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to ATP Breywat.
Do you have chickens?

Well, I'm pleased to say that I finished the project today. The scope kept creeping in size as people in the family wanted this that and the other added on. Snazzy roosts, fancy manure decks, an interior closet with a door, lights (with light switches!) and everything. We ended up spending an insane amount of time on this project but we're done and I'm relieved.

Well, the fencing isn't done but it's mostly finished. As you saw above, we are making 4 pens and we have about half of the fencing up. One entire pen is finished and much of the other ones are done. It's enough that we can let the chickens in now and we can do the other pens as we make the time.

I will take pictures tomorrow and post them. We plan to move our chickens in tomorrow, too!

Congratulations Whitinger Family - A job WELL DONE

It's always exciting and a relief when a project is behind you! Even if there are a few odds and ends to take care of. Congratulations. On to the GH?

Yes indeed, on to the greenhouse project.

Dave, I can't wait to see the new chicken coop. It sounds wonderful.

Walking toward the coop you can see the first big pen on the left. It's 40x50 in size.



Here's the front. I made these two windows and they can be opened to let plenty of airflow through. The front faces the south which is the direction from which our prevailing winds flow.



The east side. Note the two doors. There will be a fence between them so I can open the door I wish depending on which pen I want them to go into that day.



The back (north). I will later add a gutter and rainwater catching system here. The larger door is for the chickens and also for people when it's time to clean out. We will keep compost behind the bin here. This pen size (not finished) is only 16x40.



The soffits were left open for airflow. We never get extremely cold here so I wanted to always have good airflow even when the windows were closed. To protect against varmints I put some fencing up there.



This is the west side. The little chicken doors, by the way, were bought as cabinet doors from the local habitat for humanity store for $3 each. On the right is the big main door where the caretaker enters.



Entering the front door, you can see the closet first (with door open into the main coop area).



In the closet, looking to the left you can see a big shelf. We will store all our chicken supplies on this shelf.



Another view of the closet looking into the main room:



The closet has a light on a switch which is nice.



Here's the electric. I haven't put a plate on it yet because I don't have one that fits one electric and one switch. I'll get that very soon, though. But you see where the cord is plugged into: that goes into the main area where there's a light there, too. We have a timer and we'll be plugging the timer in, and then the cord to the light gets plugged into the timer.



Ok, here is the roost. It is 8' long and 5' wide. The wood is sweet gum logs I cut from the bottomland. When the logs dry out they'll turn fairly light but for now this thing is HEAVY! You can see the roosts are directly (10 inches) above a platform called a manure deck. Chickens do most of their pooping at night so this way you capture the vast majority of their manure onto this deck, keeping the rest of the coop clean. Also, we will put the nest boxes directly under that desk which will work great.



The frame for the roosts is on hinges so the whole thing can swing up and be secured and then you can scoop out all the litter (putting it into the compost bin just outside the coop).



Here I am standing in the closet and looking into the coop to show the wide angle view. You can see the light on the top right. The ring above the roosts is where I can attach it so it is secure and won't fall while I'm cleaning the deck off.



In this photo you can see how I built the deck and you can also see the 3 hinges on the back. They are heavy duty hinges from an old house door and shouldn't have any trouble with the weight. We built that ramp because I wanted the chickens to have the option of using the ramp rather than jumping up and down.



Finally, I crawled under the roost/deck and took the picture facing west. The little cubby area you see directly in front of me is the west door for the chickens. It's a carved out area and the shelf in the closet is above this.



We're going to put the nest boxes in after lunch today and will then bring the chickens in!

Fabulous! I can't believe how well thought out it all is. Such a nice coop. Those are some lucky chickens.

Now how many chickens are supposed to go in the coop?

Thanks Rita.
The main limiting factor is the roosts and I expect that we can support about 50 hens in there right now. We have the floor space to extend the roosts if need be. I think theoretically we could keep 80 to 100 chickens if we extended the roosts all the way, but I don't expect we'll ever get that far.

Your chickens should be happy in that nice new home! Do you have a separate brooder house to raise the baby chicks? I have seen some of the roosting decks with the floor of it built at an angle, and a door outside to open and scrape out the manure. Good job!

Well, 50 chickens still sounds like plenty of chickens to this city girl! Do you have that many or will you be getting more now that you have the deluxe accommodations for them?

I am thinking this set up is for the laying hens. I know once you said something about possibly raising meat birds. Where would they go? In the old coop? All this chicken stuff is so interesting to me!

Please keep us advised as to how it goes when you move all the chickens in.

I like that idea of the slanted roosting deck.

Rita, we have about 30 right now. I plan to soon order another batch of chicks.

As for a separate brooder house: we have the closet in the coop with power and I think that we'll use that closet for raising new chicks. It's 4x12 in size which is plenty enough for a water trough and a heating lamp.

Our old coop is 8x8 in size and I think we'll convert it to a meat bird coop where we use it only a few times a year to raise a crop of heavies. That, or we'll turn it into a garden shed. Haven't decided that yet.

Oh, you need to dedicate it to a meat bird shed. Think of all the chicken that could fill your freezer if you did that and raised the meat birds.

Either way we can and will raise meat birds. We have a stall in the barn dedicated to temporary animals, which is the other option for the birds.

Either way, we're covered

Great planning!

I have read that the meat birds raised on home farms are so much different from the supermarket chickens we are all used to. Well, we are here as there is no other option for eating chicken. And I eat much more chicken than I eat red meat.

There is not even a source of farm fresh eggs around here. Stuck with supermarket eggs also.

I wonder why other types of eggs are not sold? Like duck eggs!

WOW - those chickens have 5 star accommodations

The logs you cut are so cool.

I remember when we built our chicken coop many many years ago, below each of the nesting boxes, we named each one with the all the grand children on Hank's side of the family. It was fun.

GREAT job Dave, Trish, and family

You're right, Rita, the home raised chickens are so much different then the ones you buy in the store. A much richer flavor, and all those omega 3's from eating what nature can provide. Although I live in a more rural area, one of our local stores provides locally grown foods, like free range chicken, and eggs for those who prefer them, and can't raise them. I remember when my mother would buy a hundred roosters for meat. What an ordeal that was when it was time to butcher.

Dave, the coop looks great, you should have very contented hens.

You have built a wonderful home for your chickens Dave, every hen and rooster should be so lucky.