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  1. Poppy Putentake

    Mini-greenhouse for winter chicken run?

    I've been thinking of either building or buying a mini-greenhouse to serve as a daytime winter run for a small (3-6) flock of hens. In the summer they free-range; I'm thinking they would benefit in winter from a place where they'd be sheltered from the wind and would have access to snow-free...
  2. Poppy Putentake

    It's all about dimensions

    What everyone designing a coop needs is to know is what range the dimensions for everything should be; height, width and depth of nesting boxes; height of roosts over poop boards, size of poop boards; width and steepness of ramps; etc.. Has all this ever been compiled in one place? It would be...
  3. Poppy Putentake

    A bit of dry humor

    Here is one dishonorable-mention-winning entry from the2024 Bulwer-Lyton Fiction Writing Contest, where entries consist of single sentences that could be the first sentences of works of fiction.
  4. Poppy Putentake

    Waterer cups revistied

    In my post frrom last December (message #3), I mentioned modifying this kind of cup waterer by removing the yellow plastic trigger; converting them to passive, no-moving-parts, water dispensers. Since that was the beginning of winter here, I didn't get much chance for field testing then, but...
  5. Poppy Putentake

    Egg with Strange Inclusion

    A few days ago, I found a small abnormal egg in a nesting box. It was a bit less than an inch in diameter and soft-shelled. (The "shell" was a thin membrane.) Inside, there was some albumin (but no yolk), surounding a grayish object about the size and shape of an almond or slightly bigger. Cut...
  6. Poppy Putentake

    Decorated fake eggs in the nesting box

    An Easter Sunday topic: Fake eggs in nesting boxes help encourage the hens to lay there, but a minor problem is telling them apart from the real ones when you check for eggs. You can get wooden eggs in sort of a dark olive drab color, but they tend to be hard to see against the nesting material...
  7. Poppy Putentake

    Food and Water Inside Coop?

    I'm planning a a new chicken house and want to have aplace inside for food and water. For security from predators, my plan is to have a soild floor (wood frame and plywood), but in the one corner with food and water dispensers, some kind of grating that will allow spills to drain out. This would...
  8. Poppy Putentake

    Seeking Cup Waterer Recommendations

    I'm thinking of ordering some cup waterers, Have tried the kind with the little yellow trigger inside and the birds don't use them. I recently looked on Amazon and saw that they have a slightly different kind, without the “trigger”, where water flow is activated by there being less weight of...
  9. Poppy Putentake

    Roosting bar questions -- dimensions

    Hi all, hoping to tap into all the wisdom here. What would good measurements be for a "ladder" type set of roosting bars? How far apart should they be in the horizontal dimension? The vertical dimension? How high should the lowest one be? If a roosting bar is parallel to the wall, how far...
  10. Poppy Putentake

    Optimal design for 4' x8' coop

    Hi Tudybot, Could you design a 4 foot by 8 foot chicken house or coop with inside nesting boxes. a feeding and watering area, and enough roosts for a many hens as it can accomdate?
  11. Poppy Putentake

    What's the best kind of temporary movable chicken-exclusion fencing?

    Hi all, I sometimes plant cover crops like field peas on garden areas. A problem is that my free-range hens like to scratch in freshly tiled areas and quickly find out where to find edible seeds. I'm looking for some kind of temporary fencing that will keep the birds out for a few weeks. the...
  12. Poppy Putentake

    Stacked Nesting Boxes

    Who has experience and/or thoughts on stacking nesting boxes? does it work out well? Any problems? How high off the coop floor works best? Do they have trouble reaching the upper tier of nests? Do you provide a ramp of some kind for that? I'm aware of the conventional wisdon that nests...
  13. Poppy Putentake

    Coop Design Poll

    Here is a survey I put together to get everyone's opinions about Coop design in one place. Of course, my ulterior motive is to get answers for my own coop design. (I am thinking in terms off a relatively small coop, one for maybe 6-12 hens.) Questions: Coop overall 1. Floor area per hen? 2...
  14. Poppy Putentake

    Supplementary feeding for an underweight chick

    I got some hatchery chicks 8 days ago. One started out underweight and does not seem to be gaining weight at a good rate. On day one, (purchased from feed store), the others were all in the range of 35-40 grams, this one was 29 grams. More than that, during the first 24 hours, all the others...
  15. Poppy Putentake

    Broody hen rejecting one (hatchery) chick

    ...enclosure for rearing chicks. (The other tractor houses several grown laying hens.) So, it would be a housing problem to split this brood. Taking *all* the chicks away from the hen and rearing them myself would mean needing to someehow break the hen of broodiness just as she has begun raising...
  16. Poppy Putentake

    Best coop size for cold climate

    I'm planning on building a coop for a flock of (what will be) probably between 5 and 10 hens. In the winter, overnight low temperatures here (Vermont) are somtimes below zero Fahrenheit, and can occasionally get as low as minus 20 F. I've seen the advice to err on the side of making coop...
  17. Poppy Putentake

    Seeking comments on 4' x 8' coop design (was: ....ultimate chicken tractor/mobile coop...)

    This is a continuation of the thread here.. I'm planning a coop for up to about 10-12 hens, at this point have narrowed my ideas down to this list of features I want: • Walk in, for ease of cleaning, adjusting ventilation, catching chickens, etc.; • Built-in feeders and waterers • Probably 4'x...
  18. Poppy Putentake

    Why external nesting boxes?

    Lots of the coop designs I've seen lately have external nesting boxes, and I really wonder why. I'm all for being able to check for eggs from outside, and I have a door for that on my current tractor -- a vertical door with the hinge on the bottom, so when I open it, I am opening up the back...
  19. Poppy Putentake

    Seeking design suggestions for the ultimate chicken tractor/mobile coop for a small flock

    Hi all, I've currently got 5 hens, am planning to build a new shelter for them, and to accommodate a possible (modest) increase in number. I'm open to suggestions on design and layout from those more experienced than I. For a large flock, the traditional walk-in type coop makes sense, but for...
  20. Poppy Putentake

    Low-Tech Winter Waterers -- Insulated and otherwise

    Here is how to make the simple waterers I have been using for my small (5 birds) flock of chickens through Vermont winters. No electricity needed! For insulated waterers, I start with two plastic containers like these. One will fit inside the other. The inner one originally held about 11 oz...
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