recycled playhouse coop spruced up

[B-Goock]

Well I had started this in new member introductions so I had something more to say then "hey it's me and I have chickens" but I figure it's time to throw up a my coop thread.
The beginning https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/795754/new-used-playhouse-chicken-coop

The free playhouse was like this one.

The tarp boards were broken and the ballisters were broken too but it had a good floor and 8' posts.

 

[B-Goock]

I added extra stuff left over from when I built my house and bam! chicken coop


It sets right behind my garden so I can put the chicken fertilizer right into the garden.

 

[Blooie]

I added extra stuff left over from when I built my house and bam! chicken coop


It sets right behind my garden so I can put the chicken fertilizer right into the garden.

That's really a great looking coop! A lot of thought went into it, that's easy to see! Congrats! Just wanted to add that if you take the "chicken fertilizer" straight from your coop to your garden you will burn your plants. And the pathogens in the chicken poop will still be alive and well. There are some threads on here for composting with the chicken poop, which is a much safer way for your plants and your family. What a great way to introduce yourself....again, great job!!

 

[B-Goock]

Before winter last year I knew I needed power out there to keep the water from freezing so the next improvement was power.

I had a light under my porch so I just ran conduit under ground from my porch to the coop.



I have two plug outlet boxes that are gfci protected. The one under the clear box is for the heater. You can see the thermo cube in it.
The top outlet has one open for when I need to work up there and a timer for a light.

The next thing for winter was a heater for the waterer.
I just built a box out of osb with a lip inside it that a patio block could set on, lined the inside of the wood box with reflective flashing, added a cheap light bulb socket with a 40 watt bulb and a door.

You can see the patio block is exposed to the heat of the bulb. I used a patio block because it has density and will hold heat.

Here it is with the waterer on it. When it got down in the teens I put a 60 watt bulb in it and it did fairly well. The bulb did burn out once during the winter and I saw the chickens had been eating the snow through the fence, opened the door and the waterer was a solid block. I brought it inside, floated it in the tub to thaw it, replaced the bulb and put it back on duty.

 

[B-Goock]

The next addition was more chicky doos this spring!



The store said they were "rainbow layers" which I later found out I have a few buffs, some red stars, and maybe another type of red.

To get them out of the house I divided up the coop a little with a couple scrap pieces of osb, various scrap lumber, and some chicken wire.

Here are the little pig pens.

 

[B-Goock]

The next improvement was because of all the rain we had been having causing the run to be a sloppy mess. I added a sheet metal roof to half the run. Approx. a 9' x 8' roof.
The same week I did that I had a fox attack when they were free ranging in the yard. Only one (Boss hog) got hurt and the fox almost got away with her but I chased it into the woods and shot at it with a small pistol and the fox dropped boss. Boss earned a new name. Foxy.

Foxy is doing much better but it prompted me to expand my run. Especially with the new chicks. I added another 8' x 16' run. And yes I didn't stop there. Rain barrel.



free cinder blocks and some scraps of treated lumber. The barrel came from my neighbor's work for free too!

 

[B-Goock]

What to do with a rain barrel? Water for the garden.

How about feed a nipple waterer and have a hose set up outside the run to make it easier to get water for the garden? Sure.



I bent up some flat steel and made the hangers for the "half pipe" to collect the drips from the nipples. The girls seem to rather drink from the pipe than the nipples.



Gravity feed water hose from the rain barrel. I really like this much better than dragging the garden hose from the house then rolling it back up after using it or carrying the waterer back and forth from the house. Just pick up the spray nozzle and fill up the waterer or a bucket. Done!

I even set it up so I can fill the rain barrel from the house if need be during dry spells. Just connect the house garden hose to the end of the spray nozzle and turn them both on.

The only bad part is not being able to use it during winter. Oh well no more carrying a 5 gallon waterer everyday for over half the year.

 

[B-Goock]

The rain barrel did great this summer. I half filled it when I installed it and only recently was it running low. I went ahead and hooked up the garden hose and filled it some. Pretty sweet not having to carry 5 gallons up every couple days.

My recent addition to the coop was lights. I ended up buying new landscape lights for the house since my old ones were getting a bit crappy so I figured why not hook them up there? I have pathway lights by the garden to the coop now and put a couple lights in the coop and run for the girls. I have them set to come on in the morning so they get up and get busy laying eggs and for a little bit in the evening for when we go out to button everything up. Girl friend says it looks cute as well.

 

[Ms-T]

Love your coop and land..glad foxy is ok.

 

[B-Goock]

Here's the lights.


These are the lights I made for the house. Antique insulators wired up for low voltage lighting.






I also added a wall on the north side of the run with some scrap pole barn metal.


You can see the grass is growing in the back run. I split the back run in half and planted it with extra garden seeds and grass. I let the girls in one side and they chew it down then let them in the other side later and let the first side grow back up some. The cage in the middle is so they don't eat everything and I always will have something growing for them. Once the plant gets big enough to stick out of the cage then the girls get to eat it yet don't kill the plant.