Let my start by saying that this is my first time raising chickens.
Below are some pictures of where my coop started and my run that I added yesterday. Four years ago my girlfriend was talking about how she wished she had a chicken coop. So, I went to HD and bought a bunch of wood. The only measurement I I needed to conform to was making it 4' wide allowing the coop to easily be moved in the back of a pickup. I would look at google images to see what other people were doing and get some ideas. One big cost saver for me was buying the cheap (less then a dollar), unfinished cedar boards used for fenced, and then trimming them and sanding them myself. It took me about a month to build in my garage.
Fast forward 4 years, I had the coop shipped from Texas to Louisiana, my current home. The coop still looked as good as the day I built it with the occasional graying from the sun. Because my backyard has no fence I needed to build a chicken run. My buddy and I built the chicken run yesterday out of some treated 2x2s.
I picked up my five girls yesterday and built them a temporary coop in the front yard so they could watch us build their cabin. While in the front yard one of the hens laid an egg, it was my first. We were able to get the hens into the coop last night.
I am having a issue with the age difference of my hens. Two of my hens are 2 years old. Three of them are 3-4 months old. The older hens have been picking on the younger hens, chasing them away from the food and pecking at them. Is this normal? Is there a way to help integrate the two age groups better?
Please let me know if you have any ideas on how I can improve my coop or raise my girls. I feed them Layena Crumbles mixed with some oyster shell.
Items I still need to accomplish.
-Put mesh around the coop to make the run area bigger.
-Put mesh on the ground to deter digging from predators.
-Build a small pen on wheels so that they can scratch around the lawn.
-Finish building the poop box under the roost.
-Name them.
The build:
The coop build gave me an excuse to buy a nice Miter saw.
This was after it was done four years ago in my GF back yard.
Not bad after 4 years. This is at my current home.
Girls playing in the front yard while we were building the run.
My first egg. You can see the three younger hens sticking together.
Building the run.
After reading about it on here, I put a roost inside.
Three young hens exploring there new house.
All done for now.
Below are some pictures of where my coop started and my run that I added yesterday. Four years ago my girlfriend was talking about how she wished she had a chicken coop. So, I went to HD and bought a bunch of wood. The only measurement I I needed to conform to was making it 4' wide allowing the coop to easily be moved in the back of a pickup. I would look at google images to see what other people were doing and get some ideas. One big cost saver for me was buying the cheap (less then a dollar), unfinished cedar boards used for fenced, and then trimming them and sanding them myself. It took me about a month to build in my garage.
Fast forward 4 years, I had the coop shipped from Texas to Louisiana, my current home. The coop still looked as good as the day I built it with the occasional graying from the sun. Because my backyard has no fence I needed to build a chicken run. My buddy and I built the chicken run yesterday out of some treated 2x2s.
I picked up my five girls yesterday and built them a temporary coop in the front yard so they could watch us build their cabin. While in the front yard one of the hens laid an egg, it was my first. We were able to get the hens into the coop last night.
I am having a issue with the age difference of my hens. Two of my hens are 2 years old. Three of them are 3-4 months old. The older hens have been picking on the younger hens, chasing them away from the food and pecking at them. Is this normal? Is there a way to help integrate the two age groups better?
Please let me know if you have any ideas on how I can improve my coop or raise my girls. I feed them Layena Crumbles mixed with some oyster shell.
Items I still need to accomplish.
-Put mesh around the coop to make the run area bigger.
-Put mesh on the ground to deter digging from predators.
-Build a small pen on wheels so that they can scratch around the lawn.
-Finish building the poop box under the roost.
-Name them.
The build:
The coop build gave me an excuse to buy a nice Miter saw.
This was after it was done four years ago in my GF back yard.
Not bad after 4 years. This is at my current home.
Girls playing in the front yard while we were building the run.
My first egg. You can see the three younger hens sticking together.
Building the run.
After reading about it on here, I put a roost inside.
Three young hens exploring there new house.
All done for now.
