Former member, FUGGIT came over today to help me plan a new chicken coop. My original plan was to build a coop from scratch, near my vegetable garden, or possibly several chicken tractors.

But, I am a cheap SOB. I have leftover materials from old decks, fences, etc. I just didn't quite have enough materials laying around for a ground-up chicken coop. Seemed like I would be putting too much money in for too little return.

That is where FUGGIT came in to the picture. I showed him an old coop in my barn that the previous owner had built, and it was a hodge-podge of patches, rusty wire, and country engineering. It wouldn't keep a possum or coon out of the birds.

After talking it over, I scrapped my ideas of a new coop and re-designed my existing barn to be a coop with a run.

The barn is built with one fully enclosed room on the right. There is no power, but it is close enough to be wire in eventually. The barn was the home for a feral hog 'Pickles' last year, so water is just a matter of running a hose back out there.

Pictures

Bedding/nesting room:



This is the old nest box that I moved in here. The roof slopes too much and I don't want to hit my head getting eggs. It is in the middle of the room. Is that going to be ok?



If you are 3/4 of the way down and looking back toward the nesting room:



The wire will be reinforced with 2x6s at the base, sandwiching the wire so it can not be lifted by a larger nose.



Because of these reinforcing units, I ran the wire on the inside of the posts:



But I extended it all the way through the joists to the metal roof. You might see some bent over nails instead of staples. I have a case of nails. And I did not want to buy staples. They are spaced about every 8"



This is a close-up of where the chickens will enter the nesting area. I had a horse once. I think he did this, but he was a bit of a drunk.



This is where the previous Don Quixote of Chicken Farming had his entrance to his coop. It was just this one room. I am going to try and re-use the gate. Not sure, yet, how I am going to secure it against coons, but, I'll think of something.



Compare this to the above picture. this is just down and left of the image. This is what I was talking about with the dig-protection. It will be secured with wire and nails as well. This is the old wire from the previous coop. Rusty, and weak, but strong enough to stop a paw.



There are a few more places I need to work on to keep varmints out, get watering to be automatic, along with feed.

But, here's the best part. The wire was given to me by a buddy (Locksmith76) who lives nearby. Fuggit donated some materials (but haven't used them yet).

EDIT TO ADD PIC:



This is the 'old' hog pen that I used when I had Pickles. I have not torn it down, yet, because I keep thinking that there might be a way to incorporate it in to the new pen?

Ideas on that? Or just pull it down?

Everything was simply leftovers, gimmes, or re-used.

No money spent (so far)

TRG

I meant the gap between the wire are the top of the gate and the gate itself. It is a fairly significant opening right now.

TRG

It looks great!

You can put the nest box wherever....just have to train the chickens to use it. Put some golf balls or wooden eggs in so they know that you want them to lay in the boxes.

I'd fence in the former Pickle's pen and let that be their run. You can free range them if you choose or keep them in the run. Gives some flexibility particularly if you want to go away for a while and somebody else is watching the chickens for a few days.

You have a lot of nest boxes....how many birds are you planning on?

Cool; this gives me an idea for my own up-coming chicken coop. I have an enclosed storage building that I currently use for tool storage, but I wanted to get a shipping container anyway so I had something more secure and airtight for my expensive tools. It butts up against a fenced in area. In the back of the storage room I could cut a small chicken door leading into the fenced in area so the chickens have a run to scratch around in. It would probably be almost big enough for them to free range, especially if I put a compost pile in there for them to dig around in. Add some nest boxes and a roost or two and voila, instant chicken coop. The room is already wired with electricity and a light (to extend egg laying) and has a full height roof with walk in door so egg gathering would be easy. I don't really have a predator problem here (just coyotes out here and our four dogs keep them out of the yard), but the room would also be really secure (2x4 framing with metal siding). The best part is, what minimal modifications I need could be done for free (except for the few grand a shipping container would cost, but hey, I was going to do that anyway) with scrap material I have laying around.

Thanks for the idea TRG!

LOL, one of my sons has moved his broilers out into my hog house.
Which used to be someone else's pole shed, before I dismantled it.
Which was made out of used lumber.
And that was from the '80s, that I KNOW of.

I guess we're all cut of the same cloth: CHEAP!

Looks great!
FREE is ALWAYS the right price!

There is a word for people like us.

TRG

To be honest, my wife and I might..might...eat a dozen eggs in a month. I don't plan to raise the broilers that turn in to cows at 6 weeks.

I want some birds that will simply lay some eggs, raise some chicks, rinse..repeat.

If I had enough eggs to sell a dozen or two a week that would be fine.

People like 'brown country eggs'. They seem to pay for them. 2-3 bucks a dozen? What kind of chickens lay 'brown eggs like grandma's chickens used to lay!'

TRG

I've used them in the past to make homemade wine.

TRG

I irrigate my garden from a spring fed creek. It has small perch, crawfish, snails, and a few mussels.

We have a pretty healthy coon population as a result. Skunks, possums, owls, etc.

I have several traps that I will use to help manage the problem.

These low lands also mean snakes, lots of bull snakes. Can I toss golf balls under the shed and decoy the snakes? I hates the snakes.

TRG

My neighbor does that. I'll see if I still have my old fence charger and wire...I know I have some around here, somewhere.

TRG

Honestly, I knew that some game chickens laid green/blue eggs, but I thought it was just luck of the draw until your post.

I googled, http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

Learn something new every day in this forum it seems.

TRG

friggin awesome dude!

The feeding from a bucket might or might not work. My first thought was that they'd jump on top of it and shake the food out on the ground, into shit and ants.