The Callusses Were Worth It!

[PineappleMama]

After countless hours, many scrapes, bruises and sore spots the coop and aviary are FINALLY done.

View From Our Gate aka What the neighbors and/or code enforcement can see...

Frontal View, yes that is a pink flamingo guarding the castle in addition to the carabiner'd latch, hook & eye latch and 'floor bolt' locks.

The Feed/Oyster/Grit Pipelines...

Coop Entry - notice the seam, the bottom half is hinged to open for cleaning the HC'd floor

The Ladies: Easter, Isis, Frigga, and Ceres

Hoped to get some inside (no gridwork) shots but my darned batteries keep dying...

Waiting for the silicon to set on my 5g bucket waterer (nipple feed) and then that'll be in there too. For now their still using their small waterer and getting refills twice a day... boy I'll be glad when the pipe's ready!

 

[Raising Reds]

Love the pink flamingo. And the "McDonalds" oyster shell serving area.

Someone has a good sense of humor!

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Very stylish! I like it!

 

[Rainbow Advaya]

Cool coop and AWESOME names!

 

[Campngolf]

Mickey D's....... I'm Lovin' It!

 

[PineappleMama]

Hehe, yeah well humor wise... nice to see that DH isn't the only one who gets my jokes... most just roll their eyes. Well, that or look up the number to the local booby hatch.

 

[Henrietta23]

Love it!!

 

[ElioraImmanuel]

That is a cool coop!

 

[bantyshanty]

Here is our aviary. We use it as our whole coop, as of summer. We live in a climate that freezes, so we'll get a walk-in coop built for winter, but for now, it's working great for about 25 bantams in various stages of immaturity, and about 5 laying pullets.

First, this has been built off an existing chain-link dog run.
Second, it's on a heavily treed hillside, so we took out about 3 ft of clay & rock on the lower part, 1 foot at the top part, added weed cloth, 1-2 feet of gravel, more weed cloth, another 1-2 feet of mason sand, and it's tier 3 times with stones excavated, and with some retaining wall blocks.
The existing dog run is about 175 sq ft, with no right angles, so we set a center 4 x 4 in cement and built the roof frame off it.

It's secured with hardware cloth all around and we made it raccoon, and it seems, weasel proof by filling int he cracks with more hardware cloth. It has a central 4 triangles of plywood, all urethane sealed, at top, with about 6 feet of 1 x 2s radiating out on each side, to create a sort of semi-permeable umbrella. It's where all the roosting birds roost at night on perches set onto the central beam. There's a small coop that fits our 5 layers, and two smaller coops that house the others in nasty weather. Sand is used in everything except the nest boxes.
The coops, some PetSmart markdown dog houses, some Craigslist rehomes, are all set off the ground on wooden frames, so the chickens get shelter from the thunder storms & the food is underneath them to stay dry.
All the wood has been stained dark to blend with the trees. From the road, the top of the aviary is seen, but the side is covered by a reed screen and lots of holly tree plantings.

We like it. In a southern climate, it'd be perfect. In 2 months of use, we've had no break in attempts by raccoons.

 

[joletabey]

Love it!