Reviews by DobieLover

The nest boxes are very high, there are no roosts so this will encourage the birds to sleep in the nest boxes and the run is extremely small for the size of the coop it is servicing. I would also add a lot more ventilation to the coop.
The base structure is nice and sturdy and the walls should be easy to clean. It looks predator proof too!

The coop is obviously unique, very artistic and an awesome conversation piece. However, the design makes it quite a task to clean and I have no idea how you'd get a sick bird out of there if she needed nightly treatment.

It's very cute and a great use of an old playhouse. It really needs much more permanent ventilation though. And the run is a bit undersized for the size of the coop. I hope it's working out for you and your flock.

Thanks for the article Shad.
I had some difficultly finding flubendazole on this side of the pond but I did. As a fish de-wormer.

It comes as a 5% powder (50 mg flubendazole / g of Wormer Plus) with a small scoop to help with dosing. Merck dosage for chickens is 1.43mg/Kg of bird.
I feed a wet mash daily with free choice dry crumble in a second trough so I know how much mash my flock consumes in a day. I weighed each bird as part of their normal health checks and knew I had 60 Kg of combined bird weight. I dosed 90 mg of flubendazole into each morning mash for 7 days by thoroughly mixing the powder into the water and then adding the Flock Raiser to make the mash.
The mash was fully consumed by the end of each day.
It worked beautifully.

Bread, cheese and corn are not good treats.
Bread offers little in the way of nutrition and corn in excess is not good either.
Chickens lack the ability to easily process dairy.
Mention should be made that all combined treats should make up less than 10% of the birds total diet.

Quite well written and very informative! Thank you for taking the time to write such a great article.

It's great to be able to reuse old structures for coops!
Chickens need LOTS of ventilation in their coops and they, being birds and not mammmals, do not need to have a heat source in the coop except in the most extreme conditions.
Your coop looks to be severely lacking in ventilation. It would be ideal if you could cut the top 6 inches of sheathing off the front and back of the coop and cover it with 1/2" hardware cloth on the inside and outside. I would also add two top hinges windows to the coop for light. Back the window openings on the inside with 1/2" hardware cloth too.
You've got a good start!

Absolutely nothing beats a broody hen. Nothing. That is the way nature intended it.
As for "breeding out the broody gene", that is practically impossible. I have had hens and pullets go broody in the winter too. All of my birds are hatchery stock or hatched from it.
The single biggest Con to an incubator IMO is that YOU have to raise the chicks. Using a broody means you just get to enjoy the entire process of her setting the eggs and raising the chicks.

You did a great job for a first time build! If you are serious about building your own home, check out Green Building Advisor for lots of information on efficient building practices including advanced framing techniques to maximize insulation and strength and minimize lumber and cost.

The run appears to be completely predator proof with no openings larger than 1/2" so I would just leave the pop door open all the time for additional ventilation and so the birds can come and go as they please.

Did you keep Pepper?

Thank you for taking the time to write this article to share your feelings and findings with us.
I'm so sorry you lost Butter.
I envy your ability to do the right thing to end her suffering yourself. May we all be that strong when the time comes.

The intent of the coop articles is to share your build, your ideas, likes and dislikes of the final design outcome after the coop has been put into use and your photos. Your run doesn't match your coop for chicken housing capacity.
The entire setup looks to be very difficult to maintain. How do you get into the run for maintenance? What do you do if a chicken gets sick and goes under the coop to hide? It does not look easy to get a chicken out of the coop at night.
Please provide more details on the interior of the coop and how you designed and built it so that others may learn and build a better, more functional coop.

Nice coops. Can you include more details on the builds?

It would be much more useful if you wrote up how you converted it from what you had. Others without carpentry skills would appreciate the information.

But it lacks details and a write up.
For what it's worth, putting sand/PDZ on the poop boards makes cleaning them off MUCH easier by using a kitty litter scoop.

I now wish I had candled Barbara's 4th unhatched egg before I tossed it on day 23 when the other three hatched right on schedule.

Although I've yet to have a chicken suffer from bullying, "victim refuge" will be one more use for my built-in brooder. It's nice to know that I will have a ready solution for a potential problem in my flock. Thank you for the well written, NOT too long article!

This is a great reuse of a free shipping crate.
But... it looks very awkward to clean, where are the roosts, it is not predator proof and the article needs more build details.

I wish my pear tree hadn't died this year. Our pears, too, were hard and bitter but plentiful. This would have been the perfect solution.
Great article. I can almost smell them! Mmmm.

Did you finish the run? What were the dimensions? How did you finish the exterior? How are those swinging poop boards working out for you?

This is a well ventilated coop! I love the thought that went into the landscaping! The sunflowers are da bomb!