post your chicken coop pictures here!

[Lakewood Acres]

Thanks Sylvester, the original plan was smaller and more light weight but I have a tendency to over build. We have plenty of room to move it around and of course the tractor to move it.

 

[bwarner]

Here is my "pheasant palace" as my wife calls it for a pair of Red Golden pheasants built the frame in one day then took a few weeks to finish because of weather and work

 

[chick-a- doodle]

...

Sylvester 017: I have had the pinless peepers on some of the girls for four-five weeks now (the most aggressive, who would attack and injure the most submissive, who would squat down and be pecked severely.) The most they do now is briefly peck at whoever has offended them and give chase for about 3 feet at best. Whether this actually changes their behavior after a while, I cannot say. I guess I will find out one day! -Donna

Aggressive hens seldom change behavior if the flock dynamics remain the same.  I've had to re-home our most aggressive bullies - hated to because I was attached but I couldn't stand seeing docile Silkies and Ameraucanas getting their crests and beards yanked out or gentle Breda chased by the crazy ones - it's also a contagious behavior that makes others pick up the mean behavior.  I've eliminated all my heavier dual purpose breeds and opted for medium or lightweight gentle breeds.  Just next week I'm expecting a shipment of two more docile Breda juveniles.  The Breda surprised us with their good production and friendly docile temperament so I don't miss the eggs from the re-homed dual purpose hens.

I will just have to keep the bullies in pinless peepers until they age out then, but, I am more inclined to sell the two that are submissive and being injured. The other chickens in the flock just run away from the bullies, while these two just lay down to be eaten on. Then, when blood is drawn, even the more docile hens go crazy. So, it would be the submissive to go because it is survival of the fitness around my farm! lol I will have to look up Breda; it is a breed I am unfamiliar with. The blue is a nice color!

 

[chick-a- doodle]

If you have any questions, please ask!

[COLOR=0000CD]Again - lovely plan!!! QUESTION - For the nestboxes did you use the Homz brand stacking totes? I use the smaller Homz stacking totes as nestboxes in the indoor chicken hospital pen. They have a removable lid, are already cut out at the side, and have a nice wide lip for the Silkie to stand on before entering the tote. I never tried the larger Homz tote but I love these smaller ones.[/COLOR]

I ordered the Large Nesting Stack Bin from WalMart by United Solutions. They are out of stock at this time. The size is perfect for my girls and the nest roost and lip of the shelf the bins sit on give ample foot room for them to get in and out of the boxes. BTW, they are called nesting boxes because they fit inside each other, not because they were for chickens to nest in! I thought that was an amusing fact!

 

[PraiseGod]

Finished our new one not too long ago. I'm in construction so 97% was salvaged from a burn pile or a load to the dump. Cost me about 200$ in plywood,screws,stain,chains,hindges and not much time to build.

the girls seem to like it so far.

. .

 

[Sylvester017]

Aggressive hens seldom change behavior if the flock dynamics remain the same. I've had to re-home our most aggressive bullies - hated to because I was attached but I couldn't stand seeing docile Silkies and Ameraucanas getting their crests and beards yanked out or gentle Breda chased by the crazy ones - it's also a contagious behavior that makes others pick up the mean behavior. I've eliminated all my heavier dual purpose breeds and opted for medium or lightweight gentle breeds. Just next week I'm expecting a shipment of two more docile Breda juveniles. The Breda surprised us with their good production and friendly docile temperament so I don't miss the eggs from the re-homed dual purpose hens.

I will just have to keep the bullies in pinless peepers until they age out then, but, I am more inclined to sell the two that are submissive and being injured. The other chickens in the flock just run away from the bullies, while these two just lay down to be eaten on. Then, when blood is drawn, even the more docile hens go crazy. So, it would be the submissive to go because it is survival of the fitness around my farm! lol I will have to look up Breda; it is a breed I am unfamiliar with. The blue is a nice color!

It makes sense in your situation to re-home the timid birds. We have a limit of 5 hens only so we chose to keep the gentle/docile breeds so we could enjoy watching "chicken TV". A small flock like ours doesn't need dual purpose drama queens. Docile lightweight Breda are still relatively rare in the U.S. with only a few small breeding flocks so I'm overjoyed whenever I find a breeder of them -- especially once I found they were pretty decent layers too -- from MED to almost XL eggs. I am partial to the Blue pattern but Breda come in many varieties like White, Cuckoo, B/B/S (Blue/Black/Splash), Black-&-White Mottled, and Blue-&-White Mottled (rare). The hens weigh about 41/2 to 5 lbs, they have absolutely NO comb but a little triangle tassel where a comb should be, have cavernous nostrils like Polish, huge vulture hocks, and extra-long feathered legs/toes. I have two more Blue chicks arriving next week and very excited to get more gentles to add to our little backyard. I've had Breda for almost 2 years and can't imagine our yard without these gentle souls.

CUCKOO BREDA





BLUE BREDA





GENTLE SILKIES AND TIMID AMERAUCANA -- arel comfortable around docile large fowl Breda.

 

[Sylvester017]

I ordered the Large Nesting Stack Bin from WalMart by United Solutions. They are out of stock at this time. The size is perfect for my girls and the nest roost and lip of the shelf the bins sit on give ample foot room for them to get in and out of the boxes. BTW, they are called nesting boxes because they fit inside each other, not because they were for chickens to nest in! I thought that was an amusing fact!

As soon as Walmart gets a good product we like for the chickens they never re-stock the item again neither in-store or on-line! We got our Homz totes from Walmart and got the last ones on the shelf. They never restocked the item again.

 

[nikkihinton90]

We live in an urban area so the coop is inside the run to keep it super secure from the foxes. It's my first time with chickens and first time building a run and coop so don't be too judgmental! I'm quite proud of it! Design and build my own and a lot of the wood is reused which is why the coop is a bit mismatched! Total cost about £200 run is aprox 64 sqaure feet coop about 12 square feet. We have 4 new hens getting used to their new home from a battery farm picked them up yesterday.

 

[Pstock44]

We live in an urban area so the coop is inside the run to keep it super secure from the foxes. It's my first time with chickens and first time building a run and coop so don't be too judgmental! I'm quite proud of it! Design and build my own and a lot of the wood is reused which is why the coop is a bit mismatched! Total cost about £200 run is aprox 64 sqaure feet coop about 12 square feet. We have 4 new hens getting used to their new home from a battery farm picked them up yesterday.

I think it looks great. I see you even made a "jungle gym" for them to play on. That's my next little project.

 

[Pstock44]

I recently hatched out some chicks (8) and needed a brooding/growing area. I added 10ft to the end of my run and used my original little coop for mama to finish hatching and start raising her babies. Working out nicely and since all the chickens can see each other through the fencing then integration into the flock when they're big enough should be easy.

Here's mama and babies this morning.