The Baker's Dozen... Our Chicken Coop... tell us what you think.

[jmilandfam]

Check out this page of a man with 13 chicks. Ok, well a family with 13 chicks. Oh... this is why they threw tomato's at me... Yea, free food for the chickens. While I work on my comedy routine how about if you take a gander at our chicken coop. Come on in and lend a hand at

The Baker's Dozen

Ya' all come back now... ya hear.

 

[CarlaRiggs]

Your wife had a great idea to purchase those chicks!
The coop/run are terrific... for one with no experience of raising chickens, you learned really quickly.

So nice to see your children helping out, too. This must have been a fun family project.
Really well thought out for your birds; I hope they realize how good a life they've got.

Carla

 

[cluckychick]

That is a very nice coop. I like the grate over the waterer and it gave me an idea about how to keep the chicken off the top of their waterer in the coop. Thank you for the idea

 

[jmilandfam]

Thank you for the very nice comments. We could not have done all this work without all the great help from everyone that reads and posts to backyardchickens.com

I have told several people I know that are either raising chickens or are thinking about it to check out the forumn. It may sound like I am pushing this site but let me tell you, I do my research and this is definately the best rounded information site across the board for all you chicken needs. One of our chickens is laying eggs now, they are the smallest eggs I have ever seen. I'll try to get some pic's up soon.

 

[Omran]

God Bless you and your Family,the best thing abour your projeect is that every one of your family helped in building it and that's a lot of fun,and your coop is really very nice.

 

[Weasleymum]

That is an awesome coop! It seems so solid and well-built. I had a question about your plexiglass window, mainly: how did you make it? Did you screw the plexiglass to the frame, or make a groove in the frame for the plexi to fit into? It looks just like a regular glass window.

 

[jmilandfam]

Quote:
The boards were purchased from Habitat for Humanity, they were seven foot long, 3" wide, and 3/4" thick and only 50 cents per board. I ran one edge against my router to cut a groove along the entire edge. If you looked at the board on end it would look like a U was cut into the 3/4" edge. Then I cut the frame like you would a picture frame with 45 degree angles cut to the length of the plexiglas I picked up at Lowes. I put the plexiglas into the frame and joined the frame at the corners as shown in the pictures. The only thing I would have done different was to not actually encase the plexiglass into the wood. By doing this I have created the potential for a problem later should the plexiglass ever become broken. I will have to either try to reverse the assembly of the frame or make a new one. Instead I would recommend cutting the groove into the edge so that the glass can be set into the wood after the frame is assembled. Then it can be caulked into place or you could use window glaze. Should it ever be broken simple scrape out the caulk/glaze and replace. Oh well, live and learn. Hope this answers your question.

 

[Chirpy]

Beautiful job! Your chickens have to love their new digs.

I am concerned about the use of chicken wire all the way around the run. Chicken wire is only to keep chickens in... it won't keep almost any predator out. You may have already taken that into consideration regarding where you live... I'd just hate to see your family lose any chickens.

 

[Wildsky]

Wow - that's awesome - I'd LOVE to see more pictures of that waterer!! (pretty please)

And are you going to heat it somehow in winter?

 

[CathyB]

Very nice coop. It is wonderful that your whole family was involved!!