Easy Chicken Coop plans

[Beefy]

Fixin to be gift some chickens. need simple chicken coop plans.

 

[dun]

Depending on the number of chickens, any frame bilding that you can put toosts in and a couple of boxs for laying eggs in. Don;t try to over think the problem.

dun

 

[Beefy]

i have an old tobacco barn i was thinking of wireing over the two door holes and making a door where the fireplace was. but i thought it might be too dark? they would have plenty of rafters to perch on and i found some metal mystery objects that would make perfect nesting boxes already in there. its like a dish on a stand... some kind of farming equipment.

 

[dun]

Figure out a way to hang a light bulb in there during the short days of the year and you'll have eggs all year long.

dun

 

[flaboy?]

Yeah and make sure you make those toosts (dun's word) :lol: :lol: :lol:

Beefy, down here I would loose a bunch of chickens to coons if I didn't build a good coup. I buried the wire around it about 6 inches deep to keep the coons from digging under it.

You could use your old barn but you might want to make sure they have a secure roosting place that coons/foxes can't get to them. I know you have just as many of these varmints as I do. They will go to roost my themselves but you might need to secure them after they do.

 

[Texas Gal]

If your neck of the woods is anything like mine, make sure the henhouse is coyote, coon,hawk, owl, etc. proof. Oh yeah, don't forget the neighbor's dogs. Seriously, we have a problem with critters both digging in and flying in for a quick chicken dinner.

 

[john250]

We haven't had chickens since I was a little kid but I still remember the evening mom shut the doors on the coop with the racoon inside. That coon was having a high old time until dad brought the shotgun.
If you ever see a chicken around here, just call the asylum. I will have lost my mind.

 

[rockridgecattle]

hi, getting into chickens good for you. We have them and like them alot. good for the change pot.
Here is my two cents and you can do with it what you want.

BIO security bio security bio security.
Bird flu will come whether we want it to or not the big bird houses are already stepping up to the plate on this. So should us back yard chicken farmers.
Check with your local ag office to see what you can do.
Good luck and enjoy your birds

 

[Jogeephus]

i found some metal mystery objects that would make perfect nesting boxes already in there. its like a dish on a stand... some kind of farming equipment.

They aren't old kerosene heaters for the tobacco are they?

Any special kind of chickens?

 

[mdmdogs3]

BIO security bio security bio security.
Bird flu will come whether we want it to or not the big bird houses are already stepping up to the plate on this. So should us back yard chicken farmers.
Check with your local ag office to see what you can do.
Good luck and enjoy your birds

the big poultry companies are getting better but do have a long way to go
yes it is true that bird flu will probably make it to the US, I doubt however that it will have the chance to mutate to the human population without control
the real danger is to the poultry industry
imagine if all the birds in just a couple of states are deemed exposed and they have to be destroyed. That would be millions of birds around here
think what that would do to the price of McNuggets...

if everyone would be careful with their birds it would be very good.
1) don't expose your birds to any other birds if you can help it (yes I mean wild birds)
2) don't walk in your birds poop and then walk in walmart with the same shoes - you would be taking your birds diseases and spreading them for miles and miles (and vice-versa)
3) if you have a bird die because it was sick - dispose of it - either bury it deep or burn it (IMO don't compost it - it may not get hot enough to kill the disease that killed it)

and last but absolutely not least - WASH YOUR HANDS AFTER YOU ARE NEAR YOUR BIRDS OR THEIR COOP!

 

[rockridgecattle]

how true. thanks

 

[Beefy]

i found some metal mystery objects that would make perfect nesting boxes already in there. its like a dish on a stand... some kind of farming equipment.

They aren't old kerosene heaters for the tobacco are they?

Any special kind of chickens?

i dont know what they are. they are big metal dishes on a stand. underneath the dish there is a chain with a ring of metal that hangs underneath. you got me. :?:

the chickens are also a mystery. as best i can tell they may be brown leghorns b/c the rooster looks a lot like this one.

i havent seen the hen-she was hiding sitting on a nest somewhere. the man i'm getting them from lives next to my grandmothers house in the city and he got a pair from this man he plays golf with and he had a bunch of them just living wild in his yard. the littles ones are all speckled right now.

 

[Jogeephus]

Good luck with em. I like to have em around myself but the Coopers Hawks did me in last year when they came through. Gonna get some more sometime.

 

[flaboy?]

I especially like the way they spread my horse poop around for me. :lol:

 

[Lammie]

We haven't had chickens since I was a little kid but I still remember the evening mom shut the doors on the coop with the racoon inside. That coon was having a high old time until dad brought the shotgun.
If you ever see a chicken around here, just call the asylum. I will have lost my mind.

That's funny. I know a lot of people who feel the same way about chickens based on some bad experience the had as a child. I never had them growing up, so I was dying to get them as an adult. I doubt my kids will, though. Chicken poop, flogging roosters, chicks finding every way on earth to die, snakes, snakes, snakes, skunks, chicken poop, chicken mites, chicken poop...

Anyway, We have built pens and we have modified existing facilities with wire and nesting boxes. Mine stay penned all the time, mainly because if I left the doors open to the coops, the donkeys would go in there and wreck everything. I do have several smaller coops that we interconnected, like habitrails, for the hamsters? Remember those?

 

[Gate Opener]

We built our hen house out of scrap lumber that we picked up out of the dumpster thing at houses that were being constructed. We asked permission first. They were glad to let us have the stuff. We used a chain link dog kennel to put around the chicken house. We were able to close them up at night. When we got dogs and also put a no climb fence around the pasture that the house is in we quit closing the gate to the chicken house. If you use the chain link dog kennel be sure that you secure as much of the bottom as you can because a coyote will pull and pull on that if there is any weak part and get in. When we move we plan on using the welded wire pens (buying 2nd hand) since they will be more secure. Oh I almost forgot, to keep coyotes from digging in we layed wire on the ground under where the chain link pen was going and threw some dirt on it. The wire was around the outside of the pen about a foot or so. We also put chicken wire on top to protect from hawks and owls.

 

[Susie David]

This should give some ideas. Still building ours...Susie has been parking her car outside since the pullets outgrew the pen and now are in residence in the garage.
http://www.cps.gov.on.ca/english/po5000/poultry.htm
DMc