The Yardbird Life
In the Brooder
- Jul 27, 2025
- 13
- 6
- 21
It's been 10 years since our last backyard flock and we've wanted back in for a number of years. On one of our last Costco runs, we stumbled on this Zylina pre-fab that, for some reason, caused us to dive in. It's a "little bit" more substantial then all the others we've seen offered that are so frail and tiny but it definitely needed some significant upgrading and improvement on the finished product.
It had a light blessing of some kind of whitewash so before assembly, I shot it with a quality Zinser anti-mold & mildew exterior grade latex and had it tinted in the gray. The white portions are the same untinted product. I installed a whole bunch of additional fasteners to strengthen the basic structure as well as restapled ALL of the hardware cloth every 2-3" and then followed up using over 40' of plumbers tape and galvanized screws to secure the hardware cloth in all spans and corners. It's attached to a framework of 4x4 timber at the base to keep the less durable pine off the ground. I think we'll get some years out of this and it's pretty fortified now for predator control.
Speaking of which, I DO have predators. I'm in the middle of a little central coast of CA village where all the homes are very early 1900's vintage and we have a significant large creek running through the center of town which brings with it Racoons, Possum, Red Fox (occasionally), Barn owls (neighbor broods 2-3 owls a season 2 doors down!), as well as hawks that hang about though have serious crow competition overhead. We've never experienced nor heard of any coop attacks or problems involving all these critters but it's normal for me to wake up and have 6 sets of eyeballs and hands propped onto our french doors leading to our backyard deck for our bedroom. It's always been a real treat that we've enjoyed but now I'm introducing bait behind enemy lines. We have 7 in the brooder, 3 Plymouths, and 4 Speckled Sussex, 1 of which was a 'replacement' for one that we sorta thought would not survive a crushed toe but that's proving to be a non-issue so far after a couple weeks. We "may" give one up to keep our count down and balanced given the coop is not massive.
My intention is to cover with plywood, the upper quadrants of hardware cloth to enclose the upper portion of the entire coop in order to facilitate more protected and comfortable roosting area. I plan to make that coverage easily removable should summertime ventilation dictate. Coop is shaded from the midday summer sun. We have plenty of nesting boxes but the original roosting area (in my past experience) is worthy of 2, maybe 3 birds but they can surprise. I'm creating more roosting bars in the upper portion of the entire coop.
Installed an automatic door and we'll have an easy 50-60+ sq. ft. of run area (minimum) as seen in the foreground of the end view photo and the entire compound and run will be surrounded with Premier 1 PoultryNet Plus fencing that will be here day after tomorrow. The run area will be covered with a bird netting to discourage daytime aerial attacks as the ladies will retreat to the coop every night.
My head is spinning after binging on all the little details of this project so I don't doubt I'm overlooking, maybe the obvious, maybe not? would love any thoughts that come to mind that I can correct or incorporate in the next 4 weeks before I turn the ladies loose in their new crib!
It had a light blessing of some kind of whitewash so before assembly, I shot it with a quality Zinser anti-mold & mildew exterior grade latex and had it tinted in the gray. The white portions are the same untinted product. I installed a whole bunch of additional fasteners to strengthen the basic structure as well as restapled ALL of the hardware cloth every 2-3" and then followed up using over 40' of plumbers tape and galvanized screws to secure the hardware cloth in all spans and corners. It's attached to a framework of 4x4 timber at the base to keep the less durable pine off the ground. I think we'll get some years out of this and it's pretty fortified now for predator control.
Speaking of which, I DO have predators. I'm in the middle of a little central coast of CA village where all the homes are very early 1900's vintage and we have a significant large creek running through the center of town which brings with it Racoons, Possum, Red Fox (occasionally), Barn owls (neighbor broods 2-3 owls a season 2 doors down!), as well as hawks that hang about though have serious crow competition overhead. We've never experienced nor heard of any coop attacks or problems involving all these critters but it's normal for me to wake up and have 6 sets of eyeballs and hands propped onto our french doors leading to our backyard deck for our bedroom. It's always been a real treat that we've enjoyed but now I'm introducing bait behind enemy lines. We have 7 in the brooder, 3 Plymouths, and 4 Speckled Sussex, 1 of which was a 'replacement' for one that we sorta thought would not survive a crushed toe but that's proving to be a non-issue so far after a couple weeks. We "may" give one up to keep our count down and balanced given the coop is not massive.
My intention is to cover with plywood, the upper quadrants of hardware cloth to enclose the upper portion of the entire coop in order to facilitate more protected and comfortable roosting area. I plan to make that coverage easily removable should summertime ventilation dictate. Coop is shaded from the midday summer sun. We have plenty of nesting boxes but the original roosting area (in my past experience) is worthy of 2, maybe 3 birds but they can surprise. I'm creating more roosting bars in the upper portion of the entire coop.
Installed an automatic door and we'll have an easy 50-60+ sq. ft. of run area (minimum) as seen in the foreground of the end view photo and the entire compound and run will be surrounded with Premier 1 PoultryNet Plus fencing that will be here day after tomorrow. The run area will be covered with a bird netting to discourage daytime aerial attacks as the ladies will retreat to the coop every night.
My head is spinning after binging on all the little details of this project so I don't doubt I'm overlooking, maybe the obvious, maybe not? would love any thoughts that come to mind that I can correct or incorporate in the next 4 weeks before I turn the ladies loose in their new crib!
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