post your chicken coop pictures here!

[TerryH]

I don't know how to fix it sorry it was a short rooster crowing video he is just learning how to crow. My daughter has the original video on her phone and she shared it to my FB page I tried to make it view able to the public.

No problem. FB is a difficult medium at best for video sharing. That's why I stick to my YouTube page for all video stuff that I do.

 

[Sylvester017]

My birds have spent their second night in the new house and they seem to be settling right in nicely. Here are the latest pictures.

Mike

My brother helping me finish this project the flooring is sign board I got fairly cheap it has a fiberglass veneer on both sides of plywood 1/2" thick. This is sitting on top of some reclaimed rough cut 2" x 12" fir planks they were uneven as far as thickness and I had planned on using linoleum but I would have needed something sheet the floor with to make it even enough for the linoleum. I like this solution and it was cheaper than the linoleum.
Great solution! That's a LOT of work you did!




The chicken ramp is a piece of 1" x 8" trim board and I added some lattice I got for free from a fence replacement they were throwing 2 of these small panels and when I saw them a chicken ladder came to mind I have more and I plan to put another piece in by the nest boxes to make it easy to get up to the boxes.

For whatever it's worth I learned the hard way that anything narrower than 12" wide ladder ramps make the chickens wary climbing them. Mine didn't like any of the narrower ramps we had so we built wider ones. We also discovered the ramp that came with our coop was too steep for the chickens to climb and we had to use cinder blocks at the bottom of the ramp to level it out more. Another thing we learned is that 4-inches between each cleat/step made it difficult for our 2-lb Silkies to climb the ramp. 3-inches apart is better even for the bigger chicken breeds to comfortably walk up or down the ramp. I like the dog kennel in your run -- we have 5 large doghouses placed around our backyard for the chickens to use as hiding/snoozing places during the day.

 

[pennyJo1960]

think I will add our new little bachelor pad

 

[FarmerPhronc]

For whatever it's worth I learned the hard way that anything narrower than 12" wide ladder ramps make the chickens wary climbing them. Mine didn't like any of the narrower ramps we had so we built wider ones. We also discovered the ramp that came with our coop was too steep for the chickens to climb and we had to use cinder blocks at the bottom of the ramp to level it out more. Another thing we learned is that 4-inches between each cleat/step made it difficult for our 2-lb Silkies to climb the ramp. 3-inches apart is better even for the bigger chicken breeds to comfortably walk up or down the ramp.

I'm not discounting Sylvester017 experience, however mine has been different. My ramps are 8 inches wide and the entrance to the coop is only 24 inches from the ground. Most chickens should have no problem even without a ramp. Silkies may be a bit different never raised any. It's just a matter of what works for you and your chickens.

 

[Dmontgomery]

I've been lurking around this site for months and finally decided to posts my pictures because now that we have reached end of August I am now starting to get concerned about winter. .1st - I live in Mascouche, Quebec (subbarb of Montreal) 2nd - I live in a city, not rural or anything.. ok house and tiny backyard 3rd - Thought it would be fun to have chiken since I'm allergic to anything else with fur Here it goes Like I mentionned, my yard is not that big and I was looking to house 2 hens. I'm a single mom with a 4yo daughter. So while looking around my yard I've notice a wasted space under my balcony steps. From what I've learned so far, each hen do not need that much space inside the coop so I figured that 16[SIZE=10.8333px]sq.[/SIZE]on the bottom would be enough since my steps are 4feet wide and so happens to be 4f deep and then again 4f high. And so it began Took most of my lumber from under the balcony which was a gift from the previous owner or the ones before and my brother provided my with a lot of pallets and last but not least one of my friends had a brand new 50' roll of chiken wire. [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] My first build ever !! So far so good Boy was I proud and did not know what I was getting myself into Yup, I started swearing right about there.. For a beginner, trying to square something in a triangle and uneven soil... oh the joy !! Well I guess I took it one step at a time.. and A LOT of dry fittings I wanted to have access from every angle so every opening are actually doors [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] From this site and others, I learned about poop trays so I did incorporate one [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] This ramp is actually in the way since both my hens jump to the 2nd level which is only 2' above the ground.. Maybe one day it will have some use if I have chicks Here I installed the nestbox and the trunk from my Xmas tree... Yay recycle !! [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] I made a door for the nestbox so that they could do their business in private and in the dark. Meet Vanilla and Caramel [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] 1st egg came the following morning of acquiring the hens yippee ! Again from reading posts here and learning about feeders and waterers.. My homemade feeder which only hold about 4days of grain.. I'm back on this site to find the best way for my needs to get a larger one This is my waterer.. First of all, everywhere you look on the internet everybody stress about the fresh clean and accessible water and the fact that they need them every second of the day it seems.. Well I happen to have 2 water dispenser so I took the one that no longer works and hid it under my balcony and it is all rigged up to my outside faucet and put the toilet thingy which by the way fits just right in the basin to stop overflow.. Then it comes out under the trellis and I used old pipes I found to get it into the coop with a nipple attached.. The long pipe sticking upright is actually higher than the water dispenser so it wont overflow and i put an aquarium eater.. don't know if it'll work, we'll see this winter. This is the view from behind the nest. This is what it looks like now with both doors on each side open. I could not put the roost higher than the nest cuz of the restrictive height Here is where I started to get a little carried away with this coop project.. Again from reading on the subject I noticed that I needed to let them out of the coop.. I tried makeshift pvc boxes which was a disaster, took some pallet and made some perimeter but needed something more.. [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] Took 2 pallets and some leftover 2x4s and made them my version of a run. Even put wheels on it.. Well for my backyard it is quite huge.... then ding ding ding ... slide it under the balcony where all the lumber used to be [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] Now how to get them from the coop to the run ???? [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] I am thinking now that it is more a labyrinth than anything else I think that they want more space.. so I've created another perimeter between my house and my pool, but by then my neighbour had started renovations and need to tare down our fence, so I miss about 6' wide by 30' long of yard.. so now my girls roam around lumber, bicycles and what not. [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] All of this and they look happy.. they both have given me an egg a day since I had them.. I counted #136 to date NOW the thing is.. I dont know what to do about this whole thing for the winter.. I went to somebody's house to disassemble a big coop, brought it home.. still in pieces du to lack of space until I get it back.. but then again do I really want to put a coop on the other side of my house where I never shuffle snow or do I want to keep em close by and just try my best to keep them hot enough for them to survive winter.. A lot of friends have suggested a fall BBQ [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] While I'm thinking about it I have built these (out of pinterest) I guess I'm getting quite ok with tools Great use of what you have, to build what you can!

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

Apparently there's a party were not invited to.

Ya it still doesn't work for me either.

 

[pennyJo1960]

@Milagro02
that is what super duper highly inventive coop

 

[Sylvester017]

I'm not discounting Sylvester017 experience, however mine has been different. My ramps are 8 inches wide and the entrance to the coop is only 24 inches from the ground. Most chickens should have no problem even without a ramp. Silkies may be a bit different never raised any. It's just a matter of what works for you and your chickens.

Yes, that's for sure. The ramp that came with our coop was definitely too steep for the high ascent to the coop entrance and we had to level out the incline using blocks and paver stones. Even the manufacturer in their youtube video admitted that the ladders were steep but that the chickens still manage to flap their way up them. Well, my old Partridge Silkie is not a flapper and doesn't maneuver well. The large fowl have to flap wings to climb and the Silkies have to carefully pause for each step. After lifting the ramp at the bottom it was somewhat easier for both large fowl and bantams but the cleats/steps are still too far apart at 4-inches and we need to make another with 3-inch steps. In the pics you can see that 4-inch steps are too far apart as the old Silkie pauses between cleats to go up the ramp. I would love to have an L-shaped ramp that has a platform midway up it as I've seen other coop builds but that's just one more modification to add to our list of modifications -- there never seems to be an end to adding and modifying chicken builds!

 

[bruceha2000]

...

Nest boxes hopefully the roof has enough angle to keep them off of it. The nest boxes have pieces of scrap linoleum lining the bottom and left loose to be able to remove for cleaning pine shavings added for nesting.


....

I think you will find that the roof over the nest boxes doesn't have enough pitch to keep them off it. Wait and see, they may choose not to poop on it

 

[Gundawg]

I think you will find that the roof over the nest boxes doesn't have enough pitch to keep them off it. Wait and see, they may choose not to poop on it

I think it is a little more steep than the pictures make it look and fairly slick due to the paint. I can see some skid marks in the dust that makes it look like one of them tried to sit up there and slid off. I could easily add another board to the top if I find they are on it to make the roof more steep. So far they like the roost bars on the end of the house by the window. I made those roost bars from 2" round tree poles that I had laying around they are just the right size.

The ramp seems to work well they all climb right up it but when I open the pop door in the morning they all fly over the ramp to the ground. The first night they still tried to use the dog crate and would not enter the hen house so my brother and I caught them and put them in the house and closed the door they slept that first night on the floor of the coop. I let them out in the morning and removed the dog crate, that night they all went into the new hen house and were on the roost bars they adapted very quickly. They all like the highest roost bar and there is enough room for all of them up there. The roost bars are higher than the nest box lid and they seem to like the highest points so maybe they will stay off the nest box roof. I may add more chickens later but for now I am happy with the size of the flock and they have lots of room. I can see they have been up inside the nest boxes but no eggs yet they are about 17 or 18 weeks old now.

Mike