Chicken coup pics

[Psycho]

I'm looking to get chickens next spring. I'm interested to see what your chicken coups look like. Any photos would be appreciated. Mine will have to be pretty well fortified as there are lots of coyotes here.
Thanks,Bob

[beaconlight]

Burry the wir at least a foot down. Forget his name but there is a guy in VA that has his coops and runs portable and pulls them to a new area when the chiken eat out what is available. Nothing like the bright orange yolks of range chickens.

Bill

[Bigschuss]

Bob,

Here are a few crummy pics of the coup I built 2 years ago. It is 8X10 with a corrugated metal roof that I recycled from an old barn. On the back of the coup is a small lean-to for our goats. The coup faces south and I have have gable vents on each side. I also have a small window on the east facing side.

The one thing that I wanted to build in was an access door to the nest boxes so that I could get the eggs without having to go into the coup.

I won't have access to the internet until after the new year, so I wanted to snap a few pics last night for you to post them.

Good luck with your project.
Blair in Savoy, MA

[Ron L]

Bob. Here's a site that may be helpful ...... http://www.buildeazy.com/chicken_coop_1.html

You have to build one to keep the chickens safe at night from many preditors besides coyotes; coons, possums, skunks, mink, fox, etc ........ And, watch out for snakes, owls & hawks

[Lurker Carl]

Your chicken quest got me thinking about the past. So I dug thru some old files at the farm and found who we used to get our chicks from. I was surprised to see McMurray was still in business.

http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/

My family raised their Cornish X Rock for meat back in the 60s until 1974. Excellent birds but mean as can be, makes you glad when 8 weeks are up. Rhode Island Reds were our layers, prolific producers of brown eggs and very friendly as well.

[Ron L]

Carl.. That's what I have ......... Rhode Island Reds. Roosters are good for meat at 12 - 16 weeks, also

[jakeesspoo]

I have a traditional chicken coop thats probally a hundred years old that I fixed up. My dads buddy ran for sheriff a few years back and so we had all kinds of painted SOB board thats red white and blue, about half a sheet a sign that read " Muehling for Sheriff". I used all of these to cover the whole inside of the coop and I must say it looks pretty nice. Curt was beat out by Terry Lyons here in erie county but he got a kick out of the pics of his campaign in my chicken coop a few years later... And over the summer I free ranged some broilers. I raised them inside for a few weeks and then turned them out to the pasture. I made shelter for them by taking a hay wagon and skirting the whole thing but a small opening with conveyor belt. On top of the hay wagon we put a 55 gallon drum with lid and shutoff and drilled two holes through wagon to feed the bell watering system that was directly underneath where the cows and donkeys couldnt get at them. We let fifty chickens go out there and when we collected them up to take in about 10 weeks later there were exactly fifty. I couldnt believe it. I figured the cats, coyotes, hawks or something would get at least 10 or so, but not one. They say donkeys and llamas are very protective of their territory and dont let predators around. I will probally never do this again though. At least not that close to the house. Those chickens wandered everywhere, returning to pasture at night, and ruined my wifes flowers and landscaping. Mulch was scratched everywhere, everday. You could not keep it in the beds, and they trampled all of the flowers. They had to ruin the thousand or so dollars we put into it last year. A hard lesson learned. I suppose I could string another lower wire around pasture to keep chickens in, but if they want out they will get out!

[Peter Person]

Bob,
We 'inherited' our coop from some friends that were moving out of state. It came with 11 hens. We wanted to increase the size of the flock so I added on a 4 foot section following the existing front & back walls and roof. If I had to start over I would make the roof taller so I could stand up inside it since I'm 6'-3".
The coop is a simple lean-to design. The front wall is =/-6' tall, the back wall is +/-4' tall with a shingled roof. The overall length is about 9' and it's about 5' deep with nesting boxes along the back wall and one side wall.
I thought I had some pictures but I don't.
Hope this helps.
Fresh eggs are the best.
Peter

[Clem]

I just found this post today, we are building a chicken coup today. We have 25 chicks. I'll take some pics when we are finished. Basically we are constructing a small coop with a dog kennel for the pen area. I am going to put hog fence on the top of the kennel and put chicken wire on the ground.

[FarmLadyWannaB]

I am right in the middle of building a mobile chicken coop called a "chicken tractor," for my 11 pullets. I suggest you investigate this type of shelter. Just Google on 'chicken tractor.' There are LOTS of helpful (and funny) photos of different designs on various sites. Also, go to the Mother Earth News web site and search on chicken tractor/coops. It's fun to see pix of the 'deluxe' coops where people went all out. There's also a helpful book by that name, which I have, which has a lot of useful practical advice (I'm no carpenter). This goes along with grass-fed chickens, 'pastured poultry,' 'free range' and other unregulated, non-standard labels. The idea is that you have a relatively lightweight, moveable BOTTOMLESS coop that has both a shelter part and enough space for them to scratch around. The book 'Chicken Tractor' details a lot of coop/sheltering/pasturing variations. Also, Google on Joel Salatin, who has actually made a living on free-range/pastured poultry. He has written a lot of articles on how to make it work.

The advantages of a mobile coop are 1) no smelly, nasty build-up of manure in a stationary coop; 2) no coop cleaning, and you save on the cost of bedding; 3) the chickens eat weed seeds, bugs--I'm told they keep the tick population down and lessen weeds; 4) better diet for the chickens since they have access to grass, seeds--you still have to give them grain feed but there is some saving because they are foraging; 5) A BIG advantage is that the chickens fertilize your garden (or lawn) progressively as you move the tractor along. 6) You can have grass-fed/pastured poultry without worrying about predators. I can't do pure "free range" because we have lots of red-tailed hawks, and foxes, coyotes, raccoons, and I don't trust my Black Lab around the chickens. (She already got one of my Barred Rock chicks who got out in the yard )

Oh--I have 6 Barred Plymouth Rocks (beautiful but flightier than I expected) and 5 Buff Orpingtons (beautiful and also amazingly sweet, docile, and friendly --I highly recommend this breed). They should start laying around September.

Here's how mine will work: it's 10 feet long, 4' wide, 3' high (except for a peaked roof shelter part that has nests and roosts--this 'coop' section has taken me forever to make because, hey, I'm no carpenter).

My goal was to build it without spending any money, using the scrap lumber and hardware that came with the farm. I haven't quite made that goal, but the cost is going to be under $25. I had to buy some small braces and machine screws, and 2 Tuftex corrugated white vinyl panels (best thing since sliced bread!!)--$7 each at my local Bargain Lots--for the roof. I also decided to break down and buy a new roll of galvanized chicken wire; the wire that came with the barn is pretty old.
I'm going to set it in the garden and move it along each day. There are various ways people build it so it can be pulled along: scoots, old skis, old lawnmower wheels. I haven't finished that part yet. You have to make sure there's not a big gap at the bottom so vermin can't sneak under. Some folks DO use their tractor to move it, especially if they made it out of heavy lumber, but they don't tend to move it every day.
TO BE CONTINUED.... I will post pictures of the finished product. It's taking me forever 'cause I am designing it as I go along and have to figure out from scratch how to put together a wood frame, etc. etc. But yesterday I put on the roofing panels and it was a cinch, for a change .

Cheers, The Farm Lady

[paw's49]

A couple years ago, we bought one of those small wooden storage bldg packages from Lowes and made it our coop. At one time, we had 3 roosters and about 25 hens in there. I wanna be a rooster in my next life

They soon became pets - a few of the hens would sit on your lap and eat right out of your hand. Even the roos would let you pet them sometimes. But we just could not get rid of the eggs - couldn't give them away. Funny how people would rather buy and eat those old washed out yolk eggs from the store than an egg with a dark yellow yolk.

So, we soon decided we were throwing money down a black hole, and gave the chickens away. I planted my mater plants in the chicken run - I got maters coming out my ears. Coop has been emptied and cleaned and is now used for storage.

[beaconlight]

Sure do like those real colored yolks instead of the pale store bought ones.

[Dusty B]

/Users/clarenceburton/Desktop/IMG_0959_1.JPG Hope the pic comes thru - this is my combination "Cub shack/chicken shack" Built mostly from salvaged lumber from an old barn. Half of it is for the chickens and the other half is big enuf to store my cub tractor and riding mower & garden tiller!! Run electricity to it w/a drop cord. Next year plan to use the electrified mesh fence to deter coyotes, etcc.. w/see how that works.