What Do You Wish You Had Known Before You Bought/Built Your First Coop?

[Callender Girl]

In my case, the goats -- who are not bred and don't produce milk -- provide me with endless exercise.

I get to go buy bales of hay, load and unload those. I get to wrestle with one who repeatedly gets her head stuck in the fence looking for greener grass. I get to chase said goat out of the neighbor's field when she realizes she can use a fence-line tree to climb her way to freedom and escape. I get to run to town and buy more cattle panels to put OVER the woven wire fencing that Tessa has destroyed. I get to cut down scrub mulberry trees and haul them to the pen so Tessa and company can enjoy eating them. The possibilities for working out are nearly endless.

That being said, I have had and loved miniature goats for years. Outsmarting the little geniuses is part of the fun. They are beautiful animals with the most intriguing eyes. They are great at clearing weeds and brush. They are (mostly) affectionate and sweet pets.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Pardon the ignorance of an almost young city dweller .... but what purpose do goats serve? Do you milk them? That's all I know of.

Goats eat browse (basically, shrubbery - like my excess of yupon holly) and keep some of the other plants - muscadine grape, wild blackberry, cudweed etc from taking over the pasture so it doesn't become a monoculture. They leave behind a carpet of pelletized fertilizer.

/edit its "hot" fertilizer, though not as "hot" as chicken droppings, its in a middle ground between chicken on the hot side, and cattle on the cool side. Can mix 1:1 with straw and compost it, or dry it and pile to erode/degrade into the soil around grapes, citrus, and similar. Basically, as a dry pellet, it can be scattered on the soil without too much risk of burning trees and deep rooting vines. Still wet, its hot enough to burn grasses.

and ours are (small) meat goats (mixes - not the big Boers), though we've not eaten one (yet). I'm looking to bring a fourth onto the property, another small meat goat breed mix female, then cull my oldest male. Once I have freezer space. Technically, I could milk them, though they are much less productive than milk goat breeds (like getting eggs from a CornishX), but with healthy males on the property, the milk would likely have an "off" flavor.

 

[aart]

but with healthy males on the property, the milk would likely have an "off" flavor.

Not necessarily.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Not necessarily.

Really??? Its been my (admittedly limited) experience that milk from female goats (or cheese made from same) had a distinct "funk" when that rather rather odiferous male goat is kept in close proximity. Courtesy a car accident, my sense of smell is severely curtailed (like, "skunk" is a mildly pleasant musk, and burning toast is undetectable), but even I smell male goat at a short distance.

Is there a trick to it, or???

/edit would love to make some goat's milk feta. and soaps

 

[aart]

Really??? Its been my (admittedly limited) experience that milk from female goats (or cheese made from same) had a distinct "funk" when that rather rather odiferous male goat is kept in close proximity. Courtesy a car accident, my sense of smell is severely curtailed (like, "skunk" is a mildly pleasant musk, and burning toast is undetectable), but even I smell male goat at a short distance.

Is there a trick to it, or???

/edit would love to make some goat's milk feta. and soaps

Might want to search out homesteadingtoday dot com goat section.
I can't remember all the details but read about it extensively years ago when I was contemplating having goats. that forum isn't what is used to be but lots of info still there if you can dig it out.

 

[PippinTheChicken]

I wish I made it bigger so I could have LOTS AND LOTS of chickens!

 

[Callender Girl]

Before I bought my first coop, I wish I had known that the cute "outhouse"-styled coop made by the previous owner would have been better built with the square footage horizontally instead of vertically. However, it MAY be the extra height is all that saved my hen, Honey, who flew to the highest roost when a mink killed her coop mates.

 

[Lemon-Drop]

Well, for starters, my first coop was a lovely pre-fab. Lovely looking for the first little bit, that is. We started with 6 chickens, and thinking that the coop was built to hold 12, thought "This will be perfect! They will have plenty of space!"

Nope. It was tiny, not nearly enough ventilation, roosting bars touched the bottom, couldn't stand up in the run, nesting box dividers were flimsy and broke, the nesting box lid fell off, and the pull out tray always got stuck. Plus numerous other issues. Plus literally everything was made with cheap materials. The run was too small as well, plus the run door had trouble latching, and the wood warped.

Plus the fact it was no where near predator proof. Luckily we didn't lose any hens, but they sure didn't have the happiest life in that thing. One day a coyote came and started jumping on the walls of the run trying to make them fly out. Luckily the run was covered and they didn't get killed, and we scared off the coyote.

So we had a larger, 6 by 8 coop built. It has 3 (along the 8' side, the extra 2' make up a small storage box) nesting boxes, lots of ventilation, is sturdy, raised above the ground, walk in, roosting bars are high off the ground, nesting boxes are big (2' by 1') and 2 windows. (that are always open with hardware cloth covering the opening) It is so much better, and easier to clean. I have since added a few more roosting bars.

And the run. The chickens can't free range all day because of predators (and I can't spend all day watching them) so a 30 by 20 run was built, plenty big for 6 chickens. The top is covered in bird netting, and a small portion is covered with metal roofing to protect from the rain.

I do wish we had accounted for chicken math though. We now have a lot more chickens.


A few photos: (current setup)


(Don't mind the temporary feed hangars)

(Roof added since this photo was taken)

Fairy lights help me when I do a headcount in the evening. (they are turned off when I leave)

Nesting box doors (from the hens side) are very helpful to me. When integrating new chicks to the flock, I close them at night so the chicks don't sleep in the boxes. Also helps if I'm trying to keep a broody out of the boxes (I don't have a rooster (Yet!) so they aren't fertilized.)

 

[chickentrains]

Go bigger. More ventilation.

 

[3KillerBs]

So we had a larger, 6 by 8 coop built. It has 3 (along the 8' side, the extra 2' make up a small storage box) nesting boxes, lots of ventilation, is sturdy, raised above the ground, walk in, roosting bars are high off the ground, nesting boxes are big (2' by 1') and 2 windows. (that are always open with hardware cloth covering the opening) It is so much better, and easier to clean. I have since added a few more roosting bars.

And the run. The chickens can't free range all day because of predators (and I can't spend all day watching them) so a 30 by 20 run was built, plenty big for 6 chickens. The top is covered in bird netting, and a small portion is covered with metal roofing to protect from the rain.

I do wish we had accounted for chicken math though. We now have a lot more chickens.

Great documentation of how your coop evolved.