Chicken Coops

[Raging Bird]

Couldn't really find an appropriate place to post this so I figure I'll ask here. Does anyone have any experience building a chicken coop or raising chickens for eggs?

I'm trying to get 3-6 hens to produce eggs for myself and the neighborhood (I figure giving people free shit is a good way to meet the neighbors.) I'm kind of curious what to consider when building a coop, what kinds of chickens to get, all that kind of stuff. Anyone know anything about this stuff?

 

[Deleted member 125]

i dont know much about building the coop but a buddy swears by hanging cd's from trees or higher places around the coop to discourage birds of prey (hawks really) from dive bombing and picking off yer chickens. i guess it distracts them i dont exactly know how it works but she swears by it.

 

[Kim Chee]

Some people swear by barred rock or rhode island reds.

Do you prefer blue, brown or white eggs?

Also, what is available is going to have a lot to do with what kind of chickens you end up with.

Some people think you need a rooster to have eggs (I'm sure you know this isn't true).

Roosters are noisy and if your neighbors are close by they might be unhappy with all that "cockadoodledooing" at strange hours.

There's a ton of plans for building a chicken coop online. Personally, I would just build with whatever I could find~some pallets, scrap lumber, chicken wire (no pun intended).

As for the design of the coop, get cazy and do whatever you want. Your chickies will require:

Fresh air/ventilation
Clean water
Chicken feed (and all of your table scraps)
Natural lighting is good
A roost (a long straight branch, dowel or t-post will suffice)
Nesting boxes with straw (or some other material)
A floor relatively free of birdshit

*some time outside is something they will really like.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but this is a really good start.

 

[Rob Nothing]

there are meat birds and laying birds

from the time you have them as chicks to the time they are full grown and start producing there are 3 standard setups I am familiar with

1. the box.. which is basically any topless and four-walled box structure with a heat lamp and plenty of straw. at this early stage they are sensitive to heat and cold and liable to get ill for no apparent reason and die
2. the cage on skees .. this is good for when they get a little bigger / sturdier but not big enough to lay anything or crowd the cage and look miserable. usually a low-ceiling, 6x6, floorless coop with a tarp zip tied over half of it for shade and cover. it is designed to be lightweight but heavy enough that a coyote or skunk can't push up under it. you drag it over another 6-7 feet every day or so for fresh grass. among materials often used I've seen a mix of pvc, solid steel and or two by fours and either a cattle panel arched over for the top or just straight chicken wire all around. the door needs to be on top or big enough that you can get at the food dishes and adjust water buckets / etc.
3. the caravan .. this is a mobile coop, for the most part floorless but lined with size large chicken wire, gauged so that a large rat wouldn't be able to climb in but chicken shit can still drop out and not build up in places. one long center beam through the length of it for walking on and plenty of sticks/staves for roosting. seems to me any sized flat bed trailer would serve as a starting point, and from there tearing off baseboards and cutting out any steel railing in places it would be useful to in order to add on the rest. it is the same concept here as the cage on skees.. that with mobility and no flooring you save yourself all the hassle of forking and scraping out a ton of rotten straw every month and at the same time fertilizing the soil below.

once fully grown set a stretch of electric poultry netting out around your chicken house (not failsafe way of keeping them contained but it helps alot if/when rigging up a whole area top to bottom with wire isn't entirely necessary), opening and closing the door to the coop every day.

what else,,, they'll take to squash and other fruit or veggies otherwise going to compost but no citrus.

also, chickens will stop laying eggs altogether under stressful conditions like scarce food or overheating due to poor shelter or hydration, and won't continue to do so again until long after things are corrected. could be months.

eggs will keep nearly a month without refrigeration, maybe less if left in direct sunlight but generally.. yeah

 

[Tude]

My coworker has chickens - good egg layers - buff oprington, ameraucana (easter eggers) and barred rocks. She had a coop built for her but she and husband built a smaller one using pallets they tore down. Just extended their run too. She lets them free range when she's home. We went at lunch and picked up four 3 day old peeps. Little poopers! This is one of them

 

[Kim Chee]

The breadth and depth of information available here is both amazing and apalling (at times).

Where else can a person go for tips on their lice or how to care for poultry?

p.s. If you do not wash the eggs, they will stay fresh much longer.

 

[Rob Nothing]

pps carrying them by their two legs will not harm them!

I guess my way of showing respect for people like raging bird who have dreams and the cahones to bring them to life. not like I have much to offer but always rooting for you guys all the same.

 

[Raging Bird]

Some people swear by barred rock or rhode island reds.

Do you prefer blue, brown or white eggs?

Also, what is available is going to have a lot to do with what kind of chickens you end up with.

Some people think you need a rooster to have eggs (I'm sure you know this isn't true).

Roosters are noisy and if your neighbors are close by they might be unhappy with all that "cockadoodledooing" at strange hours.

There's a ton of plans for building a chicken coop online. Personally, I would just build with whatever I could find~some pallets, scrap lumber, chicken wire (no pun intended).

As for the design of the coop, get cazy and do whatever you want. Your chickies will require:

Fresh air/ventilation
Clean water
Chicken feed (and all of your table scraps)
Natural lighting is good
A roost (a long straight branch, dowel or t-post will suffice)
Nesting boxes with straw (or some other material)
A floor relatively free of birdshit

*some time outside is something they will really like.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but this is a really good start.

Yeah, definitely gonna get all hens. I don't wanna deal with the noise, and also want to control the number of new chickens I have running around.

That's really helpful with the list of things to do for the coop. Is the idea to build something they hang out in and never leave? Or to build something like a doghouse where they walk around the yard but go there to sleep after a long day of pecking around? In terms of size, how many feet per chicken do you think it should be?

I'm hoping I can do this with some salvaged stuff I've got laying around...I have a bunch of chain link fence and a bunch of six foot tall fencing I might be able to build something with...the roost and stuff I'm sure I could figure out.

 

[Rob Nothing]

if you are to have only 6 hens it can be relatively small. overnight, technically all that is needed is a cubby full of straw per bird and a place to roost too. kind of a common sense and ingenuity thing... more often than not more a doghouse than a prison. but these are chickens, and kfc recommends 2 cubic ft per unit.

 

[Raging Bird]

there are meat birds and laying birds

from the time you have them as chicks to the time they are full grown and start producing there are 3 standard setups I am familiar with

1. the box.. which is basically any topless and four-walled box structure with a heat lamp and plenty of straw. at this early stage they are sensitive to heat and cold and liable to get ill for no apparent reason and die
2. the cage on skees .. this is good for when they get a little bigger / sturdier but not big enough to lay anything or crowd the cage and look miserable. usually a low-ceiling, 6x6, floorless coop with a tarp zip tied over half of it for shade and cover. it is designed to be lightweight but heavy enough that a coyote or skunk can't push up under it. you drag it over another 6-7 feet every day or so for fresh grass. among materials often used I've seen a mix of pvc, solid steel and or two by fours and either a cattle panel arched over for the top or just straight chicken wire all around. the door needs to be on top or big enough that you can get at the food dishes and adjust water buckets / etc.
3. the caravan .. this is a mobile coop, for the most part floorless but lined with size large chicken wire, gauged so that a large rat wouldn't be able to climb in but chicken shit can still drop out and not build up in places. one long center beam through the length of it for walking on and plenty of sticks/staves for roosting. seems to me any sized flat bed trailer would serve as a starting point, and from there tearing off baseboards and cutting out any steel railing in places it would be useful to in order to add on the rest. it is the same concept here as the cage on skees.. that with mobility and no flooring you save yourself all the hassle of forking and scraping out a ton of rotten straw every month and at the same time fertilizing the soil below.

once fully grown set a stretch of electric poultry netting out around your chicken house (not failsafe way of keeping them contained but it helps alot if/when rigging up a whole area top to bottom with wire isn't entirely necessary), opening and closing the door to the coop every day.

what else,,, they'll take to squash and other fruit or veggies otherwise going to compost but no citrus.

also, chickens will stop laying eggs altogether under stressful conditions like scarce food or overheating due to poor shelter or hydration, and won't continue to do so again until long after things are corrected. could be months.

eggs will keep nearly a month without refrigeration, maybe less if left in direct sunlight but generally.. yeah

Hmm, big question here: Is it important in any way to raise them from chicks, or is it just as well to get them as grown ups? I randomly met a woman who runs a chicken sanctuary at a weird ceremony last week, and she said she adopts them out...almost hesitant to ask her questions in case she doesn't think I'm knowledgeable enough to own her chickens, lol.

Do you think electric netting is necessary if there's a 6' fence around the entire lot, ~35x100' of space to run around in? And now that I think of it, a good follow up would be, is it a horrible idea to let them run free range around the yard in the first place? Or am I going to have a horrible smelling yard covered in chicken shit before too long, so I should probably just keep them penned up in a little area?

 

[Raging Bird]

Another even more bizarre question; I've been searching on Craigslist free zone to see what I could cook up into a chicken habitat, what do you all think of scooping this toddler day bed / crib and using it as the nesting portion of the coop where the chickens would sleep? Maybe throw a tin roof on the thing and call it a day? Just trying to get creative with no money here, people. Lol.

 

[Kim Chee]

^that little bed with dividers will probably be enough for 3 hens to sit at a time easily.

I'm pretty sure you don't need a box for each hen, but am unsure of the ratio. (I'm sure you can google that info).

Beware raggedy looking old ass non-laying hens (might be easy to confuse them with hens which are simply molting).

 

[Raging Bird]

^that little bed with dividers will probably be enough for 3 hens to sit at a time easily.

I'm pretty sure you don't need a box for each hen, but am unsure of the ratio. (I'm sure you can google that info).

Beware raggedy looking old ass non-laying hens (might be easy to confuse them with hens which are simply molting).

Hell yeah! If I just grabbed that thing, added a roof, roost, and 4th wall, would they be pretty much good to go? Just let them out to roam the yard in the morning and put them back in at night?

 

[Kim Chee]

Hell yeah! If I just grabbed that thing, added a roof, roost, and 4th wall, would they be pretty much good to go? Just let them out to roam the yard in the morning and put them back in at night?

You could be ok with that, but it would probably be better if it were inside of an actual coop. Having a larger run is a great idea, but they will like the security of a coop. The nesting boxes are mostly for when they're laying an egg, they will probably prefer to roost on a horizontal bar or closet rod.

Do you have skunks, foxes, possum, weasels or hawks in your neighborhood?

 

[Raging Bird]

You could be ok with that, but it would probably be better if it were inside of an actual coop. Having a larger run is a great idea, but they will like the security of a coop. The nesting boxes are mostly for when they're laying an egg, they will probably prefer to roost on a horizontal bar or closet rod.

Do you have skunks, foxes, possum, weasels or hawks in your neighborhood?

Yeah, I was thinking about going that route with the bed but nailing some fence boards I have to the exterior to make actual walls to protect them.

I don't think we have any of those things since it's the inner city. I was worried about raccoons though.

 

[Tude]

OK, not chicken coop, but ya gotta watch this. Free range chickens in new zealand.

hehe Guaranteed not a fucking bug there at all

 

[Kim Chee]

Ok, I've been volunteering at a farm which has chickens.

Lettin' the cocks out:

 

[Rob Nothing]

things I mentioned above were pretty much the gist of it from the people I've worked with in the past. . . they all had money and a lot more than 6 chickens.

in your case, being that most everything is going to be free and it sounds fairly casual the way you are talking it, I wouldn't worry too much about details. for one thing, if they're not chicks they're definitely not likely to keel over as soon as you take eyes off them, so long as they're getting locked up into a reasonably predator-proof space every night.

those numbers you put sounds like plenty of space that your lawn isn't going to have shit surplus going on in any way shape or form.
but one thing here I guess to think about is the likelihood that they will all keep together and come back at night since they are already matured and they are not a large flock. I've lived next to a family who did the same thing, and they even built a pen but one day they failed to get them back in and the little F'ers would be around our yard all day like wild birds and sleeping in our bushes at night. I devised traps for them with little success because I didn't have the time and we had no gun to at least clear the rooster out of our mind. . . then they started multiplying and, well. . . anyway, being that they are free you might well consider this your trial run and see how it goes without trying to contain their ranging habits. --- and.. wait a minute, forgot about this part: a closed circuit 6' foot fence sounds perfectly reasonable. probably no reason to worry about them wandering off then.

what michael says about old hens is a good point. especially since she 'adopted' them. sounds likely that they are no longer productive in the first place, but it's worth a shot aye?

 

[Tude]

They are pretty amazing. My co-worker had 11, now had 15 hens - the 11 are laying productively and all have become near family members. Co-worker tells me that she's seen her youngest daughter in a treefort with one of her favorite chickens. Pretty interesting too is the collective "talk" the hens have between them. Co worker loves having them out and about free ranging as she is working in her garden and such. She's got 14 acres - of which she has a couple of deer stands and she is quite the woman - shoots and bow hunts deer, guts and butchers them as well. Quite amazing. But the hens are pretty cool.

 

[Raging Bird]

OH MY GOD, so many chickens! Ha! I'm only getting 3-6, unfortunately I probably won't be able to instigate a stampede like that.

On the bright side, I went out cruising around town to see if anyone was throwing out materials I could use to build a coop. I got about 3 blocks away before I found someone throwing away an actual fucking chicken coop! Ha! How great is that?!

Pic is kinda dark. I'm probably going to build a nesting area right on top with a ladder they can use to climb up there.