Luckily I try to be fairly sweet in real life. GAM looooooves me.hehe (I'm counting on this!)
Waiting to see how that works for you 
YO GEORGIANS! :)
- Thread starter SeramaSweetie
- Start date
Waiting to see how that works for you 
- Sep 12, 2012
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Okay, here they are... coop/pen pictures!
This is the screen arbor I've been waiting for. Two zippered doors, and stakes in the middle of all four sides. A full 12'x12' and almost 7 feet in height at the center. I can COMFORTABLY walk in this one, where as I had to duck down and stay hunched over for the old pen. And it's holding 9 chickens right now (three of which are roosters) quite comfortably.
All of my babies want to free range though. They aren't used to being penned up. So as I moved around it for photos, they followed (despite already being fed).
Two next boxes in there, and you can see how the hay lines the bottom on the inside. If chickens don't see bright light, they don't know there's a hole there, and they won't pick at it and make it bigger in an attempt to get out.
I plan to get more of these and set up and/or build sawhorses inside of them as roosting bars. The top should keep most rain off of them. And eventually I plan to put it in the middle of the woods, so it doesn't get quite as "sunbaked" when it's covered by trees. So the fabric should last longer that way. Each breed will eventually have one of these to themselves. So two of the roosters in here (currently EE, Polish and Phoenix) will be moving out.
If you've been to my house already, you've seen this one. It's my frizzle pen! It was given to me as a rabbit hutch, and was my outside brooder for a while. But the frizzles just ended up growing up in there, and now it's where I keep them. They'll get a big screen arbor to themselves soon.
Another close-up. Right now there are three frizzle hens, one frizzle roo, and one smooth hen. The smooth hen is about two years old, and lays fairly well. The roo is a bit young still, but I'm always checking her eggs for fertility to know when he's ready.
This was the coop my sister found in the dumpster. NOT bad for a trash coop, huh?? It had legs to keep it up like the frizzle pen (next to it), but all of them were broken. And the hinges for the door were not only old and rusted, but also twisted and with broken screws. Plus it had no actual roof. But she brought it home anyway to see what we could do with it. New hinges were about $1 at walmart.
Here you can see a sort of recessed area in the back that was meant for nests. But I didn't have any spare lumber available right then, and the angle of the entire thing meant the "fake eggs" (golfballs) would just roll right out - and the silkies scratched the hay out too. So I just set the purple thing in there instead, which is ACTUALLY an old, unused rabbit litter box. The silkies had already been using it as a nest in their old spot, so it worked. "Pepper" didn't have any problems plopping an egg in there today. "Salt" is on the back left, and "Cottonballs" is on the right.
These hard corrugated plastic sheets (kinda like greenhouse walls) were also there at the dump. She grabbed those, and I made a tiered roof out of them. But all I had on hand was headless nails. Wind blew hard the first day and the sheets went STRAIGHT up and off of the coop. So I tried again, purposely leaving about 1/4 inch of the nail up, and bent it OVER to help hold the plastic on. No problems since then! I also attached one right by the nest box just to stop hard winds from pushing rain in there. The nest box is plastic without a way to drain, so I have to make sure it stays dry.
Eventually the silkies will ALSO get a screen arbor of their own, and this will become the holding "pen" for older chickens that I have to catch to sell, give away, trade, etc. Smaller pen = easier to grab!
And with the silkies out, the Sumatras are now in the old dog kennel. The tarp is brand new, but I did slice some holes in the top so rainwater could drain. It is simply zip-tied on the front, back, and both sides. Anywhere it had a rivet, it got a zip-tie. And it held yesterday! One nest box was moved in, which they have already taken to rather quickly, and the old dog house (and pad for it) is still in there for whatever they may need it for. Two old pieces of trim wood go through the fence on both sides to make a roost for them. The rubbermaid container in the back will come out, but the bottom to the rabbit cage in the front makes a very nice water "trough" (exactly 10 gallons too, so dosing medicine is easy). Chicken wire was used to reinforce the sides because of holes made by actual dogs. I do have to step over that to get in, but again this is only temporary until they, too, get a screen arbor.
And with all of that, the old chicken pen now becomes a dog pen for an austrailian shepherd mix, and a chorkie (chihuahua yorkie mix). Have fun in the mud, pups!
This is the screen arbor I've been waiting for. Two zippered doors, and stakes in the middle of all four sides. A full 12'x12' and almost 7 feet in height at the center. I can COMFORTABLY walk in this one, where as I had to duck down and stay hunched over for the old pen. And it's holding 9 chickens right now (three of which are roosters) quite comfortably.
All of my babies want to free range though. They aren't used to being penned up. So as I moved around it for photos, they followed (despite already being fed).
Two next boxes in there, and you can see how the hay lines the bottom on the inside. If chickens don't see bright light, they don't know there's a hole there, and they won't pick at it and make it bigger in an attempt to get out.
I plan to get more of these and set up and/or build sawhorses inside of them as roosting bars. The top should keep most rain off of them. And eventually I plan to put it in the middle of the woods, so it doesn't get quite as "sunbaked" when it's covered by trees. So the fabric should last longer that way. Each breed will eventually have one of these to themselves. So two of the roosters in here (currently EE, Polish and Phoenix) will be moving out.
If you've been to my house already, you've seen this one. It's my frizzle pen! It was given to me as a rabbit hutch, and was my outside brooder for a while. But the frizzles just ended up growing up in there, and now it's where I keep them. They'll get a big screen arbor to themselves soon.
Another close-up. Right now there are three frizzle hens, one frizzle roo, and one smooth hen. The smooth hen is about two years old, and lays fairly well. The roo is a bit young still, but I'm always checking her eggs for fertility to know when he's ready.
This was the coop my sister found in the dumpster. NOT bad for a trash coop, huh?? It had legs to keep it up like the frizzle pen (next to it), but all of them were broken. And the hinges for the door were not only old and rusted, but also twisted and with broken screws. Plus it had no actual roof. But she brought it home anyway to see what we could do with it. New hinges were about $1 at walmart.
Here you can see a sort of recessed area in the back that was meant for nests. But I didn't have any spare lumber available right then, and the angle of the entire thing meant the "fake eggs" (golfballs) would just roll right out - and the silkies scratched the hay out too. So I just set the purple thing in there instead, which is ACTUALLY an old, unused rabbit litter box. The silkies had already been using it as a nest in their old spot, so it worked. "Pepper" didn't have any problems plopping an egg in there today. "Salt" is on the back left, and "Cottonballs" is on the right.
These hard corrugated plastic sheets (kinda like greenhouse walls) were also there at the dump. She grabbed those, and I made a tiered roof out of them. But all I had on hand was headless nails. Wind blew hard the first day and the sheets went STRAIGHT up and off of the coop. So I tried again, purposely leaving about 1/4 inch of the nail up, and bent it OVER to help hold the plastic on. No problems since then! I also attached one right by the nest box just to stop hard winds from pushing rain in there. The nest box is plastic without a way to drain, so I have to make sure it stays dry.
Eventually the silkies will ALSO get a screen arbor of their own, and this will become the holding "pen" for older chickens that I have to catch to sell, give away, trade, etc. Smaller pen = easier to grab!
And with the silkies out, the Sumatras are now in the old dog kennel. The tarp is brand new, but I did slice some holes in the top so rainwater could drain. It is simply zip-tied on the front, back, and both sides. Anywhere it had a rivet, it got a zip-tie. And it held yesterday! One nest box was moved in, which they have already taken to rather quickly, and the old dog house (and pad for it) is still in there for whatever they may need it for. Two old pieces of trim wood go through the fence on both sides to make a roost for them. The rubbermaid container in the back will come out, but the bottom to the rabbit cage in the front makes a very nice water "trough" (exactly 10 gallons too, so dosing medicine is easy). Chicken wire was used to reinforce the sides because of holes made by actual dogs. I do have to step over that to get in, but again this is only temporary until they, too, get a screen arbor.
And with all of that, the old chicken pen now becomes a dog pen for an austrailian shepherd mix, and a chorkie (chihuahua yorkie mix). Have fun in the mud, pups!
Wow! LT, you've got an awesome setup. I love the trash coop. I'll be checking the dump on a reg basis now! I'm jealous of the tent/sunroom enclosure. I would totally copy that, but I have some serious predators here. I can't put a chicken in anything that's not hardware clothed.
- Sep 12, 2012
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We've had our share of predators here too. But I'm hoping they won't be smart enough to RIP the screen. As long as they don't do that, the chickens are safe. The rocks along the bottom on the inside will keep them from sneaking under.
I admit this is mostly an experiment to see if it will work. The chickens themselves haven't bothered with the screen. They can see it enough to know it's there, and they can't get out. So now I just have to hope predators don't think they can get IN.
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1.) I'M BACK!!
2.) Robodork ... sleep with one eye open
3.) Had a blast doing the overnight field trip with the kids at Zoo Atlanta
4.) Stopped by the farm and found that somebody new has started laying.
5.) Got home to find hatchings and pippings going on.
So other than Robo being a butt, life is good.
2.) Robodork ... sleep with one eye open
3.) Had a blast doing the overnight field trip with the kids at Zoo Atlanta
4.) Stopped by the farm and found that somebody new has started laying.
5.) Got home to find hatchings and pippings going on.
So other than Robo being a butt, life is good.
Last edited:
- Sep 12, 2012
- 2,252
- 281
- 193
YAY! She's BACK!
AND SHE'S A GOLDEN FEATHER!
AND SHE'S A GOLDEN FEATHER!
- Sep 12, 2012
- 2,252
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What do they look like? Lol!
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