Chickens, and things related

[PineRidge]

PineRidge,
Looks like a nice variety, what all did you get?

DirtRoad,
If it works that is all that matters. Personally I think it looks nice, where are the nest boxes though.

Tororider we ended up getting

3 Barred Plymouth Rocks

3 Americana Standard

3 Rhode Island Reds

3 Golden Buff

and

3 Lakenvelder

Hopefully all females, we will see how that works out though...

 

[Ford850]

Pine, Try TSC or Rural King for the wire. I don't think I've ever seen 1" in rolls more than 3' tall though. And those rolls were at an old time hardware store. Not sure how far you are from Kidron but they might have it there. We used to use 2"x4" and lined with 36" of chicken wire along the bottom. 12" of the chicken wire would be burried under a couple inches of soil to the outside of the pen to keep the coons from digging (like an 'L'). The coons will crawl the fence though, so we used an electric fence on a timer so it turns on at night. Worked great.

 

[PineRidge]

Pine, Try TSC or Rural King for the wire. I don't think I've ever seen 1" in rolls more than 3' tall though. And those rolls were at an old time hardware store. Not sure how far you are from Kidron but they might have it there. We used to use 2"x4" and lined with 36" of chicken wire along the bottom. 12" of the chicken wire would be burried under a couple inches of soil to the outside of the pen to keep the coons from digging (like an 'L'). The coons will crawl the fence though, so we used an electric fence on a timer so it turns on at night. Worked great.

The wife is not comfortable with 2" X 4" wire. I'm not that far from Kidron and if it's there I'll make the trip.

I'll most likely take your suggesstion for burying part of the wire. I wonder what a little broken glass in the trench might do.....

The exterior of the coop is almost finished. I need a few small details inside finished, then I'll turn my attention to the run. Here's a couple of shots I took today.

The wife is really liking how its all coming together.

 

[Ford850]

Wow that coop looks nice. It really came out great, and the sign is a nice touch. I had hoped to have my coop started by now, but have had some health issues so I put my plans on hold. It's nice to follow your progress since I don't have a project going.
The coons will be your biggest battle with chickens. This time of year they get very agressive, with the females looking for food for their young. They attack the chickens until the corn is ripe enough for them to eat that. Make sure the coop is closed every night. I had thought about installing an old garage door opener and attach it to the chicken door. That way if it was in view I could push the button from the house and drop the door closed, even during a heavy rain. Open it in the morning while making breakfast. I think you are probably joking about the broken glass, but if you aren't it will not work. They will pick it up and play with it. The only sure way to keep them out is through physical strength (built it like a vault) or an electric shock. Once they get in, it will be more difficult to keep them out next time. Hawks and owls will get some too, but they're not as difficult to keep out of the coop. I do remember as a kid, doing chores in the morning and finding coons still sleeping in the coop after eating chickens. One morning we found a red tailed hawk in the coop on the roost sleeping in the middle of a row of chickens. That was a difficult bird to catch once it woke up with no place to go. Feathers and dust everywhere! We did finally catch it, took a picture of us holding it, and released it.

 

[PineRidge]

Wow that coop looks nice. It really came out great, and the sign is a nice touch. I had hoped to have my coop started by now, but have had some health issues so I put my plans on hold. It's nice to follow your progress since I don't have a project going.
The coons will be your biggest battle with chickens. This time of year they get very agressive, with the females looking for food for their young. They attack the chickens until the corn is ripe enough for them to eat that. Make sure the coop is closed every night. I had thought about installing an old garage door opener and attach it to the chicken door. That way if it was in view I could push the button from the house and drop the door closed, even during a heavy rain. Open it in the morning while making breakfast. I think you are probably joking about the broken glass, but if you aren't it will not work. They will pick it up and play with it. The only sure way to keep them out is through physical strength (built it like a vault) or an electric shock. Once they get in, it will be more difficult to keep them out next time. Hawks and owls will get some too, but they're not as difficult to keep out of the coop. I do remember as a kid, doing chores in the morning and finding coons still sleeping in the coop after eating chickens. One morning we found a red tailed hawk in the coop on the roost sleeping in the middle of a row of chickens. That was a difficult bird to catch once it woke up with no place to go. Feathers and dust everywhere! We did finally catch it, took a picture of us holding it, and released it.

The sign was actually left over from a retail store that we closed. I figured that I might as well use it. Thanks for the nice complement.

I already have a fencer mounted inside the coop with buried non-metallic conduit leading the HV wire over to the garden. It would be very easy to run some perimeter wires around and over the run once built. I can even install a knife switch to shut it down when we need to get in the run.

 

[Tororider]

It sounds like you have a nice mix, pretty birds and layers.

I would agree that the more physical harm (shock) or defenses you can put between your birds and predators the happier you will be. I have lost birds to coons and possum, not fun.

 

[yankeerider]

Here's how we handle the pop-door. I wanted a way to secure it from the raccoons. The first rope you pull lifts the hinged 2X4 and the 2nd rope lifts the door. When you drop both the weight of the horizontal 2X4 keeps the prop secure against the sliding pop-door. Simple but it works.

Mike-
That's an ingenius solution that I intend to copy. I was thinking that you could raise both the lock and the pop door with a single rope if you left a little slack between the lock and door. That way, pulling the rope would lift the lock out of the way first, and, once the slack was taken up, the door would rise.

 

[PineRidge]

Mike-
That's an ingenius solution that I intend to copy. I was thinking that you could raise both the lock and the pop door with a single rope if you left a little slack between the lock and door. That way, pulling the rope would lift the lock out of the way first, and, once the slack was taken up, the door would rise.

Jerry I think your idea would work just as well with a single rope. Sometimes the best things turn out to be the very simple things. I saw one guy experimenting with electro-magnets for locks on pop-doors and I said yeah, right.....

I am however experimenting with fence chargers as a varmint deterrent.

 

[Ray2310]

Pine,

Nice looking coop. Here are some picture of our coop we just built. I don't know why I didn't do it sooner. We love having the chickens around.

Ray

 

[PineRidge]

Ray that's really a great coop. Very clean!

Can you post a few more shots of your fenced run? That's my next job and I really like your design. Did you use wire on top?

What is the smaller structure that looks like a greenhouse?

 

[DIRTROAD]

I have always heard that each hen needs its own nesting/laying box. If this is true, then why do all of my hens lay in the same box?

 

[PineRidge]

I read somewhere 4-5 birds to a nesting box. I had originally planned to make 8-10 boxes for 18 birds but modified my plans.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

Wow, what gorgeous chicken coops, you guys are building the premo ones that's for sure. Mine is a concrete block building with a cement floor, maybe 10 X 10, not sure. It's stuccoed inside and out with 2 big holes and a very thick wire over each. I nail plywood over them in the winter and put insulation inside. Have to cover it with something different, the chickens ate the styrofoam inside when up on the roost. The chickens never liked the roost I had so I just put a wood pole across with a piece of metal rebar for them to climb to it on. Then they fly up and roost in the rafters, ok by me and I guess they felt safer. Hubby did put a new metal roof on it and built me a new door when the other one sort of rotted. But those beauties put it to shame.

I only have 1 chicken right now, just so the dogs stay used to some running around. I've been to busy and planning several trips to mess with them for awhile. Miss chicken is on her own, haven't even been shutting the door, I know I'm playing with fire as raccoons will find it and I will be sorry. I need to let her in and out, only way you can keep them from being eaten. But I will get more. My favorite are the Rhode Island Reds, they are a good layer, good eating chicken, and also pretty docile. You are making me want to buy more and I'm not ready.

Got me a new brooder and haven't even used it yet, it only holds about 36 chicks though. I put a heater out there in real cold weather and a fan at night it it gets in the 80's. Think our chickens have it made!

I'm very impressed guys, those are beauties. Need to show hubby, but he doesn't share my emthusiasm for chickens.

 

[PineRidge]

The wife spotted a color video camera with see-in-the-dark capability in the Harbor Freight catalog that comes to the house on a regular basis. With cable, power supply, and camera it was still under 40 bucks.

So this weekend I hooked it up so she can keep an eye on her birds in the coop from the TV in our office. Pretty good picture if I do say so myself. I'm kinda curious to see what's been turning on the motion sensor floodlights at night anyway.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

That's hilarious, Chickens Gone Wild

 

[Mike Costello]

Here's a chicken coop I built for my wife. It's almost finished, but still needs siding and trim installed. It's 12'X28' divided into 3 sections, run area, roost with nest boxes, and storage room. Eggs can be gathered from the storage room by opening the panels behind the nest boxes. I layed down and buried wire completely around the coop to keep the usual preditors at bay. So far, none have been seen or have investigated but they're out there. I also plan to gravel a small perimeter around the coop and landscape it as well. The storage area will be graveled as well to stop any freeloaders from dining on the chicken feed.

 

[TBDonnelly]

Great Job Mike Costello!

Pineridge: You'll finally know what's going on at the Chicken Ranch....er......in the Chicken Coop! .......and for the price of....
............well.....chicken feed.

Don

 

[PineRidge]

Mike that's really a great looking coop!

Don, chicken ranch?

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

You guys are awesome makes my chicken house look like, well a chicken house, not the Ritz!

 

[Mike Costello]

Thanks everyone for the comments! Its been a fun project so far...still some more stuff to do, but the birds are happy.