Pallet Coop progress update

Well, we had hoped to have the birds moved in by the end of the day today, but we didn't quite make it. We worked hard all weekend, and at 6:30pm, we were too tired and hungry to keep going, but soooooooooooo close! All we really have left to do is to finish the chicken wire around the run enclosure, paint the trim, and finish the roofing. I'm really happy with the way it's turning out. Here are our photo's at the end of the day today:

This is just an overall photo showing the new coop (on the right), the new run and our old Japanes Bantam's coop also known as Charlie's coop on the left.



The two photo's above show the outdoor run areas. In case you missed the previous post, this long coop will be divided in half inside, so it is acutally two coops in one. Each side is a mirror image of the other. The run is also split in half although one side is a bit bigger. We plan to add our new laying hens to the side with the larger run and our new bantams to the other side. In the future we may use them as seperate breeding pens.


Here you can see the two pop doors which lead out to the run area's. My lovely husband has fashioned a most excellent pulley system which allows you to pull a rope outside the run and have both doors open simultaneously. It is really cool and the kids most favorite feature. We had planned to maybe build some ramps up to the pop doors, but our older birds who have been hanging around during the entire construction process, have proven to us that they really aren't necessary. Almost all the birds have managed to hop up through the pop door at some given time during construction. We will see how the new young birds do, and may still add some ramps in if needed.


This last photo shows all the other access doors to one end of the coop except for the pop door into the run. Each end of the coop has three nesting boxes and each nest has a sliding egg door to retrieve the eggs. Below the nesting boxes inside, will be the feeder and waterer, and there is a fold down door to easily access these. On the right side you can see the "man door" with a window. This will be used primarily for mucking out the coop, with a wheel barrow parked beneath it. However, if we do need to go inside this is where we can get in. The plexi-glass window also slides up and can be removed, and will have hardware cloth behind, if needed on hot summer days/evenings for more ventilation. I don't know if you can tell, but along this side of the coop above the man doors will also be a gutter system that will eventually lead to a rain barrel. I'm really excited about that!



And that is where we are today. I will be working my butt off tomorrow to get the run done. That's really the last "must-do" item before the birds move in.

Speaking of birds, I have to show off the new residents as well! Here are the new laying hens, 12 of those plus one white cochin frizzle bantam who was our mystery chick. She will move in with the other banties when they are old enough to move in. These guys are almost 11 weeks old and more than ready for their new home!



And here are the baby bantams, only 5 of these and I think they are 3 or 4 weeks old now? Two are Old English, one Self Blue, not sure on the other. The other 3 all came from an assorment of frizzle bantams, although only one looks to be showing the actual frizzle feathers. I think they are all Frizzle Cochin Bantams, and I'm anxious to see what color they will turn out to be. Also curious to see if we wind up with any roosters in this batch as they were all straight run.



Thanks for checking in! I'll be posting more photo's when these guys are all moved in. :-)

Building the Pallet Coop has begun!

Well construction is finally underway! We've been blessed with some gorgeous weather finally, and we have been busy. We started this weekend on our new coop. It is being constructed using recycled pallets primarily. It's actually 2 coops in one as it is very long and will be divided in two, one end for our bantams and one end for our new laying hens. This is our third coop in all. Our original coop houses our older laying hens. We have a small coop which houses our Japanese Bantams currently, as they are my oldest DD's 4-H project. We currently have two batches of chicks that will be moving into the new coop as soon as it's ready, (13) 9 week old chicks, and (5) 2 week old bantams.

Here's the photo's so far. The first photo just shows the base of the coop. We built it raised, so the chickens can go underneath as part of their run, for protection from the sun and/or rain. To the left is the Japanese Bantams coop. Over this base we laid a plywood floor:


The next photo shows the side where the pop doors will be, the doors the chickens come out of to access their outdoor run area. You can see one of the pop doors framed out on the right, and some of the ladies in the foreground:


This is a close up of one end of the coop, showing my lovely DH hard at work! This also shows the three built in nesting boxes with space below to place the waterer and feeder. There will be doors on the end for egg retrieval and a larger door below for accessing the food and water. On the other side of the pop door beyond, will be the roosting area. The two coops in the one building will be built as mirror opposites of each other, so the same set up will also be at the far end for the bantams:


Last, this photo shows the back side of the coop, showing the "man" doors framed out. These doors are for access if we need to get in the coop, but primarily they will be used for mucking out the coop. We will park a wheel barrow below the open door and rake out the soiled bedding. You can also see the roof taking shape here as we begin to put the pallets up there:


And that's where we are today! I will post more photo's when we get the roof on and the wall sheathing and doors up. Hope you will check back soon!

Who can resist those little chicks?

So I mentioned earlier that we had gotten new chicks back in February. 13 in all. They are almost 8 wks old now. We have 3 buff rocks, 2 speckled sussex, 2 Polish, 2 Rhode Island Red, 1 Barred Rock, 2 Easter Eggers (mixed Ameracauna breeds, for production only) and we got a mystery chick that has turned out to be a white frizzle bantam Cochin. Here's a couple of pics of them now:


As if these guys weren't enough for us, we were sad that none of our bantams that we ordered from the hatchery made it through the mail. So last week the local feed store got some, and we came home with these:

They include 3 assorted frizzle bantams and 2 assorted English Game bantams. The only one we actually know the breed so far, is the little grey guy. That one is a Self Blue English Game bird. The other four will remain a mystery for awhile longer. Here are more photos of the two Old English Game:

Just to show you how small these guys are! Here's the Self Blue bird in my hand, sorry for the poor quality photo:

Of the 3 frizzles, two of them are the same, mostly dark with light underbellies. The third has more yellow up it's chest and on it's face. It also has a unique dark spot on one side of it's beak. All three are feather footed. Here are the "twins":

And the one we are calling Spot is on the bottom left in this pic:


We are hoping to start the new coop tomorrow, as all of these guys can't fit in our current accomodations! The week after this one is spring break, and that will be our major focus that week. We have acquired 18 free pallets off of Freecycle, and plan to use them for the main body of the coop. I will post pics when construction gets underway!

Chicken Runs

We worked on our chicken runs today for a bit. Chicken runs are the outdoor area attached to the coop, where the chickens can step outside and hunt for bugs and get some sunshine. Ours have gotten so muddy and gross because they are not covered, so I bought some tarps to cover them with. My husband came out to help me construct a support for the big run, to help with water runoff when it rains. You don't want to have the water pool up on the tarp, as it can cause a lot of weight and pull down your whole run if you are not careful! So now our little coop area looks a bit like a shanty town, but hopefully it will help dry them out a bit.

I was reading on www.backyardchickens.com to see what else you can do to prevent the run area from getting so muddy. One recommendation I read, was to wait until summer, and the dirt/mud all gets rock hard from the baking sun, and then bring in as much sand as you can, at least 4-6" to cover the whole run area. The birds love to take their dust baths in the sand, and it shouldn't muddy up when the rains come. They said not to add sand to the mud, or it will just sink in and disappear. The trick is waiting until the mud dries up nice and hard. I'm hoping to try this method, if fund allow for us the get the sand trucked in here later in the summer. Living in the Pacific Northwest, mud is a constant battle from October-June. So it will be great if it works!

Welcome!

Our family has been keeping chickens for 5 yrs now. We started with a few mixed breeds we adopted from my husbands co-worker. We are now up to over 30 birds! This photo is showing some of our newest additions that we got a few weeks ago. The kids are involved in a 4-H Poultry Program, and it's a real family project that we all enjoy. I hope you will come and check out our new chicken blog often as we share funny chicken stories and tips about raising and showing them. Thanks for visiting!