Update showing the additions to the coop since its completion. Also talk about the breeds we have what we have noticed about them as they get bigger. Hope this info is helpful. Feel free to post any questions.
I like your coop layout and I have a seemlier watering system. I was amazed by your feeding system in the coop!!! I would like to see a video of it being built.... Thanks 🙏 and have a great day and keep up the great work!
I have austalorp, Rhode island red and buff orfington. My Rhode island red will jump up on my lap. flatten out and go to sleep. The other two don't even like to be touched. They'll get there. I make sure I go in the coop and keep them entertained. Lol Love your coop and run. I only have the three chickens and they're about 12 weeks old.
This is a very smart coop design. It's good to see people thinking of new, creative and supposed revolutionary ideas to keep their animals happy and healthy, eventually keeping you healthy if you use the chickens for eggs or meat. Great job! 👍👍
Beautiful Chicken coop, definitely not going to show that to my Wife, she’ll throw rocks at mine. Looking at that feeder I noticed there’s a bit of feed on the ground. Before I made a different feeder I’d put a wire covered box under the feeder to catch the feed that gets spilled out, saved me a little on feed.
Man that guillotine door thing was a great idea. I just built my first coop and the shaving fall out when I open the back door. I am going to do that to fix the problem. Thank you! 😁
I like your whole set up, good job! I have 4 Barred Rocks, 4 Rhode Island Reds (3 hens, 1 rooster), 6 Golden Comet sex links, and 6 Buff Orpingtons. And with the exception of the rooster, my Barred Rocks rule the roost too. They are all the same age, within a day or two, and all came home the same day, but those Barred Rocks even bossed around the rooster for the first 8 or 10 months lol. They aren't mean to the others really, the others just step back and wait their turn. The BRs are always first to come too, but have never pecked at me, and don't mind being handled -- they are first in my lap if I sit down. All of them but the rooster will jump on my lap, but the others have to wait their turn. I had to laugh when you said they puffed up if you push them away -- Yea I see that all the time. especially if I set them down and another gets on me before they figure their turn was up. They'll be right back, puffy and strutting. That rooster don't like me too much, though so that makes us even. He just gets jealous when his girls ignore him and run to me, he dislikes my broom even more. According to my mother, who's been a chicken lady for 80 years, that is what she likes so much about Barred Rocks that go broody. She says that there are lots of kinds of good broody hens, Silkies and BOs are famous for sitting nicely on eggs and being loving mothers. However, when around the rest of the flock, the most dominate in the flock should be the best protector of the chicks, and the best at getting her brood assimilated into the flock. It makes sense to me, I can't see a bottom of the pecking order Silkie getting much respect when she tells the rest of the flock off, or an overly docile half way up the order Orpington either, but I can see a bunch of hens that learned to wait their turn not wanting the head honcho Barred Rock to even look at them cross eyed. We'll see next Spring. I don't know if you have blow sand where you are, like from wind made dunes, but it is a lot finer. If you can't get it free, you can buy sand blaster sand, it's cheap. I had a dust bath with beach sand, like playground sand, in it and my chickens preferred dirt, but when I filled it with finer sand, it became a popular spa. Mine is an old pickup tire sliced in half like a kiddie pool with a big hole in the bottom. After a rain and it's dry, or every week or two when it don't look like it'll rain for a while, I throw a few hand fulls of diatomacious earth, and a coffee can or so of wood ashes in it and stir it all around. Rain rinses this stuff out, especially the ashes, not completely, but if you had a good rain minds well renew it, or if it's cloudy, hold off a few days It'll keep the mites n bugs away. Cheers BP
Wow now screen or roof over their run? Where I live the hawks would grab chickens if they had the opportunity! I see at least one hawk a day gliding over our property
i have a similar waterer setup, but i used a 5 gallon bucket with a toilet float valve. then let it drain down to the water cups. that white poly line can freeze without breaking, pex too, if that would be a problem. i have a little reserve incase of a power outage. but other than that, it has been working great for about 8 years now.
Very nice coop design and utilization. I have made several feeders that you have in the coop and I love them. I have two for feed and a couple shorties for oyster shells and grit. I relaly like the water design - especially your space efficient mount on the door. My 8x6 coop is split along the 8ft length by 2/3 - 1/3 so that the breeding pairs can be separated from the flock. Your watering system would be perfect for my coop separation. How did you design the connections between the horizontal pvc pipe/nipple waterers and the vertical tube? I appreciate seeing how you did that. Thanks. Also my Wyandottes have always been standoffish and friends' Barred Rocks are aggressive. I breed Marans for eggs and Bresse for egg/meat. Both are very sweet disposition and very friendly - especially if you raise them from chicks. I never did get any of my chickens to dust bath in a container. So I merely chose one of the areas they do use in the run to dirt bath and dug it out a little then mixed diatomaceous earth (helps with mites) and sand. They love it. So it was a good compromise.
Thanks for the nice compliments and for watching. I used a 4" down to 2" reducer that had a female end on the top and bottom (glued). Then inserted a 2" male plug (glued) that had a 3/4" threaded hole on the bottom.... stuck a 3/4" 90 into that and Shazam your done! Again Thanks and sorry for he delayed response. Please let me know if you have anymore questions.
My chickens had a problem with those water feeder types with the yellow nipples, I had to go with the spring loaded bowl type. Many days i went out and their water bowls were dry and tgey were dying of thurst. So i switched to the bowls.
I like the waterer idea, but it doesn't work if you have ducks. I have 25 breeds of chickens including Partridge Rocks and gold laced Wyandottes. The Wyandottes are very broody though.
Cheers for this, I've been looking for "buy chicken coop online" for a while now, and I think this has helped. Have you heard people talk about - Machaaldity Coop Blaster - (search on google ) ? Ive heard some decent things about it and my co-worker got great success with it.
I think your right.... they were a bit bigger. We have since eaten them, but if we get more I will pay more attention to that. Thanks again for watching and the feedback.
Hi there, I made the feeders but my birds don't all use them. I keep putting in dried worms in front of them hoping they'd see that there was food inside. One or two will stick their heads in and eat the worms and then go away. The other three don't seem to get it.
Daisy Simpson I always close it. There are to many critters in my area to take a chance. I’ve thought of an automatic door for the coop but just haven’t found the parts that I’m looking for yet. Thanks for watching!
Nicholas Prokup the feeder in the coop is great, no waste at all. The bucket design has some waste as you can see it on the ground around the base. That being said I normally will leave the bucket feeder in the barn until in the afternoon and they will clean up what's on the ground, so it's not really wasted. Thanks for watching.
I don't know what is going on with your rocks, But I have 2 one stays back no pecking, the other one lets me hold her she comes to me when I come in sets on my back, but she does peck
I used to be horrible at building chicken coops. I used to pay a fortune for them too! I no longer suffer from those problems anymore. Here's a great guide for building affordable chicken coops: ChickCoop.xyz
Our heater in NH works for our ducks, but we cut a lid in half on top for them to drink and dip beaks in to clean noses. They need that. Have had chickens for years, just looking on easier ways. Use to use the metal watereres but for me difficult now to bring out to them from faucest. And had heater on bottom. Those were pricey and rusted out quickly! Going to try the heater and the nipples, just keep an eye on them. Thanks.
John Lakos it’s to stop the birds from picking up bad habits.... they are young and not laying yet. If you have them open I’ve found that they will do their “roosting” in them and then they will be filling the boxes up with poo, and then when they start laying your eggs will be dirty. If they find their spot in the coop on the actual roost then this becomes habit and they are more likely to just use the boxes for laying and not roosting... just something I’ve found that seems to help. Thanks for watching.
Suuegrl I’ve never used them in the winter with a heater.... we always move them into the barn and use a normal chicken water bucket from tractor supply.
