chicken coops...

[MindyLee]

Like most of you, I too am into mini horses and chickens. I have had chickens all my life and have alwaysed free ranged them. Well the time has come where Im sick of replacing chickens every year cause the red tailed hawks pick them off one by one.

 

So I am going to make a chicken coop for my new lovely flock of hens and rooster.

 

I bought 2 dog kennels (great back-yard deal $50 for both) and going to make a yard for them out of those with netting on top. Just was wanting some ideals from the rest of you.

 

THANKS!

 

hens are 6 ameraucna/marans mixed, 1 jersey, 1 isa brown, 1 buff, 1 blue hen (who is a hermaphrodite, yep!)

lay either dark brown eggs or dark olive green eggs with brown speckels

 

rooster is pure black copper maran

 

[uwharrie]

We bought an old play house to serve as our coop. Right now our chickens are free ranged but we are in the process of building a large pen for them. Even now the birds are locked up at night and so far no problems with predators as long as they are up after dark.

 

[jayne]

I was at Lowe's yesterday and saw that they had all their shed models marked way down. Now they were still expensive, but it got me to thinking about what I've seen on Craig's List a few times. Often I've seen adds for people who have sheds for sale for not that much money if you just come move them. I've also seen other structures that would work fine as chicken coops.

So maybe look on your local Craig's List or local sales flier, or even post a Wanted ad?

 

[Sterling]

This spring I deicided after looking at so many different options the Amish made coop that houses up to 14 chickens was for us. In the past we've used old horse stalls, and hubby's built runs made out of wood and chicken wire, but when it came down to relocating the chicken part of our farm what worked for us was this pretty Amish chicken house, which has everything chicken friendly, from the perches inside to the little door and ladder for getting inside, to a bigger door on the other side so that we can open and clean inside the house. I'm using a hanging feeder which works well inside the house and does not get rained on and their food stays clean. For the coop itself....we used a 10 x 10 dog kennel with welded wire on the top so no predators can get in. Along the sides we've put down lumber to distract any digging from any ground predators. They can come and go as they please and for additional room when I turn them out they have a 33 x 55 yard they can peck around in. I love this little house. It's so well built, sturdy has a flap you can open to check for eggs, an air vent on the other side and two big windows you can open and close. Oh, and I just had to add a pic of "Ritchie". He's my rare breed Silver Spangled Hamburg roo. Love this little guy! We've been breeding and raising chickens for 20 years now. A farm just isn't a farm without chickens!

 

[~Dan]

Hi MindyLee,

Have you checked out Backyard chickens.com? They have tons of coop plans and run plans sent in from people from all over the country

Back Yard Chickens

There's the link (I hope it works as I'm using a phone) and then just look on the page entitled Chicken Coops.

And Sterling, I love your coop and pen design very nice the Amish sure do know how to make amazing shelters for livestock!

Dan.

 

[Sterling]

Hi MindyLee,

Have you checked out Backyard chickens.com? They have tons of coop plans and run plans sent in from people from all over the country

Back Yard Chickens

There's the link (I hope it works as I'm using a phone) and then just look on the page entitled Chicken Coops.

And Sterling, I love your coop and pen design very nice the Amish sure do know how to make amazing shelters for livestock!

Dan.

I agree...Backyard chickens is a good informative site.

Hey thanks Dan...... I thought I should go with the Amish. They made my barn and the chicken house just fits in with our barnyard. BTW....I like your signature quote.....so true so true!!

 

[~Dan]

Your welcome Sterling, I love your barn as well. I'm interested in maybe getting some bantams (I fell in love with the Buff Bhrama Bantams) and I would love to have a coop and pen like yours but sigh, I'm 6'1 1/2" 15 and growing lol so I need something tall so I can easily clean and do various maintenance work, but until then I'm going to join the forum on BYC as I was skimming through it and it seems much like LB very niced and inviting so I can learn as much as possible so maybe come spring time I can add some feathered friends to my brood

oops, sorry if I hijacked the thread.

Dan.