How it started...
March babies in a box... The heater wasn't keeping the heat in the box very well so I created a "heat shield" by adding tin foil over cardboard with dowel rods wired to the cardboard to hook bungee cords to, then looped the cords over the cross piece of wood that spanned the box shown below. The bungee cords length/flexibility allowed for the heat shield to be tilted to allow heat to escape as they got older.
Eventually they moved to a box twice this size (after a chick got stuck between the waterer and a box corner). When they started getting spazzy, I laid a piece of window screen over the top of the bigger box (clipped to the sides of the box with office binder clips) to keep them from flying out.
First Coop
Bought one of those "cheap" online coops that I painted white. Cheaply made, somewhat pricey but worked well while the chicks were young and I didn't have to break out my very rusty woodworking skills. I had to add a total of nine hinges and locks to the lids, door, and cleaning slide out so I could lock it up. Whoever designs these coops has probably never even seen a full grown chicken nor do they realize that everyone likes chicken...
I added some hardware cloth to enclose one of the nest boxes and attached flexible insulation foil. In that nest box was an outlet that I plugged in their coop heater and then later a water proof PC fan that was installed in the side of the coop just above the silver insulation in this image. By this point it was getting warmer outside and the fan pulling air out of the coop helped to keep them cool and kept the smell down.
They had had pine shavings in their baby box but I had read about PDZ so once it warmed up, I removed all shavings and added PDZ. They wanted to roost on top of the roost that night so we compromised and did half pine and half PDZ for awhile.
They slept on top of each other in the open nest box so that itty bitty roost pole was never used.
Toddlers trying to decide if they want to leave the coop on their first day out. Whoever designed this coop heater does not understand how raised plastic print and holes attract poop...
Note all of the extra holes in the wood around the door - a lot of experimentation went into securing the door... There may have been a few bad words as well
There were several cold nights so I used ratchet straps to tie an outdoor rug remnant (and eventually a wool blanket when it got really cold) to the top of the coop. There were plenty of cracks in the coop so there was still plenty of ventilation.
A month or so later, warmer weather, and everyone seems happy with their new digs. Way better than the cardboard box!
The bad... I was afraid that a predator would easily crack the very flimsy plastic on the three the lids so I added hardware mesh on top. However - poop goes where it goes and it ended up trapped between the hardware cloth and the plastic top (I add some PDZ into the grooves of the plastic tops which helped a bit).
Eventually I cut "poop escape" chutes in the hardware cloth on the outside edges of the roof which helped some but I'll have to rethink this when I use it again for the next babies. I also really hated the pop door. It swings up/down and usually there was bedding caught that prevented it from being shut, not to mention all the poop on it.
Still using the baby feeders/waterers, setting on bricks in the run. I had an old bird bath top (blue in picture below) which I put under the two feeders. This helped to keep them from being knocked over and also caught most of the food that they dribbled out. The blue tub has dirt for bathing. I had a couple of plastic plant pots that I set upside down in the corners for roosting/standing on which also did double duty when they started digging at the corners of the run. And a broom handle that I hung from the run fence itself. It's maybe 1.5" round but they didn't seem to mind.
The rooster holding court with his ladies.
New "Coop"
After days spent researching sheds (so many bad reviews!), I decided on this shed because the walls are smooth. My assumption is that this will make it easier to clean projectiles (though I haven't seen any yet). Interior dimensions are 51" wide x 26" deep x 45" tall. I don't plan to allow chicken math to strike and at most I'll have maybe 6 chickens.
They still sleep on top of each other crammed to one side of the shed anyway so most of the 51" space is wasted. I also liked this one because the bottom is thick plastic. It still needs some work - I found that rain leaks into it also - but it's holding up well so far. I added holes to the top sides of the shed for ventilation and set it on concrete pavers, but otherwise no other modifications.
Moving Days
I decided to relocate their run when I bought the shed so they were stuck in this set up for a few days (this is also when I found out that the small coop leaked
). You can see below the hole in the side of the coop in picture above where the PC fan was.
But this set up also allowed me to drag them into the yard so they could have "grass time". I don't free range because neighbors don't seem to know how to keep their dogs secure...
My two helpers in the background on the right. ... Caution - some people aren't very good at reading directions
But it was nice to get some help.
Where they are today...
I don't have pictures before I added the second run on the left, but here they are on the South side of my garage. I'm in KS so not only will this help with the winter northern winds but they are also mostly under a tree now for shade. These are two 6'x10' runs tied together with most of the roof tarped.
One of the shed doors is held shut with their (blue) bucket waterer and the other shed door is held open with a bungee cord that attaches to the shed door handle and then to the run fence.
I'm using a 2x4 board that is bungee strapped to two crates in the coop for a roost. This weekend I added some (green) plastic sign material to the top of the crates as previously the cardboard covers didn't last long. Also a 2x4 to keep the PDZ inside. We finally agreed that PDZ is pretty cool after they found that they can play in it
Pictures below is the second run. The second roost broom handle is now approved. This past weekend I added the black tub with some water since it's been pretty hot here. Two bricks inside keeps it from being tipped over and it apparently will fit two chickens. Who knew.
To the left is one of their baby waterers with some electrolytes since a lot of people here suggest that for when it's hot.
The teal bucket is food and the crate (green top in right image below) is supposed to be their nest box. They have since destroyed the nest box and kicked everything out so back to the drawing board on that. They're not yet laying anyway.
The black thing hanging on the run is Irish Spring soap inside pantyhose. I read that this will help to repel flies so there's several of those hung around the outside of the run.
I also found this weekend that the cheap L-shaped tent stakes that came with the runs work great at staking down the plastic flower pots and keep them from being knocked over. The pots had holes in the rim where they could be hung up and the tent spikes were the perfect size to go through those holes.
I was using a bucket with the nipple waterers but they didn't seem to be getting enough water (crucial in my area since we're in and out of heat advisories now), so I bought the red/white waterer shown above. Tip for people like me who can't be be bothered to read directions (bc, duh - it's a bucket, right?) - pay attention to the screw knob attached to the top side of the waterer. It has a purpose
Something else that I did with the run was to wire the baby coop roost bars to the outer edges of a section of a hardware cloth. I use zip tie loops tied to the run to then attach this panel (slide the roost bars through the loops) inside of the coop that spans the person gate. This helps to keep anything from reaching between the spaces between the gate bars and I don't have to worry about the chickens walking out whenever I open the gate. Not a great picture of it below but the tall dark shadow on the right is one of the roost boards. When I let them out for grass time, I slide the roost poles out of the loops and the gate is wide open. I'm always MacGyvering something
Thanks for reading!
Edit July 6, 2024.
I must have done things right because I finally received my first egg! It's tiny, and they didn't lay it in the crate they're supposed to be using (outside the coop), but I'm not complaining
March babies in a box... The heater wasn't keeping the heat in the box very well so I created a "heat shield" by adding tin foil over cardboard with dowel rods wired to the cardboard to hook bungee cords to, then looped the cords over the cross piece of wood that spanned the box shown below. The bungee cords length/flexibility allowed for the heat shield to be tilted to allow heat to escape as they got older.
Eventually they moved to a box twice this size (after a chick got stuck between the waterer and a box corner). When they started getting spazzy, I laid a piece of window screen over the top of the bigger box (clipped to the sides of the box with office binder clips) to keep them from flying out.
First Coop
Bought one of those "cheap" online coops that I painted white. Cheaply made, somewhat pricey but worked well while the chicks were young and I didn't have to break out my very rusty woodworking skills. I had to add a total of nine hinges and locks to the lids, door, and cleaning slide out so I could lock it up. Whoever designs these coops has probably never even seen a full grown chicken nor do they realize that everyone likes chicken...
I added some hardware cloth to enclose one of the nest boxes and attached flexible insulation foil. In that nest box was an outlet that I plugged in their coop heater and then later a water proof PC fan that was installed in the side of the coop just above the silver insulation in this image. By this point it was getting warmer outside and the fan pulling air out of the coop helped to keep them cool and kept the smell down.
They had had pine shavings in their baby box but I had read about PDZ so once it warmed up, I removed all shavings and added PDZ. They wanted to roost on top of the roost that night so we compromised and did half pine and half PDZ for awhile.
They slept on top of each other in the open nest box so that itty bitty roost pole was never used.
Toddlers trying to decide if they want to leave the coop on their first day out. Whoever designed this coop heater does not understand how raised plastic print and holes attract poop...
Note all of the extra holes in the wood around the door - a lot of experimentation went into securing the door... There may have been a few bad words as well
There were several cold nights so I used ratchet straps to tie an outdoor rug remnant (and eventually a wool blanket when it got really cold) to the top of the coop. There were plenty of cracks in the coop so there was still plenty of ventilation.
A month or so later, warmer weather, and everyone seems happy with their new digs. Way better than the cardboard box!
The bad... I was afraid that a predator would easily crack the very flimsy plastic on the three the lids so I added hardware mesh on top. However - poop goes where it goes and it ended up trapped between the hardware cloth and the plastic top (I add some PDZ into the grooves of the plastic tops which helped a bit).
Eventually I cut "poop escape" chutes in the hardware cloth on the outside edges of the roof which helped some but I'll have to rethink this when I use it again for the next babies. I also really hated the pop door. It swings up/down and usually there was bedding caught that prevented it from being shut, not to mention all the poop on it.
Still using the baby feeders/waterers, setting on bricks in the run. I had an old bird bath top (blue in picture below) which I put under the two feeders. This helped to keep them from being knocked over and also caught most of the food that they dribbled out. The blue tub has dirt for bathing. I had a couple of plastic plant pots that I set upside down in the corners for roosting/standing on which also did double duty when they started digging at the corners of the run. And a broom handle that I hung from the run fence itself. It's maybe 1.5" round but they didn't seem to mind.
The rooster holding court with his ladies.
New "Coop"
After days spent researching sheds (so many bad reviews!), I decided on this shed because the walls are smooth. My assumption is that this will make it easier to clean projectiles (though I haven't seen any yet). Interior dimensions are 51" wide x 26" deep x 45" tall. I don't plan to allow chicken math to strike and at most I'll have maybe 6 chickens.
They still sleep on top of each other crammed to one side of the shed anyway so most of the 51" space is wasted. I also liked this one because the bottom is thick plastic. It still needs some work - I found that rain leaks into it also - but it's holding up well so far. I added holes to the top sides of the shed for ventilation and set it on concrete pavers, but otherwise no other modifications.
Moving Days
I decided to relocate their run when I bought the shed so they were stuck in this set up for a few days (this is also when I found out that the small coop leaked
). You can see below the hole in the side of the coop in picture above where the PC fan was.
But this set up also allowed me to drag them into the yard so they could have "grass time". I don't free range because neighbors don't seem to know how to keep their dogs secure...
My two helpers in the background on the right. ... Caution - some people aren't very good at reading directions
But it was nice to get some help.Where they are today...
I don't have pictures before I added the second run on the left, but here they are on the South side of my garage. I'm in KS so not only will this help with the winter northern winds but they are also mostly under a tree now for shade. These are two 6'x10' runs tied together with most of the roof tarped.
One of the shed doors is held shut with their (blue) bucket waterer and the other shed door is held open with a bungee cord that attaches to the shed door handle and then to the run fence.
I'm using a 2x4 board that is bungee strapped to two crates in the coop for a roost. This weekend I added some (green) plastic sign material to the top of the crates as previously the cardboard covers didn't last long. Also a 2x4 to keep the PDZ inside. We finally agreed that PDZ is pretty cool after they found that they can play in it
Pictures below is the second run. The second roost broom handle is now approved. This past weekend I added the black tub with some water since it's been pretty hot here. Two bricks inside keeps it from being tipped over and it apparently will fit two chickens. Who knew.
To the left is one of their baby waterers with some electrolytes since a lot of people here suggest that for when it's hot.
The teal bucket is food and the crate (green top in right image below) is supposed to be their nest box. They have since destroyed the nest box and kicked everything out so back to the drawing board on that. They're not yet laying anyway.
The black thing hanging on the run is Irish Spring soap inside pantyhose. I read that this will help to repel flies so there's several of those hung around the outside of the run.
I also found this weekend that the cheap L-shaped tent stakes that came with the runs work great at staking down the plastic flower pots and keep them from being knocked over. The pots had holes in the rim where they could be hung up and the tent spikes were the perfect size to go through those holes.
I was using a bucket with the nipple waterers but they didn't seem to be getting enough water (crucial in my area since we're in and out of heat advisories now), so I bought the red/white waterer shown above. Tip for people like me who can't be be bothered to read directions (bc, duh - it's a bucket, right?) - pay attention to the screw knob attached to the top side of the waterer. It has a purpose
Something else that I did with the run was to wire the baby coop roost bars to the outer edges of a section of a hardware cloth. I use zip tie loops tied to the run to then attach this panel (slide the roost bars through the loops) inside of the coop that spans the person gate. This helps to keep anything from reaching between the spaces between the gate bars and I don't have to worry about the chickens walking out whenever I open the gate. Not a great picture of it below but the tall dark shadow on the right is one of the roost boards. When I let them out for grass time, I slide the roost poles out of the loops and the gate is wide open. I'm always MacGyvering something
Thanks for reading!
Edit July 6, 2024.
I must have done things right because I finally received my first egg! It's tiny, and they didn't lay it in the crate they're supposed to be using (outside the coop), but I'm not complaining
However, if they did tip it over, I would either tie the crates to the sides of the shed/coop or replace them with wood supports. I'm trying to do all of this without wood wherever I can avoid it.