Rural, agricultural, eyesore, choose your own description. I dont expect any plaudits for the aesthetics but it has evolved and proved to be fit for purpose, ie to house upto six bantam hens.
The whole construction was done on a budget. All the timber for this was reclaimed either from my old sliding garage doors or my fathers old patio door frames. Only the chicken wire was purchased.
I’ll start with the inside of the coop.
False bottom, this really helps with through cleaning.
Plastic green house trays provide a floor, easily removable for cleaning.
Another plastic seed tray under the roosting bars and two nesting/egg boxes go on top.
Liberally sprinkled with wood chips. I buy these as workshop produced stuff has far to much sawdust for my liking
Important to have a roof over the nesting/egg boxes , makes the hens feel secure evidently. Again easily removable.
Roof hinged for access.
Access to retrieve eggs
The coop can be closed at night, we rarely do this. A sliding door and a hinged pull rod makes this possible from outside the run.
This is the pine marten secure small run. This gets closed every night. There are two small doors with access into the large run. If we go away for the weekend or a few days the chooks are happy in this run.
All the roof panels are either hinged or resting in place. Some are covered to ensure the hens always have some dry dirt to bathe in.
A door at one ends gives access to the food box when a chicken feeder is suspended.
These are the two small doors that enable access to the larger run. This run is where the hens spend their time when we are at home. They get locked in the small run if we are out for any length of time.
The large run has no netting above.
Before we had the dog. Hens would free range in the garden outside of the fruit/veg harvesting season.
We cut the flight feathers of one wing of each bird. These of course grow back after moulting but they seem to loose the will to fly after a while.
Foxes here not really a problem. Missus has seen one at a distance but in 15 years I never have. They would be shot around here. The pine marten, as far as we know never came back .
I should add that the inside of the coop get sprayed with a natural anti-mite spray when the coop is cleaned out about once a month now we only have one hen. Was done weekly when we had more. Hens live for about 6-7 years but egg production decreases rapidly after year 3.
That coop may look like a haven for mites but when a hen does pop it’s clogs it gets a thorough looking at and I have never seen any problems with scaly leg mite or any other skin complaint. Diatomaceous powder is also sprinkled in the pooh box under the roosting bars and in the nest boxes when cleaned out.
The whole construction was done on a budget. All the timber for this was reclaimed either from my old sliding garage doors or my fathers old patio door frames. Only the chicken wire was purchased.
I’ll start with the inside of the coop.
False bottom, this really helps with through cleaning.
Plastic green house trays provide a floor, easily removable for cleaning.
Another plastic seed tray under the roosting bars and two nesting/egg boxes go on top.
Liberally sprinkled with wood chips. I buy these as workshop produced stuff has far to much sawdust for my liking
Important to have a roof over the nesting/egg boxes , makes the hens feel secure evidently. Again easily removable.
Roof hinged for access.
Access to retrieve eggs
The coop can be closed at night, we rarely do this. A sliding door and a hinged pull rod makes this possible from outside the run.
This is the pine marten secure small run. This gets closed every night. There are two small doors with access into the large run. If we go away for the weekend or a few days the chooks are happy in this run.
All the roof panels are either hinged or resting in place. Some are covered to ensure the hens always have some dry dirt to bathe in.
A door at one ends gives access to the food box when a chicken feeder is suspended.
These are the two small doors that enable access to the larger run. This run is where the hens spend their time when we are at home. They get locked in the small run if we are out for any length of time.
The large run has no netting above.
Before we had the dog. Hens would free range in the garden outside of the fruit/veg harvesting season.
We cut the flight feathers of one wing of each bird. These of course grow back after moulting but they seem to loose the will to fly after a while.
Foxes here not really a problem. Missus has seen one at a distance but in 15 years I never have. They would be shot around here. The pine marten, as far as we know never came back .
I should add that the inside of the coop get sprayed with a natural anti-mite spray when the coop is cleaned out about once a month now we only have one hen. Was done weekly when we had more. Hens live for about 6-7 years but egg production decreases rapidly after year 3.
That coop may look like a haven for mites but when a hen does pop it’s clogs it gets a thorough looking at and I have never seen any problems with scaly leg mite or any other skin complaint. Diatomaceous powder is also sprinkled in the pooh box under the roosting bars and in the nest boxes when cleaned out.
#fresheggs