post your chicken coop pictures here!

[cabinchicky]

I'd layer that chicken wire with the welded wire all the way up and all the way around. It's cheaper to use the right materials, the first time around rather than having to constantly reinforce things. And welded wire is a much stronger and safe choice over chicken wire. It doesn't cost much more either. If the birds will be spending nights in the run, you will also need hardware cloth.

Xs2! I have welded wire fence all around and the top, coon have walked over my run. Do what you you can when you can and good luck. Just locked em up every night.

 

[bruceha2000]

Here is our little coop/run. It is 16 by 24 with a 16x16 add on in the works. It isn't beautiful or impressive when compared to the commercially designed coops and such, but I am proud of it because it was a family effort that the whole family helped to make. The entire thing is fully enclosed with wire, including a foot of rabbit wire below the ground and there is another foot of wire that juts out from the wall about 2 inches below the surface. A little at a time we have been working on closing in parts of it with plywood for rain and wind protection.

Generally speaking the commercially designed coops are "impressive" only when viewed from afar. They are undersized for the # of chickens they are claimed to hold, they are often made with pressboard (which to my mind is CRAP no matter what you use it for). I could go on ... and on ... . Your coop is more "impressive" than most commercial coops.

I have a question this wall is where the nesting boxes are going I plan to be able to access them from the outside so they will be part outside part inside. I was going to use the first 2 bays and save the furthest bay to the left for later if I needed to add some as the flock grows in numbers. I planed to put in 1 row of 3 nest boxes that will make each nest box about 12"-13" wide in each of the first two bays but now I am thinking maybe I should stack the nest boxes and only use one bay. The thought on the double row is it gives more room for roosting. What do you think? I have been thinking about it since I framed the openings but with no real experience with chickens I am not sure which way to go. I need to get the nest boxes done so I can start siding that wall. The nest boxes will sit on the horizontal cross members you see in each bay.

Thanks Mike

The number of nest boxes depends on the number of laying hens, no problem with 3 hens per box. You could have 100 and I bet if you had 20 hens, they would STILL fight over their preferred ones

If you stack them then you need to provide a way for the girls to get up into them. You want an access perch about 4" in front of any bank of nests if they are more than about a foot up. That is easy if the first level is on the floor but then you have lost usable floor space. If the bottom of the first level is ~18" off the floor, the girls get that space back but they will have to fly even higher to get to the second tier. My nipple water pipe is under (actually built into the floor of the box, not my best idea when I had to replace some nipples) the nest box that is inside the coop but on an outside wall (converted stall). My other box is fully external but I didn't have to design any waterproofing into the hinged lid since the coop is in the barn. If you build yours as external boxes, you can make them the width between the posts as planned with the inside flush with the inside of the posts with the TOP of the box against the horizontals and a front "bedding keeper barrier" down low. You could run a roost 18" from the nest box wall, HIGHER than the boxes, if more roost space is needed in the future.

Also consider that if you to stack them, they need to be designed with vertical outside access doors rather than a hinged and sloped 'roof', at least for the lower set. If you do it that way, you want a "bedding keeper" board on the outside as well, just in case.

Also be aware that if you do internal (or partial internal) nest boxes and they have a 'roof', you need to make it sloped or the chickens will happily sit up there and poop. Chickens are really good at poop

AND they can hang on to a pretty good angle, no shallow slope on that roof.

 

[Chicken5555]

Generally speaking the commercially designed coops are "impressive" only when viewed from afar. They are undersized for the # of chickens they are claimed to hold, they are often made with pressboard (which to my mind is CRAP no matter what you use it for). I could go on ... and on ... . Your coop is more "impressive" than most commercial coops.

Thank you for the compliment! We worked really hard on it. Even my eight year old did what he could to help. Eventually I would love to plant muscadine vines around it for natural shade and free treats.

 

[Rosey516]

My little coop!

How beautiful!!!

 

[Littlerob]

The coop is 4x4x4 - not tiny. I only have 8 chickens and don't need a larger coop.

As said this was my first attempt and I think it's great for a hundred bucks.

Point was to share a pic of something I am proud of - not to have someone nit-pick it's shortcomings so thanks for that.

You have a nice day...

Very nice job for $100....good job.
Everyone was not nit picking what you did (you did very well) they were just trying to give you some ideas to make it even better.
Happy egg laying.

 

[Gundawg]

I got some boards put up on 3 walls. All the trim and bats still have to be installed but the girls will be moving in soon.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Sorry for all the pictures, try to take things from multiple angles/every angle, i know it's dumb, but yeah.

I know it's not pretty but the girls have been trying to sleep on the roof a lot lately and it used to only be if the roost bars got knocked down and I forgot to put them back up but now this week they've decided they'll sleep up there anyway. So i put them back in or push them off the roof and they go in and are fine. But anyway, tonight I was worried because it is pretty humid out so I didn't want heat stroke or anything but I didn't want them getting eaten either and plus they are all on top of each other on the roof anyway so i put them inside. But my dad suggested I open the nest boxes. Well I don't trust the arm that locks it ope , they have landed on the the nest box roof before and almost crushed chickens below when it unlocks and shuts so i only wanted it open part way. So i went and found a 2x4 scrap and some plywood scraps and put them on top of the nest box dividers in the middle box so now it's propped open a few inches and air can flow in from the first and third nest boxes. Also tied the back door open. The past few months I've been leaving the door open and started leaving the back door open too for more air flow but it always closed partway so tonight i tied it all the way open for optimal air flow. I'm thinking i might leave that and the nest boxes open all the time. Or cut holes in the side of the coop haha as you can see, there is ventilation supposedly but it's just nowhere near enough which I should have realized a long time ago do hence tonight's improvements. I personally think that having both doors wide open has helped on it's own butlike I said, was paranoid about heatstroke so added the extra bit of ventilation tonight. There's also a slight occasional breeze tonight though so that should hopefully help too.

Also turned the deck light off so it won't shine in, usually inside is dark but having the side open it was a tad bright.

And before anyone says it, yes I knoe some don't agree with having the doors open but they are up the minute there's light way earlier than anyone is up so i believe it's good/better for them, and they're in a chainlink dog kennel, as well as being right in the backyard oh 20-30 feet from the deck with a huge dog who sleeps in the bedroom right next to the backyard so we will hear anything. And usually the light's on.

And i know the coop's too small for 8, we have the new one almost finished and they'll be moving in soon. But until then I've decided to maximize ventilation.

Sorry for the long post, can never shut up and/or make it short lol

 

[Flock Master64]

My little coop!

I love everything in this picture. How did you get your yard so great?

 

[Gundawg]

Generally speaking the commercially designed coops are "impressive" only when viewed from afar. They are undersized for the # of chickens they are claimed to hold, they are often made with pressboard (which to my mind is CRAP no matter what you use it for). I could go on ... and on ... . Your coop is more "impressive" than most commercial coops.


The number of nest boxes depends on the number of laying hens, no problem with 3 hens per box. You could have 100 and I bet if you had 20 hens, they would STILL fight over their preferred ones

If you stack them then you need to provide a way for the girls to get up into them. You want an access perch about 4" in front of any bank of nests if they are more than about a foot up. That is easy if the first level is on the floor but then you have lost usable floor space. If the bottom of the first level is ~18" off the floor, the girls get that space back but they will have to fly even higher to get to the second tier. My nipple water pipe is under (actually built into the floor of the box, not my best idea when I had to replace some nipples) the nest box that is inside the coop but on an outside wall (converted stall). My other box is fully external but I didn't have to design any waterproofing into the hinged lid since the coop is in the barn. If you build yours as external boxes, you can make them the width between the posts as planned with the inside flush with the inside of the posts with the TOP of the box against the horizontals and a front "bedding keeper barrier" down low. You could run a roost 18" from the nest box wall, HIGHER than the boxes, if more roost space is needed in the future.

Also consider that if you to stack them, they need to be designed with vertical outside access doors rather than a hinged and sloped 'roof', at least for the lower set. If you do it that way, you want a "bedding keeper" board on the outside as well, just in case.

Also be aware that if you do internal (or partial internal) nest boxes and they have a 'roof', you need to make it sloped or the chickens will happily sit up there and poop. Chickens are really good at poop

AND they can hang on to a pretty good angle, no shallow slope on that roof.

Thanks for the info. I have decided to have the nesting boxes inside completely and have an access door from the outside built into the wall this way I don't have anything sticking out to have to seal for rain I have an 18" overhang so I can stay out of the rain when gathering eggs and if they stick out I would have to walk around them in the rain. The coop has plenty of room inside and the boxes will be high enough for them to walk under them. I will make a slopped interior roof for the boxes so they can't sit on top of them. I may put the food and water under the boxes to keep them cleaner since they won't be able to poop in them like they would if they could roost above them.

Mike

Here is the wall framed for the 2 side doors.

 

[gpeters3]

Thanks for the info. I have decided to have the nesting boxes inside completely and have an access door from the outside built into the wall this way I don't have anything sticking out to have to seal for rain I have an 18" overhang so I can stay out of the rain when gathering eggs and if they stick out I would have to walk around them in the rain. The coop has plenty of room inside and the boxes will be high enough for them to walk under them. I will make a slopped interior roof for the boxes so they can't sit on top of them. I may put the food and water under the boxes to keep them cleaner since they won't be able to poop in them like they would if they could roost above them. Mike Here is the wall framed for the 2 side doors.

This is basically how i designed all my nesting setups. My first one was inside the coop over the feeders with a sloped roof and access from the back. This design has the nest boxes inside the coop over the feeders to prevent roosting but the front is flush with the inside wall which also prevents roosting. ( I dont have a pic of my latest mods with pvc water system). Both were under a roof so rain wasnt a problem. Before this design, I tried a bunch of feeder ideas but everything i tried got nasty in a hurry. My latest setup is absolutely the best for keeping things clean. A few of the hens manage to get on top of the pvc so a center board (above the pvc) may be my next adjustment.