post your chicken coop pictures here!

[dandymandie]

I am helping my neighbors with a DIY chicken coop renovation. It's really exciting and I have learned a ton from reading up this thread since I posted my own little coop 1.5 years ago but Iv'e run into some questionable areas and would like to please ask for opinions.

A little background. They have been keeping chickens for quite a while. 1) It seems the old wood has mites living in it, it has rotted a bit so we want to replace that wood and the roosts. Which criss cross at points and hold poop 2) there are many open spaces for predators. The dog killed two coons in the coop! We want to close it off. 3) Ventilation. The coop has a very open side that needs closing off I've read about ventalation and after we get the coop straightened out they'd like to add to the flock again. My neighnors have gone from 30 thriving chickens to about 10 (just doing okay) in about a year. We live in a mild climate. Lots of rain during winter, but summers are cool usually don't reach past 75° F. I had some ideas and would like to share and see what you all think about them please? Once I go to look things over again I will add some photos of the current set up but the 10 year old came over with his own idea of what he wants this evening so I wanted to brainstorm and get advice. These are not my photos I found them on google.

Is this a good idea for nesting boxes? I thought, it would be easier for the kiddo to clean, we can buy the plastic sink liners at the local dollar tree. Would it reduce the chances of mites if DE is used under or it is painted under?

Will we run into problems with roosts of different heights? They see to work with my chickens but I have a smaller flock.

My nesting boxes are near the floor of the coop. Would this be considered too high?

 

[Sylvester017]

I am helping my neighbors with a DIY chicken coop renovation. It's really exciting and I have learned a ton from reading up this thread since I posted my own little coop 1.5 years ago but Iv'e run into some questionable areas and would like to please ask for opinions.

A little background. They have been keeping chickens for quite a while. 1) It seems the old wood has mites living in it, it has rotted a bit so we want to replace that wood and the roosts. Which criss cross at points and hold poop 2) there are many open spaces for predators. The dog killed two coons in the coop! We want to close it off. 3) Ventilation. The coop has a very open side that needs closing off I've read about ventalation and after we get the coop straightened out they'd like to add to the flock again. My neighnors have gone from 30 thriving chickens to about 10 (just doing okay) in about a year. We live in a mild climate. Lots of rain during winter, but summers are cool usually don't reach past 75° F. I had some ideas and would like to share and see what you all think about them please? Once I go to look things over again I will add some photos of the current set up but the 10 year old came over with his own idea of what he wants this evening so I wanted to brainstorm and get advice. These are not my photos I found them on google.

Is this a good idea for nesting boxes? I thought, it would be easier for the kiddo to clean, we can buy the plastic sink liners at the local dollar tree. Would it reduce the chances of mites if DE is used under or it is painted under?
Will we run into problems with roosts of different heights? They see to work with my chickens but I have a smaller flock.

My nesting boxes are near the floor of the coop. Would this be considered too high?

Once mites infest a coop it will be an uphill battle to totally be rid of them. Many repeat treatments should be done to be certain any lingering hatchling mites are killed. Even after treatment there's no guarantee wild birds won't bring mites back into the chicken yard. If the coop is being re-built don't use OSB flake board for anything - it crumbles from moisture even if you try to paint it. Plywood is best. I had an OSB flake board coop and struggled to keep it in decent condition -- managed to keep it nice enough to pass along to someone else -- but it's a pain to protect from both harsh sun or rainy downpours - we used tarps in heatwaves and pop-up canopy on rainy days to try to protect the OSB from disintegrating. We lined the nestbox bottoms with plexiglass to make cleanup of broken eggs or wet poops easier to clean and to protect the OSB flake board from moisture.

Don't know what the budget is for the proposed new coop but there are a few plastic coops with very easy maintenance and less chance for mites because of the ease of cleaning. Omlet has several Eglu models from modest to large sizes with many optional additions. ChickenCondos recently came out with an all plastic Urban Coop with plastic slide-out trays and plastic nestboxes for easy cleaning but still uses preferred wooden perches - there are all sorts of options like different attached run sizes, wheel packages, predator proof guards, and tons of other options that determine final cost and the coops are easy to assemble. I got the Barn Coop from ChickenCondos because the Urban Coop wasn't an available model yet. But we have been very happy with the Barn Coop and should last us a couple decades at least without having to worry about rebuilding an old coop again. Not having to build and rebuild again and again would be a savings in time and money to do it right the first time.

Nestboxes are traditionally located lower than perches. Chickens like to be at the highest level of the coop when roosting so if the nestboxes are higher than the perches than the chickens will use the nestboxes to sleep in rather than the perches. Hope some of these suggestions help

or at the least is an interesting read

.

 

[walleyeguy01]

Thanks for the quick responses from Junebuggena, MeepBeep and Sylvester017 on my ventilation issue. Hadn't really put a lot of thought into it when building as is my first coop and was more concerned with trying to keep them warm in our South Dakota climate that varies from 100+ in the summer with high humidity and down to 20 below winters. Because I don't plan on getting birds until next year I have time to fix this issue. My plans for coop placement puts it on the north side of my back shop to avoid the summer sun and hot south winds but will face northerly winds in the winter. Placing it facing north does keep the wind from blowing through as the current vents are facing east and west (rarely do we get an east wind but sometimes do get a westerly). Being out on the plains it is not uncommon to get winds going 30-40+ mph and will either freeze you in a New York second or disintegrate you in the same. My question is where would you suggest my added ventilation be placed? I did add up my square inches and they are1134 total. 426 upper end vents, 576 clean out door and 132 for the guillotine door. Any and all feedback appreciated.

 

[junebuggena]

Overlooking winter ventilation is one of the most common errors of first time owners. It's going to be incredibly difficult to get proper venting in that coop, with they way that it is placed (against the building) and with the way the nest boxes are set up. You only need 1 nest box per 4 hens. If you remove the nest boxes from one side, you'll be able to re-orient the coop in a way that will enable you to take advantage of the low and tall walls for venting. Is it possible to raise the roof just a bit more to add a few inches of permanent venting on both the low wall and the tall wall?

 

[walleyeguy01]

Kinda finding myself in a pickle as I built it for my great, great, great, great, grandchildrens, grandchildren to enjoy. No screwed down tight with screw holes filled and painted over with areas even glued and screwed together (boxes). No its going to take cutting and adding. Would adding a bottom entrance help?

 

[tjs07b]

I'm pretty new to the game here. I built my coop and got my first chicks earlier this year. My coop is almost entirely made from free recycled materials (almost all of the lumber and lots of odds and ends came from a Haunted House attraction that was being torn down just north of where I live). My wife and I had a blast building it and will post more detail in the "Coops" section as soon as my account is cleared to do so. Until then, here are a few pictures!

 

[MeepBeep]

Kinda finding myself in a pickle as I built it for my great, great, great, great, grandchildrens, grandchildren to enjoy.  No screwed down tight with screw holes filled and painted over with areas even glued and screwed together (boxes).  No its going to take cutting and adding.  Would adding a bottom entrance help?   

As said above getting proper ventilation on that design is going to be hard, if It was me I would explore removing the roof and bumping it up 12"-18" this additional height will allow you to wrap the upper part of the coop with vents above the birds roosting point...

That or possibly cut away most of the roof and bump up a screened dormer..

As said, a common newbie mistake is worrying about the cold, for most chicken breeds colds is not your enemy, it's the drafts and lack of ventilation that kills or injuries the birds in the winter not the cold itself... There are people in extreme cold environments (Alaska or Canada) that have coops with entire walls wide open and they successfully keep chickens in those extreme colds without issue, one such design is called the 'Wood's style coop' even though it's wide upon on one side it's deep enough to prevent drafts in the back of the coop where the birds roost...

Ideally you want lower and upper ventilation to draw in fresh air from bellow and expel the moist and ammonia filled air up high, but as said with all those nesting boxes down low and the roost directly inline getting proper high/low ventilation is going to be very hard... Thus the reason I suggest going all out on a ton of upper above the roost ventilation, and to make it even better put a few smaller vents down low that don't allow for a draft but at least let some air in, you can baffle the lower vents with wind breaks to prevent drafts, aka cut the vent hole in, then put a solid sheet of wood spaced off the coop by about 1" covering that vent to act as a wind block for direct winds but it will still allow air to sneak by around it on the sides...

I did add up my square inches and they are1134 total. 426 upper end vents, 576 clean out door and 132 for the guillotine door. Any and all feedback appreciated.

This is another common mistake, the only ventilation you count towards the recommended 1 sqft of ventilation per a bird are the ones that are open 24/7 and never closed... In your case the doors do not count as they will be closed sometimes...

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

I'm pretty new to the game here. I built my coop and got my first chicks earlier this year. My coop is almost entirely made from free recycled materials (almost all of the lumber and lots of odds and ends came from a Haunted House attraction that was being torn down just north of where I live). My wife and I had a blast building it and will post more detail in the "Coops" section as soon as my account is cleared to do so. Until then, here are a few pictures! [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR]

That's a nice coop and it's always nice to save money using all used wood and If you are waiting to add your coop to the coop section I think it's a couple hundred posts before your account is able to access that.

 

[tjs07b]

That's a nice coop and it's always nice to save money using all used wood and If you are waiting to add your coop to the coop section I think it's a couple hundred posts before your account is able to access that.

Oh wow. By that point, I may not be able to remember all the details! Thanks for the info

 

[Sylvester017]

Kinda finding myself in a pickle as I built it for my great, great, great, great, grandchildrens, grandchildren to enjoy. No screwed down tight with screw holes filled and painted over with areas even glued and screwed together (boxes). No its going to take cutting and adding. Would adding a bottom entrance help?

We have a bottom entrance/exit to our 4x4 coop floor and the ladder is so steep only one chicken uses it successfully so we've finally decided to block it off. Our Silkies will go down the ladder but can't maneuver the steep ladder back up and they can't fly (flightless chickens). The chickens can only enter/exit through the pop-door now (right side in photo).



The chicken pop-door ladder was too steep same as the coop floor entrance ladder and per the photo we had to level the ramp steepness by propping up with cinder blocks - it's still kinda steep but at least the Silkies can maneuver up the steps now.




For added ventilation the best you can do other than making major modifications is to drill several round holes in a row (around the size of mouse holes) on both ends of the coop very close to the roof line to avoid draft on perches. That will give you more added constant ventilation and then cover the row of holes with hardware cloth to keep out insects or rodents,etc. Otherwise adding height to the side walls to raise the roof to allow the addition of triangular hardware-cloth vents on both walls at the roofline is the only other but major option. If you are going to get chickens, calculate 144 sq in per hen for ventilation and don't overcrowd with more chickens - otherwise the ventilation will be inadequate. Keeping your chicken door or window open will be too drafty in the winter not to mention hazard from hungry predators. If the perch will be too close to roofline holes, then remove the current perch and build a lower one and anchor it to the coop floor (rather than the walls) but make the perch a bit higher than the bottom level of the nestboxes. Chickens won't use the perches if the nestbox level is higher - silly chickens!

Your little red coop is very aesthetically pleasing/darling but so many owners (and even manufacturers of chicken coops) are woefully unaware of the necessary ventilation (not draft) requirements per chicken even in snow country conditions.

One problem we kept having with our first old little coop is that rain leaks could get into the nextboxes. Seems no matter how well built chicken coops are they eventually warp, leak or deteriorate from weather and rain gets the nestbox material damp and unhealthy. We had to tarp our first little coop from harsh sunrays and use a pop-up canopy over the coop on rainy days. I hated standing in the rain to collect eggs to make sure no rain water dribbled into the nesting material. When we finally afforded our 2nd coop we built a cement slab with a patio roof overhead so we don't have to stand in rain anymore and the patio roof keeps our brutal SoCalif sun from beating down on the coop.





Every owner has a different situation and necessity becomes the mother of very innovative inventions. Keep us in the loop with your build

. Your solution may inspire someone else too!