrg74]

Get in line

Line forms to the left!

I am using stall mats when i rebuild... 4x8 sounds like a different manufacturer than I see at places like Tractor supply. What I see are 4 x 6 and 5/8 thick You can cut them with a box knife or linoleum knife if you need to fithem around features. ffor the thick ones score using a straight edge then fold a bit to open the seam then you can work right through them.

The ones I have are over a hundred pounds. Best way to handle them is to use two vice grips and use those as handles.... Or C clamps Only farm equipment I have has four on the floor and weighs 2000 pounds but she can pull ALOT of weight.

deb

C-clamps! yeah, I could see how those could come in handy in moving stall mats. I might just have to remember that for the next time I need to adjust some stall mats.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
LOL..... I had one slide out of the truck bed on the road up to my house... Sound of slapping my forehead.... Just me and mom. I could walk back then but just about busted a gut getting it back in the truck bed. Could have used some C clamps to tie it off for rough road travel.... No tail gate.... dont ask.

deb

 

[ticketism]

I spotted an incredibly large Python in my yard a couple of months back... And by 'spotted it' I mean I nearly sat on it! I went up around the side of the house where it was dark, and just had the spotlight from my phone on (I was collecting some really lovely feathers from one of the girls' favourite dust bathing spots under the side hedge), sat down and noticed some movement... Swung the torch around and saw part of a snake, followed it's body along with the light and the thing just kept going! Must've been at least 4m long, and about as thick as my forearm. So, obviously my torch (and potentially my butt) had scared it, and I watched it slither straight through the side fence and into the neighbours yard. The fence is made out of chicken wire. I hadn't even really thought too much about snakes before then, but in that moment I was immediately relieved that the coop has .5x.5cm square wire mesh all around it. It'd be awful if a giant snake could get into the coop through the wire, and the poor chickens would just be stuck in there, a buffet for the snake, as they wouldn't even be able to get out to run away in an attempt to protect themselves.

With our first little coop, there was an incident one night where my girlfriend heard all kinds of kerfuffle coming from the coop, so we went down to check and they'd gotten themselves all worked up - Running around, flapping and squawking, throwing themselves at the wire... There was nothing in or around the coop, so we came to the conclusion that probably a possum or a scrub turkey had landed on the roof, making a loud noise and scaring them. But they had both managed to get cuts and grazes on their beaks, faces, and feet in the panic of trying to escape the coop. I always think of that now when considering predator protection... If anything can get in, but they can't get out, you'll discover a massacre the next morning =(

Just some thoughts on chicken wire there. Not passing any judgement or wanting anyone to feel bad at all - We all do the best we can and are always learning!

 

[magicstorm]

I just use rubber roofing but since my uncle works for rubber roofing company we get left over peices for free and sometimes we can get huge sheets of it. And I understand that not everyone is able to find rubber roofing. If not if you have some left over Linoleum flooring it works the same as rubber roofing but they mostly in squares or rectangles so the cracks inbetween the tiles liquids can still seep through.

Mine has a full sheet of linoleum covering. I went to a discount flooring place and got it cheap as it was a leftover piece from another job. It doesnt hurt to ask. Lol