Show me inside and outside of your homemade coops

[mbailey78]

Thank you, we definitely enjoy the chickens and the setup we have. We have just under two acres but they also roam on my neighbors land and they don’t mind, they have just over an acre.
Hoping to move in a couple years to have a lot more land and add more animals.... cow, pigs, goats etc.
I read a lot of the auto door reviews on BYC and other websites and decided to go with https://www.automaticchickencoopdoor.com/
It works well so far. Only thing I don’t like is the timer. I plan on buying a digital timer to use in warmer weather if I can find what I want. It’s kind of a pain for me to set the one that comes with it with the changing length of days.
It hasn’t been challenged by any predators so can’t speak to that part of it.
We were going to build our own auto door but took the quicker option for this project.

 

[Sharwig]

My husband loves it when people ask us to show them Cluckingham Palace! That's the name my daughter gave our coop. I wanted a walk-in coop to make cleaning easier. Originally, we just built the coop with the intention of letting the girls free range (we only had 4), but the first winter we had our chicks, was one of the worst on record here in Idaho so we decided to add the covered run. I don't have pix of the roosting area but at the back of the coop is a 4x6(ish) shelf with 3 roosting bars. The nesting boxes (5) are located just inside the coop door. The floor of coop and run is sand that we cover with straw in the winter to add a little warmth. We also added a 5x5 grow-out pen at the back of run for sick or when we're brooding chicks/pullets. The coop is appx 6x12 and the run is appx 8x14 (or 16, I forget now) and we also added a 3x5'ish shed on the backside to house all their necessities. The set up now houses 20 birds (chicken math ya' know!). No plans, I sketched out the concept and my husband made it happen. There was a lot of trial and error, but I think it's a great little home for the girls now.

 

[Merrymouse]

@mbailey78
This is totally fabulous and exactly what i want "next time" If we ever more to more acreage and I have to build again I am building something like this. A huge, walk in shed like coop with huge attached run. Chickens are so addicting. Love you coop

 

[SilkieWorm]

Tried to finish it today but we ran out of sunlight So ready to get these stinky chicks out of my house lol. Saved so much money using all free wood I found

 

[aart]

Clever use of reused materials, but have to point this out.
The roof draining into the flower planter(real flowers?) may be very well flood your nests.
Unless there is a waterproof barrier between planter and nests.
Hinge nest access door at bottom for easier access.

 

[SilkieWorm]

Clever use of reused materials, but have to point this out.
The roof draining into the flower planter(real flowers?) may be very well flood your nests.
Unless there is a waterproof barrier between planter and nests.
Hinge nest access door at bottom for easier access.
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Yeah we almost didn’t think of that so we had to improvise and put a piece of the roof material under the planter, seal it, and drill a hole in the side of the planter so the water drains out there works pretty well so far.

 

[mbailey78]

@mbailey78
This is totally fabulous and exactly what i want "next time" If we ever more to more acreage and I have to build again I am building something like this. A huge, walk in shed like coop with huge attached run. Chickens are so addicting. Love you coop

Thank you, I look forward to building our next coop when we get more property too. Coop will be a bit bigger only to give more space for storage. I definitely don’t need a larger living area for the birds.....only would encourage me to get more birds and I have enough (seems funny to say since I am a crazy chicken lady). I do plan on having a larger run even though they free range a lot. Also plan on building a chicken tractor or some nice accommodations for meat birds.
I also see I didn’t mention the size in my original post. The coop is 12x14 and the run is 14x30(ish).

 

[mbailey78]

Here is my coop when I first built it.. so nice and clean before I added, you know...the actual, living, eating and pooping chickens I have since added an almost identical coop and run to the back of this one, doubling the size....build as big as you can then double it!!View attachment 1677853 View attachment 1677854 View attachment 1677856 View attachment 1677857 View attachment 1677858

Your coop is so cute! Some day I may take the time to decorate mine....I keep saying I’m going to make signs etc.

 

[ZtoAHomestead]

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Love your design and flower boxes! I saw it looks like you went from t post and welded wire run to the wood frame with hardware cloth. Were you having problems with predators? I want to do the same style as your finished product but was thinking of starting out with the t post and welded wire for a short time until I can save for more lumber and better weather.

 

[LJoWilly]

Love your design and flower boxes! I saw it looks like you went from t post and welded wire run to the wood frame with hardware cloth. Were you having problems with predators? I want to do the same style as your finished product but was thinking of starting out with the t post and welded wire for a short time until I can save for more lumber and better weather.

Thank you. The welded wire was just something temporary until I could get the permanent fencing up. I did not have problems with any predators. I do have hot wire around the top of the run, as the run is not covered. Never had any problems with ariel predators yet, as their coop a run is under 3 good size trees that keeps them camouflage.