Building our dream coop...

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Sunshine

Sunshine

Just your average ninja
Neighbor
Joined
Jan 10, 2018
Messages
250
Location
The Piedmont
As stated in another thread we have started work on an open air coop concept following plans in P. Woods book. Free on Google play book store:
Open-air Poultry Houses for All Climates, Prince Tannat Woods.

https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=o08PAAAAYAAJ

We have laid cement block as a foundation and are doing the hardware cloth moat to stop diggers.

Just sent hubbs to Home Depot. Framing the floor starts today!!

Will be posting pics later today and throughout this build! All constructive criticism and advice is welcome!!! We are city mice in the country , so all of this is new to us.
 
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It begins....this is the floor. DH said it would be easier to build in the garage and take out to the foundation. I think it sounds like a nightmare, and I'm going to have to help lol. I'm more the brains than brawn around here.

So DH is adding this "braces"( he calls them) between the boards. ..is this necessary? I just letting him do his thing but he's no carpenter lol. Love him though.
 
I'm not trying to be negative... but... Has anyone told you about how nasty chickens are? I've had as many as 45 but just a few will poop everywhere. Even baby chicks have a bad habit of pooping in their food and water, most annoying. :waiting: Has your coop got a good way to clean it? :)
 
Peanut said:
I'm not trying to be negative... but... Has anyone told you about how nasty chickens are? I've had as many as 45 but just a few will poop everywhere. Even baby chicks have a bad habit of pooping in their food and water, most annoying. :waiting: Has your coop got a good way to clean it? :)
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Yes we've had chickens before. :) The coop will have a man door and at the tallest part is 6 ft tall.
 
LastO said:
Use hardware cloth on it, not chicken wire. Chicken wire isn't strong enough to hold out dogs, yotes etc. Also Raccoons will pull chickens through chicken wire a piece at a time.
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yes we are using hardware cloth. The only predator we had to worry about when we had chickens before were our neighbors. Who stole my pet chickens as retaliation because I called animal control on a dog they left chained under a carport of a trailer they couldn't even live in anymore because it was condemned.
 
LastO said:
Use hardware cloth on it, not chicken wire. Chicken wire isn't strong enough to hold out dogs, yotes etc. Also Raccoons will pull chickens through chicken wire a piece at a time.
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I have horse fence for our chicken yard and for the two chicken tractors I have a combination of horse fence and 1" chicken wire, the only thing I haven't done yet is to make a bit of framing to lay chicken wire over the top of the chicken yard, I really need to get that done as we have a lot of different kinds of hawks around.
 
Peanut said:
Oh! you're good to go then. I thought you were completely new to chickens. :oops:
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I'm completely new to homestead chickens lol.

I had pets before. A golden comet, Wilma, a heritage domiquer, Betty and a pullet black sex link named Roxy.

They were my pretty girls. But then someone took them

I know who this someone is but we can't prove it.

Anyways , after that we moved I to town for a couple years ( we used to live in my parents guest house) now that we bought my parents home we are back..and no pets this time. They are just part of our permaculture. I will try not to get too attached as we do plan to cul when appropriate and eat these ones.

I imagine we will have 10-15. I don't know if we could fit anymore comfortably in the 12x6 coop. ( They will have a large run during the day but the coop will be locked at night. We didn't lock our last one ) I'm also considering those web cams hunters use to catch anyone coming in through the cow pasture like last time.
 
I always hang my feeders, helps keep them clean. Because water is so heavy hanging them can be a problem. Hanging water also makes it easier to freeze in winter. There are lots of nights here in N. alabama when the temp is right at 30 or 32 degrees and the day will be 45 or 50. If the water is sitting on the ground, the ground temp will keep it from freezing solid. So, I hang the feeder but leave the waterer on the ground. Its a toss up. Also, putting the water against something painted black or a shiny piece of tin will cut down on ice chipping, let the suns energy melt any ice.:)
 
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While I’m thinking about it… There is a small problem that occurs with water in summer. Algae will grow inside the plastic container. I use water pumped from a spring. (I’ve seen city water with chlorine kill turnip greens in the fall so I don’t let animals drink it). Anyway, to cut down on algae growth I’ve learned to sit my waterer by the fence next to trees. By 11am this area is in shade for the rest of the day. Bright sunlight and heat speeds the growth. In this pic the water is in a bad spot. Now I put it over by the fence so it gets shade earlier.

To clean it out I use Clorox. It gets a good rinse then refilled with spring water.
 
Sunshine said:
View attachment 3169 And I saw this online. What do you think of this to keep food and water off the ground?
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That looks really nice but a lot of expense and work just to hang a water can or feeder. If you are already building a coop why wouldn't you just add a lean to or a small roof section to hang these on.
As for eating your chickens... we do not eat ours. We eat the eggs but don't slaughter our chickens. My gal puts a lot of work into her chickens raising them from chicks and it seems a waste to kill them to eat when chicken is so cheap at the store. Now if the stores went away we would raise to eat but would need to up the numbers dramatically to make it viable.
 
viking said:
I have horse fence for our chicken yard and for the two chicken tractors I have a combination of horse fence and 1" chicken wire, the only thing I haven't done yet is to make a bit of framing to lay chicken wire over the top of the chicken yard, I really need to get that done as we have a lot of different kinds of hawks around.
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We have hawks as well but have not lost any to them yet. Hawks usually need a good bit of space to "glide" in and attack a chicken. Our coop is enclosed and our run is fenced with a tree and the coop and another small building kind of surrounding the area. We also planted a lot of shrubs and berry bushes that the chickens like around the edges. We had one chicken attacked but she was out in the middle of the garden and yard while free ranging. She was too big for the red tail to carry off. Our Bantams are kept inside a coop all the time or they would be victims for sure being a smaller bird. Our neighbors raise and show Bantams and lost 34 or so in one day to a red tail hawk. They free range theirs.
 
LastO said:
That looks really nice but a lot of expense and work just to hang a water can or feeder. If you are already building a coop why wouldn't you just add a lean to or a small roof section to hang these on.
As for eating your chickens... we do not eat ours. We eat the eggs but don't slaughter our chickens. My gal puts a lot of work into her chickens raising them from chicks and it seems a waste to kill them to eat when chicken is so cheap at the store. Now if the stores went away we would raise to eat but would need to up the numbers dramatically to make it viable.
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We already have all the materials to make this similar. I don't plan on raising from chicks or raising for meat.but if a chicken is no longer laying I see no reason to keep feeding and caring for it.

Also.i like the portability of the stand.
 
Once a chicken is not laying of course it is culled. Are you planning on buying full grown chickens from somewhere? How will you know if it is near the end of its laying cycle or the beginning?
 
LastO said:
Once a chicken is not laying of course it is culled. Are you planning on buying full grown chickens from somewhere? How will you know if it is near the end of its laying cycle or the beginning?
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There is a lady in town that raises and sells several different breeds. I've bought from her before. She's a bit expensive but I know what I'm getting. I can get pullets or layers.
 
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