Background: So here I am going to post everything I do to the coops. I like open air coops because in North Carolina it rarely gets in the teens at the cold of winter, but Summer is humid and hot. It gets 95-100 during Summer at times. We use box fans in our coops and that helps a lot. I am breeding Mottled Cochin bantams and getting into White and BBS Silkies. They are going from a large coop that used to house my standards to a smaller coop which may sound messed up. The cochins were spoiled and lived in a 10x8 pen. They didn't have a coop per se but slept in the dog house they used since they were 9 weeks old. That's done and over with
The Old Coop: The old pen was just a 10x8 chainlink pen. No plywood, nothing but a trampoline cover on top to provide shade and run off majority of the rain. The trampoline was amazing at doing it's jo b. I loved it's function, but the trampoline looked major whitetrash material. Circle covering rectangle equals weird extra material bunched up. If I could have I would cut it and sew the edges to make a square for a shade cloth (This idea may still happen) It worked great, served its purpose because in the coop before this one I had to crawl on my knees to get into the door of the old coop. Chickens + Crawling on knees =
and
. This is amazingly annoying to do everyday. I had build a temporary pen so that when cleaning and trying to grow patches of grass they can have a safe place to be in so there was a low stress level. the temporary pen was 10x5.
Cochin Pen (OLD): You can see that it doesn't look the best. I have the aviary that the pigeons never use in the left attached to the pigeon loft (tan building), the trampoline, the red wood you see is their roost. I'm not doing angled roosts because for 3-4 birds it's wasted space, they all roost together, and the small box to the left front is the nest box. As a side not the dog house was taken apart because I was about to clean it.
Temporary Pen (OLD): Small, but well enough room for them. I free range my birds about 3 hours a day and they are fairly inactive. As long as there is some grass or something to peck they are happy. If they were games or another active breed I would use larger pens than a plan on doing. This pen has all the same things in it and sometimes they spend the weekend in there when I'm busy and can't clean all the straw in one day. The box fan is not normally uncovered but it was just put there temporarily.
The Plan: I am going to have 4 pens. One pen is for my Cochins and two for my silkies (BBS and White). There is also one pen that will be used for storage unless I have an injured noncontagious bird of a broody. This will also be where Willow my chicken dog sleeps. The pens are 5x6. The coop portion is 2 feet deep, 5 feet wide and feet high. The front of the coop part will have a 2 feet wind block that will provide shade and a 3 feet opening. The aviary was removed so the side is cleaner. The top is chainlink just like the front panels. If the rain or sun is too strong I can always install palruf or tin on top of it. It's amazing how easy it was to move the pens around to make it suitable. I filled in holes made by chickens dustbathing and I am going to plant grass seed. During the winter they did a number on the grass.
The front of the whole pen is 20' and it has a depth of 6. Here you can see the length and dead grass. It looks cleaner than the other pens. The roof is chainlink and so is the front.
This is all for now. I will be going to Home Depot tonight and will be purchasing wood. I am going to use 2"x4" roosts and am unsure of the feeder and waterers.
The Residents:
Critism is welcome, no doubt. Please feel free to say if it looks like crap. If I feel it's too small once I get birds in there I will expand it when I get more money. I've planned out the doors and all but it's hard to explain
. The total cost is going to be about $75.
The Old Coop: The old pen was just a 10x8 chainlink pen. No plywood, nothing but a trampoline cover on top to provide shade and run off majority of the rain. The trampoline was amazing at doing it's jo b. I loved it's function, but the trampoline looked major whitetrash material. Circle covering rectangle equals weird extra material bunched up. If I could have I would cut it and sew the edges to make a square for a shade cloth (This idea may still happen) It worked great, served its purpose because in the coop before this one I had to crawl on my knees to get into the door of the old coop. Chickens + Crawling on knees =
Cochin Pen (OLD): You can see that it doesn't look the best. I have the aviary that the pigeons never use in the left attached to the pigeon loft (tan building), the trampoline, the red wood you see is their roost. I'm not doing angled roosts because for 3-4 birds it's wasted space, they all roost together, and the small box to the left front is the nest box. As a side not the dog house was taken apart because I was about to clean it.
Temporary Pen (OLD): Small, but well enough room for them. I free range my birds about 3 hours a day and they are fairly inactive. As long as there is some grass or something to peck they are happy. If they were games or another active breed I would use larger pens than a plan on doing. This pen has all the same things in it and sometimes they spend the weekend in there when I'm busy and can't clean all the straw in one day. The box fan is not normally uncovered but it was just put there temporarily.
The Plan: I am going to have 4 pens. One pen is for my Cochins and two for my silkies (BBS and White). There is also one pen that will be used for storage unless I have an injured noncontagious bird of a broody. This will also be where Willow my chicken dog sleeps. The pens are 5x6. The coop portion is 2 feet deep, 5 feet wide and feet high. The front of the coop part will have a 2 feet wind block that will provide shade and a 3 feet opening. The aviary was removed so the side is cleaner. The top is chainlink just like the front panels. If the rain or sun is too strong I can always install palruf or tin on top of it. It's amazing how easy it was to move the pens around to make it suitable. I filled in holes made by chickens dustbathing and I am going to plant grass seed. During the winter they did a number on the grass.
The front of the whole pen is 20' and it has a depth of 6. Here you can see the length and dead grass. It looks cleaner than the other pens. The roof is chainlink and so is the front.
This is all for now. I will be going to Home Depot tonight and will be purchasing wood. I am going to use 2"x4" roosts and am unsure of the feeder and waterers.
The Residents:
Critism is welcome, no doubt. Please feel free to say if it looks like crap. If I feel it's too small once I get birds in there I will expand it when I get more money. I've planned out the doors and all but it's hard to explain
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