The disneyland coup/run is nearing completion

[Hope49_DH]

Quote:
We actually took that out. We were reading a number of threads that talked about their chickens digging down and shredding it. What we had down was a layer of landscape fabric. Since we laid down nearly 7 inches of sand, we just dropped in on top of tamped dirt.

Managed to finally install the gutter yesterday that will direct runoff to the citrus trees. Going to re-evaluate the roosting situation tomorrow, and working on closing off the deck sides and added a step down in the back.

 

[rebbetzin]

That is really a nice set up!! I enjoyed the slide show you have of the construction. Looks like you have a beautiful garden!

I put my babies out in the coop from the first night I got them, they were three and five days old. Of course that was Sept in Tucson, where it is still in the upper 90's during the daytime, and I used a heat lamp for a couple weeks at night. You will have quite happy chickens!!

 

[gertiie]

LOL@ Filed trip

I LOVE the colors !!! I would have loved to go with something like that color scheme but since the husband insisted on putting the chickens underneatht that lean to,
I had to pick something brighter so we could at least see it ! I wanted it out in the yard where I could see it, walk around it, and plant flowers around it. Husband said
they need to be warm in the winter and we get alot of drifting and snow blowing in the winter from the corn fieds

Your coop is beautiful !!

 

[Hope49]

Thank you so much for your supportive replies - it has been a real labor of love for us, and yesterday was warm enough to put the whole group outside for a few hours. I tell you, they did NOT want to leave. They had never seen so much space and they got the hang of the waterers and feeders really quickly once we made something for them to stand on. The height of the waterers was much too high for chicks, so I had to be very creative really quickly.

Here are some of them enjoying their square footage:

The 2 eldest - 5 wk-ers - BuffOrp and RIR

Buffy (Buffalo chicken) is the queen bee of the pecking order and she is almost a lap chicken, she's so tame and adores us THAT MUCH. Always the first out of the brooder, she was appalled that she had to ever go back into it.

Hubby found this incredibly cute sign at Big Lots (Good ole Big Lots!) so we snatched that up!

So now, all we do is wait a few more weeks, and they can start overnighting in the coop. Our youngest are less than 2 wks old, so maybe not them, we'll see.

Life with chickens is definitely more fun and our neighbors have been very supportive too. Thanks for visiting.

 

[Hope49]

It's been quite a while since I've posted here. The coop/run are complete, and as usual the chickens never cease to amaze us. They definitely have minds of their own.

After shutting them into the coop at night a few times, they were all going in like little troopers. Then we added the last 4 little ones, and THEY kept huddling in the corner of the run unless we herded them in, and this went on pretty much any night.

Then we decided to add "a gazebo room" (really just a pop-out window) on the back of the run, so they could bask in the morning rays of the sun. WRONGGGG!!! They didn't want to be up there in the morning - they were too hungry to care and then just didn't see the allure of the gazebo at all!!

http://mitzkity.com/Coop/slides/IMG_1006.html

http://mitzkity.com/Coop/slides/IMG_1031.html

Meanwhile summer finally arrived, and they suddenly decided that they wanted to sleep outside, NO ONE IN THE COOP...well, gee, that's okay, I can handle rejection, right?

So, we started giving them treats at night in the gazebo, and suddenly, they began to go up there to sleep. Well this was a new fly in the ointment because ---- well YOU know how much chickens poop at night, right? Every morning there was so much poop, they all trooped through it on their way down!!

So last night we went to Target and bought 3 5 dollar cookie pans, and screwed them down so that no matter which way they were facing, there was a pan full of sand under their butts.

PROBLEM SOLVED!!! Boy that took some thinking, though... thank goodness for sand!

So now all we have to do is get the number down to 8 (we have 10) and all will be well here at Ferrari Farms (no, it's not a farm, just a house).

 

[pawsplus]

Wow! That is a GORGEOUS coop!! Congrats!

I'm confused about the sand trays though. Did you not have any bedding at all in the coop? Usually folks use some kind of bedding (pine shavings, pine pellets, even sand) on the coop floor to absorb the poop. If the sand trays work (I guess they are like the poop boards folks usually put under roosts?), that's great. I'm just not clear on why they were needed.

The coop is really pretty! Your guys are all pretty young--they'll probably change a lot as they get older and get into routines (i.e., not want to stay out all night, etc.).

 

[Hope49]

LOL, I know, I am often accused of "shortspeak" because even though I think I'm giving tons of detail information, I often confuse people by assuming they have already read all my posts...sorry.

Yes, we have a 6" deep bed of sand in the run, and 5" deep pine shavings in the coop. But this little pop-out area - - well, in my mind, there would be just a simple roost over a hardware cloth bottom, and it would just fall through to the dirt below. However, some turn their heads inward, and some turn their heads outward (well duh!!!) --- and so their butts are not likely to be poised like I want them to be!!

See the entry board, not the roost board - - http://mitzkity.com/Coop/slides/IMG_1006.html Well they were pooping all over that entry board when their heads were turned outward.

See the 3 framed areas where they can get out into this pop-out "gazebo" to the roost board, which makes them look like 3 cubicles, although they really aren't divided once they get on the roost board. They just shove each other around until everyone has a bit of real estate. So, we needed to position the cookie pans under their butts -- I just sent my darling inventive hubby out to take some pictures of it and then maybe you can see it better.


Oh WOWOOOWOWOWOW! Chickens never cease to amaze, do they? I thought they were creatures of habit??? He just came in and said - 2 are together one area, no one is in the middle where they were for the last 2 nights, the 4 babies have the area next to the coop, which has been the place of honor until tonight.... and wonder of wonders - - EVERYONE ELSE is on the high roost inside the coop where no one has ever even noticed until tonight!!! I didn't even know they could get up there?!?

Photos downloading now - will be back in a few minutes...

Okay - here's the Gazebo with the pans in it now working well, eh?

The babies are here - 2 Partridge Penedesencas (Chipotle and Bourbon) and 2 red sex links (Kung Pao and Cashew) which we HOPE are all females.

And our eldest, Buffalo and Tandoori, by themselves nearby.

And inside the coop are the middle children - -

They are Popcorn, our Light Brahma, BBQ, our Cuckoo Marans, Teryaki, the Gold-lace Wyandotte wannabe, and in the corner is our funny go-getter Americauna, So' Fried.