Yep, my wife went a bought some chickens... 6 of them. Now I need a place to keep them. She wants to free range them in the pasture with the horses.
I looked at one of my barn books, and it has some plans on a 8x16 coop. This is a little larger than I need. What should I build? Are there any websites that have ideas or plans?
Thanks,
Joe R.
If she wants to free range them get the best of both worlds and build a chicken tractor, a portable chicken coop.
Chicken Tractor
Argee [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
Didn't Ma and Pa Kettle let the feathered friends roost in the kitchen.
Egon
We built a little coop for ours. Nesting boxes, heat lamp, water, feed...the whole enchilada. They prefer to sit in the rafters of the barn with the sheep and horses [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img] .
we also have used the chicken tractors, but it is a pain to go out and move them every day. We typically use it when they are small, just to keep them safe and under control. We like free ranging better for a small flock once they grow up. I understand that you can train them to stay in the coop at night, but we have not been as disciplined as we could have been. Maybe with the replacement flock.
Frank
Joe,
Here is a picture of our coop. Do a search on "An open letter to Martha Stewart", and you will see construction pictures. My wife came home with 8 chickens last fall, which has since grown through donations to 15. Trust me, you will need a little more space.
The coop I built is 8x8x8. The studs are on 2' centers, and I made simple trusses and put them on 2' centers. (Okay, so trusses are overkill-- but it gives the chickens added roosting space.)
Total cost for the coop as about $200.00. We added a chicken wire pen about 6 1/2 feet tall. Total cost for the pen was about $100.00, including a 3 foot wide run of chicken wire laid flat on the ground all the way around the outside perimeter of the pen and coop.
With pen and coop, it brought the total bill to about $1,000.00. Oh, did I forget to mention the $700.00 doctor bill when I put a splinter of wolmanized all the way through my finger? [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] (Don't let them fool you at the emergency room. You don't get one shot in the finger, you get two, and it makes your finger look like a sausage.) That means that those chickens cost $66.00 each. [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]
Steve
<font color="blue"> I put a splinter of wolmanized all the way through my finger? </font color>
Where's the picture of your finger with the splinter through it??? [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Argee [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
Actually, I tried to save the splinter, but I think the wife threw it away. It was about 1/2 inch long and as big around as the pointy end of a flat toothpick. Interestingly, wood splinters don't show up on X-ray. So, the emergency room doc spent 2 hours digging around in there, trying to figure out where it had gone since it went in and bounced off the joint. If it hadn't been wolmanzied I would have just left it, but there's been so much squawk about arsenic lately that I got paranoid and went in to get a shot or something. Five shots and 2 hours later...
Next time I load lumber I'll remember my leather gloves. [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img]
Steve
We use a coop in conjunction with two chicken tractors. All summer our little ones stay in the tractors where they can graze and be protected from cats and hawks. The adults use the coop. As cold weather approaches the adults go into the freezer and the little ones go in the coop...with the chicken tractors used as an outside screened in porch to keep them from wandering. After a couple of weeks, when the young birds have accepted the coop as home, we begin letting them free range in mid-afternoon. This limits their wandering, as they come back to roost when darkness approaches. Once snow begins to fall they never go out. Chickens are deeply suspicious of snow, though once it melts away in April or May they joyfully run all over the place...and the tractors again become housing for the young ones.
Pete
The Feb/March edition of Maother Earth News has an article on Chicken Tractors. There is also a simple drawing and some demensions.
ChuckinVA
Thanks to everyone who replied. With all the help, I have finally finished the coop. My nephew, and brother helped out! We built it on 2x8 skids with PT lumber. I think we over built it, but I couldn't help myself. I guess I am too much of an engineer, and lack some common sense.
Anyway, here are the pics!
Thanks again,
Joe R.
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