Raptor Chickens Coop Build Starts....

[Raptor Chicken]

Feel free to expand, preferably with pictures about the "nesting covers".

 

[aart]

Feel free to expand, preferably with pictures about the "nesting covers".

Just put a board, at a sharp angle greater than 45° so they don't perch on it, above the nests.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Not a lot of room for the roosting bars and to still make it conducive to us being able to move around to clean and such.

Have you considered removable roosts? You could have brackets on the side that the bars drop/slot into, so they can be lifted and removed whenever you need access.

 

[aart]

....or a poop board over the nests.

 

[Raptor Chicken]

Now its official...

 

[Raptor Chicken]

And on the feeder/water issue I'm thinking of either hanging the ones you can see in the above picture from chains in the coop, or possibly doing a PVC pipe thing I've seen others do online.

It basically consists of getting fairly long piece of 3" pipe and putting a like a 90* bend on the end, then strap them to a wall.

What are "the flocks" thoughts?

 

[3KillerBs]

And on the feeder/water issue I'm thinking of either hanging the ones you can see in the above picture from chains in the coop, or possibly doing a PVC pipe thing I've seen others do online.

It basically consists of getting fairly long piece of 3" pipe and putting a like a 90* bend on the end, then strap them to a wall.

What are "the flocks" thoughts?

We tried this with the in-town flock.

It worked very well until winter came. It passed the first few mild frosts, but the first time it actually froze overnight the nipples all blew out.

 

[Raptor Chicken]

We tried this with the in-town flock.

It worked very well until winter came. It passed the first few mild frosts, but the first time it actually froze overnight the nipples all blew out.

I was just thinking about leaving the mouth of the pipe open, like I've seen online. It would probably take a combination of a 45* and 90* bend. And then for the water in the winter wrap it with some type of insulation and use "warm" water.

Kind of something like this.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Charlotte-Pipe-3-SCH-30-THINWALL-1-4-BEND-STREET/1002790080

 

[3KillerBs]

I was just thinking about leaving the mouth of the pipe open, like I've seen online. It would probably take a combination of a 45* and 90* bend. And then for the water in the winter wrap it with some type of insulation and use "warm" water.

Kind of something like this.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Charlotte-Pipe-3-SCH-30-THINWALL-1-4-BEND-STREET/1002790080

I can't say how that would work.

I just know what happened to ours the first time it really froze overnight that winter rather than just had a touch of frost. The pipe didn't crack, the nipples blew out.

Those were vertical nipples, which may be more vulnerable.

I've had a rim of ice in the buckets with the horizontal nipples without the nipples being damaged, but I've never had a bucket freeze solid so I don't know what would happen in that case. We didn't try a pipe system again after having lost the investment in materials and labor that first winter-with-chickens.

 

[aart]

I was just thinking about leaving the mouth of the pipe open, like I've seen online. It would probably take a combination of a 45* and 90* bend. And then for the water in the winter wrap it with some type of insulation and use "warm" water.

If it can freeze where you are, I would not use a pipe for water.