The chicken coop

[RobertD]

I made this coop for our flock. The siding was recycled off a house getting some new siding, and the roof, heck I can't recall how long that metal has been in my parent's back yard. Probably since I was born.

I elevated it and the bottom of the coop is a metal grate (removable) so that the poop falls thru to the ground, and I can rake it up. Helps keep the neighbors happy.

Chickens are a trip.

 

[B.M.800]

How many you got?
We got 22, and 3 guineas.

The coop was made from a portion of someones porch added to their trailer. lol. Tore the trailer down and brought the porch home. Its about 3/5 chicken living space, the rest will be used to store garden tools and whatnot.

 

[r_chez_08]

We have 2 chickens. All the rest got eaten by foxes
They are in an apple orchard run with a chicken house where they get shut in at night.
Nice little coup you made there

Edit: didn't realise this was in a new forum section! Cool!
Good idea

 

[RobertD]

We are down to one chicken. One died last summer in the heat (112 F) one died last month (109 F) and one died over the winter for some unknown reason. I need to get a couple more.

 

[B.M.800]

Weve in the past, had problems with weasles, coons and a hawk.
Made the coop almost %100 critter proof. Still have a coon wandering around though.

My dad picked out the chickens, got the ones that are more allert to airborn critters, we'll see how that goes.

So far, we still have all ours. We give my little cousin some, she already had 2 older chickens but I guess something got the 3 we give her...

 

[RobertD]

I used to lock them in the coop at night but I don't bother anymore. They used to just free-roam the backyard but about a month ago I finally put them up a fence that goes down our fenceline to keep them out of the rest of the yard. I'd gotten tired of them digging holes in the grass.

 

[B.M.800]

We used to not lock em in, just had a chain link fence for em. We may end up putting a fence around the garden, they have a tendency to trample stuff.

We dont have any problems with them diggin in the grass... then again a person can say "what grass" lol... we have little grass... the rest is weeds haha.

 

[Orange Krate]

I like this "other builds" category.

Here's my chicken tractor. Having chickens has been the best thing for claiming my yard.

 

[robbie]

We decided to get into egg production in a big way, because it's going to be a thousand times easier than trying to make a living by producing fruits and vegetables. We got 300 day-old chicks this fall, and we'll add another 300 in the spring. We're going to keep them in an old trailer house that was on our property when we bought it. It's nice to know that we'll be able to get some use out of that piece of crap before we recycle it. Later we'll have them in a partially underground chicken house that I plan to build from ferro-cement (after we start getting egg money).

 

[Doc Sprocket]

We got 300 day-old chicks

Wait- your chicks are 300 days old, or you've got 300 chicks born yesterday?

 

[robbie]

I was wondering if you were going to say that. The day-old chicks we got were 300 in number.

In case you've never had a lot of chickens, I can help you understand that number a little bit better. I think the best description of it would be "holy crap, that's a lot of chickens!" Next spring will be even more fun, when we get the next 300.

We have about 50 adult chickens, and we added a hundred new ones last year, but we sold the new ones because they were driving us a bit nutty. They were a flighty, unfriendly breed. We still have the same 50 chickens we already had, and people are acting like they will kill each other for our eggs. So we asked around and found that we can make as much as $20k a year supplying just 2 restaurants. One of them is a breakfast-all-day place, so that helps.

After living here four years it finally looks like we're getting on the right track. It will be weird to actually have some money. I'll be sure to post photos of the chicken projects when we build them. I think the new forum is a great idea. Thanks a lot, Robert. I've always said that the DIY go kart group is the most interesting bunch of intelligent people I've met online, and I've been online since 1995. There are a lot of really cool non-gokart projects going on, and it's fun to see some of them.

 

[devino246]

Hmmm, I'm thinking I might have to get a few chickens when we find a new house. I love me some eggs

 

[Doc Sprocket]

Heck, yes! And from an eatin' perspective (and I DO love eatin'!!!) There is just NO comparison between homegrown chicken and eggs, and the sand-flavoured stuff they sell you at the store...

 

[B.M.800]

Heck, yes! And from an eatin' perspective (and I DO love eatin'!!!) There is just NO comparison between homegrown chicken and eggs, and the sand-flavoured stuff they sell you at the store...

Indeed, they call them fresh... when really they are weeks an weeks old. And your homegrown eggs dont have all kinds of additives they would get elsewhere..

 

[realfast89gt]

I grew up with chickens the majority of my childhood. Great for eggs but also great for crapping everywhere, especially where you do not want them to.

 

[B.M.800]

I grew up with chickens the majority of my childhood. Great for eggs but also great for crapping everywhere, especially where you do not want them to.

And destroying the garden...

 

[RobertD]

yeah you have to fence off your garden. Here's a good tip -- call your local dump, and see if they have a resale area. Mine has a place where they take the good stuff out of the "dumping" stuff and put it for sale. I've gotten a bunch of fencing, and fence stakes, for 1/10 the price home depot would charge. Fencing off gardens and flower beds can get pricey!

 

[robbie]

Also, scrap metal dealers buy fence wire and posts along with the truckloads of scrap that people bring in. The people they sell the scrap metal to usually don't want wire because it jams the shredding machines, so they usually save the good rolls of wire and sell them to customers. I saw about ten rolls at the scrap yard last week.

 

[B.M.800]

Some of our chickens... and guineas. ugg.
Started to get some eggs recently.

Kinda funny... you can get near them, but cant catch em. For some reason one of em decoded to be friendly the other day... comes right up to us, doesnt seem to mind being held. wierd.

 

[Orange Krate]

I bet it's that red one all the way to the left. We've got one just like that!

Having chickens is pretty awesome. Think about it...they turn bugs into eggs! Every morning when I walk the yard I'm amazed at the transformation just from their scratching. It's like, they're not only putting organic matter in the soil but also setting the bug migration into pattern or something. I wish I'd gotten chickens years ago!