Chickens

In my setup, they stay in the 10x10 kennel. Their coop is inside that. I have sand down as a base throughout the kennel. I can load up their food and water and they're good for 3 or 4 days. Any longer than that, I get a sitter to check on them. They only come out of that kennel in the summer, and only when we can keep an eye on them. 3 chickens in a 10x10 area, plenty of room. They get scratch and calcium and fresh veggie treats we give them every day.

 

@Unchained 5150

Don't you have biddies and growd ones far sale?

 

hopefully you can get a trusted neighbor, friend or family to help you out. Usually only need checked on is food and water every two or three days...depends on how much and how many chickens you have.

 

Fair enough. I was kind of thinking youd have to have a sitter. unless you have chickens that like camping haha

 

Im sure if you had a big enough container of food and water they would be good for a week. They are rather self sufficient apart from food and water...so long as the enclosure is secure.

 

Take the fresh egg supply with you

 

Something to plan on for winter... make sure you have a light in the coop on a timer so they get a few hours of light before sunup. Their productivity goes way down in winter because the sun cycle is so short. By giving them more light, you trick them into laying as if it were summer.

 

First Post

I made this light sensitive door opener for my chicken coop.
Door opens at dawn and closes at dusk.

 

I highly doubt I'll ever even break even on our chicken endeavor, but the wife enjoys them and I get fertilizer for the garden. And lots of good breakfast food.

Mike

 

It was a lot of fun building this last year, also took more time and money than I thought it would. It's based on the Wichita Cabin Coop. Built it bigger to house more chickens than the original (I know my wife, she'll end up with a bunch). Backyardchickens.com is a great resource. Spent months looking at coops and learning last winter.

Even though I really like the coop, I would probably just buy a shed and modify it to work for chickens (cut down on time and money spent).

No heat or light in this coop - we let the chickens go on a natural cycle and give them a break in the winter. Even with just 6 hens, we had plenty of eggs for us and still had a bunch to give away.

Mike

 

Very nice setup. @scottalot , don't believe the coop ads when they say how many chickens a coop will hold... for chickens as well as human comfort you can safely divide the ad numbers in half. At least. You're gonna want room for everyone to move.

 

Thanks horstuff! Good call on coop size. scottalot - from what I read, figure 3-5 SF per bird in the coop, and 10 SF per bird in the run. My coop is 6'x8', and the run is 8'x18'. Should hold 12-14 birds.

Mike

 

Agreed, those numbers sound about right.

 

if you need any help setting things up, let me know!

 

sounds like a plan. I may have some pallet wood laying around the house if you want it, its yours.

 

I built mine from scratch as well. One of the local board mills was having a blowout on random length pine millouts, so I bought a bunch of it. Used PT posts and 2x6's that I had lying around left over from another project for the base, an old door that was free on the side of the road, and a $5 window from a yard sale, and cedar for the coop floor. And the cheap-ass Lowes 'whitewood' 2x3's for the framework, lol. I think I spent less than $200 on the whole coop, but that's not including the PT I had laying around.

 

Started out with PT posts and framework, then stapled 1/4" hardware cloth between it and the floor to keep critters out.




Egg collection door.

The window and the top vent are both screened with the same 1/4" hardware cloth the base got.

Cut the bottom off of a regular door to give us access to the coop for cleaning and food replenishment purposes

First night for the pullets in their new digs

Little buggers never wanted to be the bird on the bottom rung, so I've since redesigned this so both rungs are at the same height.

Egg collection made easy, thanks to the smaller access door for the laying boxes.

 

Thanks! It's since been painted blue to match the shed and protect it from the elements.

 

small scale but looks cool...

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/product/index/castlecreek-medium-chicken-coop?a=1885143