Wooden Playset converted to coop - need suggestions

[animal boy]

the overall coop

A frame run

The back side with a cleaning door and plenty of ventilation. We get below freezing and didn't have any frost bite issues. We did have a heat light though

the nest box door. I just use a card board box as a nest box. Will sometimes their food and water up here as well.

The ramp and the back part. It provides nice shade in summer and stays very warm and dry in winter. Sorry it's messy right now

The top level with 2 roosts and their preferred nest box. I have to climb into the coop to get the eggs but oh well

Let me know if you want to see anything in particular

 

[huffchickens]

Thanks for the pics. Very creative. We are have been toying with with idea of framing in the swing for the run, but we think we may come out cheaper buying a dog kennel, adding some hardware cloth and attaching that to the swingset (the cost of lumber has just really gone up). We are still debating and I am running out of time. My chicks are 4 weeks old and getting antsy. We have had an unusually cool spring so far though. I live in Georgia and it's usually quite warm here by now, but we've had freezing temps at night. I live in the country so we have lots of predators, so I am going to really have to think about keeping it safe. It looks though that you just kept the boards up top relatively close together and therefore didn't need any wire up there. With our hot summers, I may have to leave to sides wired for cross ventilation. Last summer was in the 90's here for about 8 weeks straight.

Thanks so much for sharing. I will try and post some pics when we get going on ours in the next week or so.

 

[animal boy]

No Probelm. I would love to see what yours ends up looking like

 

[huffchickens]

Hi. I finally got to the point where I could post some pictures. We still have to shingle the nesting box and we are going to go with another user's idea and frame the run door in on the inside with wood. So, I still have that to do. We ended up using a dog kennel for our run.

Here is a direct view of the coop. As you can see, we have not finished the run door. The coop has sand on the very bottom on top of a hardware cloth floor which they seem to love, there is a ladder to the second floor where the nesting boxes are and then another ladder to the very top where there are several roosts. For some reason, they have not left the bottom. I would think they would go up top at night to roost. When I try putting them up there, they come right back down. I guess they will figure it out eventually.



Another photo:
This just shows the coop from a different angle. As you can see, the nesting box doesn't have shingles on it yet. The roof is tin and we have a tarp over the run for shade.



Inside the run:
The apron is on the inside and is held down by boards all the way around, some of the boards we made into roosts. We will be adding another support beam in the middle. We could not trench around our run because of underground lines and wiring. The chickens are locked up every night, so they are secure. We went three feet up with galvanized hardware and also put a metal roof on top.



Finally, some of the guys and gals enjoying their new home. I would like to free range them some, but too nervous to do all of them at the same time. I'm afraid I won't be able to get them all back in!



We still have some more work to do, but this is how it is turning out so far. Thanks so much for sharing your ideas!

 

[locoguru]

Great Job!

 

[huffchickens]

Thanks! It ended up being a little more work than we had anticipated, but it was worth it.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Every time I see one of these play structures, visions of chicken coops dance in my head. Cool project.

 

[boxofpens]

We have just started free ranging ours when we are home in the evening. The first time we let them out it was about 30
min until dusk. I had a container of mealworms just in case they needed some incentive. They went in all by themselves and hopped up on their roost. After the initial 'oh man, that was easy' realization wore off, we were sad it was over because they are SO funny to watch. It's a lot like when children are let out for recess. They run wild everywhere with excitement. But after a while they poop out and just kind of wander around.

 

[huffchickens]

We have just started free ranging ours when we are home in the evening. The first time we let them out it was about 30
min until dusk. I had a container of mealworms just in case they needed some incentive. They went in all by themselves and hopped up on their roost. After the initial 'oh man, that was easy' realization wore off, we were sad it was over because they are SO funny to watch. It's a lot like when children are let out for recess. They run wild everywhere with excitement. But after a while they poop out and just kind of wander around.

I will try that. I think it is so weird that my chickens are not using their coop roosts. They are sleeping in the sand. As a matter of fact, they never come out into the run unless I go out there. Maybe they are still scared. They are about 8 weeks. When we tried to free range two of them they both ran back into the run. I guess they will figure everything out as they get older

 

[boxofpens]

Ours took about a week or so to start using the roost. When they did start, only a few of them used it, then everyone gradually started using it. Ours are about 8 weeks old as well. They do NOT like to be separated from the flock. That's probably why the two ran back in---> to get back to the others. We have 2 very brave and curious birds that pretty much dictate what everyone else does.