All Cooped Up~the coop and run thread

[Beekissed]

Thought it would be nice to have a place to talk about our setups, our seasonal changes, post pics and plans for coops, for the never ending coop tweaks, etc.

I have a hoop coop, so each year I do the biannual changing of the tarps, from shade to sun and back again. I also take the feed bucket down to the house, as well as the feed storage can, and get out the heated buckets and bowls.

The biannual changing of the hoop coop from season to season. I love this each time it happens because by the time I do it in the spring, it's pretty warm out and that shade tarp produces instant cooling....I always stand there and say, "Ahhhhhh! That's better!" as I can feel huge difference in the temps right away.

Then, come fall it starts to feel gloomy and chilly in there, with a little dampness in the air. I start closing the sides and the back window first, to keep the cold and damp air out at night. Then, one day, I finally remove the shade tarp and apply the clear tarp. Like magic it's a sunny and joyful place again, like a sunroom for chickens. I always have a sit down there on a hay bale and grin, basking in the warmth of the sun through the tarp. I wash out and off nest boxes, try to sweep down all the funnel spiders, generally do a little tidy on the whole coop and leave it feeling good about where the chickens will live this winter.

For a couple of days afterwards I'm sneezing my head off and all stopped up from all the dust and such, but still feeling good about the sunny winter coop. The winter coop in the hoop house was dismal before I found out about these clear tarps...just dark and dank feeling all winter long.

This next few weeks will be leaf collection in town, to store for winter bedding in the coop. I'd like to be able to store enough for spring and summer too, but I rarely manage to work that out right.

This year I'm going to try and funnel in some rain and snow to the DL under the roosts so I can get good composting once again...just need to bring all the components together. Last year the coop was so water tight that my DL didn't want to compost as quickly, so this year I'm going to tweak that.

Do y'all do anything different to your coops and runs each season?

Warm weather coop....sides lifted for extra air and shade.

Cold weather coop....

Sunny in the winter coop....

 

[Beekissed]

Winter coop achieved....now just need to do leaf collection in town to fill it full of dry, soft leaves. This patched up old hoop coop is none too pretty but it's greatly functional and cheap to make, so it serves me well.

Sometimes I miss the old traditional wood built coop where you don't need to change much to get ready for seasonal changes, but I'm very grateful to have a coop that I could build by myself...I'd never be able to build a traditional wooden coop, of the size I'd need, all by me onesies.

Put on a dust mask and dusted it all down...the funnel spiders LOVE this coop, washed down the nest box tops and front of the coop as much as possible with Murphy's Oil Soap, installed and filled the heated waterers for chicken and dogs, fixed one of the front "window" shutters that's been needing fixed, removed my utility niche/box off the work surface and replaced it with one that is smaller, more shallow and not as scary to put my hand into when I need something out of it.

Re-positioned my chicken hammock in preparation for the fall/winter flock checkups and castor oil application to feet, legs, combs and wattles. Just need to get a straw bale to put in there for days I want to sit in the coop or when the chickens want a different level of being when they are snowed in.

Early to the roost with the clear tarp on...a much brighter and lighter setup. I think they liked soaking up the last rays of the sun as it went down. Some of the birds were still out foraging but the older gals were sure to get in early to preserve their spaces.

 

[Beekissed]

My birds don't seem to mind the snow if they think there is food to be had out there. The WRs will even break trail for me if they think food is coming! They find any exposed grass under benches and such and graze there.

After the dogs break trail, then they are out there every day.

 

[treerooted]

Thanks for the timely thread Bee.

We fixed up the ancient (not sure how old, could be as old as the barn) coop last year. Anyway, it's in really bad condition, and it took a lot of time but very little money to fix it up to a usable state. However, I don't think it'll do for another year (though I'm sure we can limp it along in need be) so we're now figuring out if we can build a new coop in the spring.


And that's not "cruddy" @frustratedearthmother , a lot of owners would love to free range but can't for all sorts or reasons. Also, at 9a you don't have a winter you have to be seriously concerned about the way others up north do.

 

[Hinotori]

We finally got a chance to pick up a few cattle panels. I got the first of 5 installed on the pen. Went really well and attached to the chainlink panels better than I thought it would. Hopefully no more issues.

 

[Hinotori]

My ameraucana and EEs don't mind snow that much. Just seems to irritate them that they can't forage in it. I scape it back on the grass a bit when I let them out of the pen.

Actually, the silkies are the only chickens I've had that won't willingly touch snow. And they have a ridiculous amount of foot feathering to make walking on it easier. I've taken foot feathers into account when breeding. It's kind of questionable if there is even such a thing as too much feathers on silkie feet. Mine have at least some feather on all toes.

A third of this is foot.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Guess I'm just a cruddy chicken mama - my chickens all free range - they are scattered between several pastures and several barns. I don't really do anything special for them in the winter than their care in the summer - except for extra feed. Well, except for the stupid ones that want to roost outside on a fence no matter what the weather. If it gets much below freezing I'll pluck them off of a fence (if I can) and throw 'em in the closest barn.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Snow is fun when you're a little kid and get to play in it. Like, before anyone figures out that you can use a shovel!

I would think cattle panels would work for you @Hinotori, wire them together and they're pretty strong. Not positive though, DH is the resident builder here! Our hoop coops are not that wide.

 

[treerooted]

Fixed up a bit:

On the bright side, if you leave it with a soil floor and want to use DL as your preferred bedding method, those leaks may come in handy! I had a leaky coop before last year's new winter tarp was applied and I had MUCH better composting of my DL than I did this past year, when the coop no longer leaked.

Now I have to intentionally CREATE a way for rain and snow to leak into my DL under the roosts, unless I want to tote water up there to do the same thing...add more moisture to my composting pit.

Ha, well, we had a full flood in that coop this year...so moisture was not problem! I'm all about the DL as well

 

[Beekissed]

Winter coop is working fine so far. Temps at 6* when I went to feed and were 3* when I got up...but in the coop, at roosting height, it's 20*. No heater, no lights, just good ol' compost mass under the roosts and deep litter throughout, clear winter tarp to let the sunshine in.

No frostbit combs, even though the rooster roosts with his head even with 4 in. of ventilation within a foot of him and a square foot of open pop door under his roost and HUGE open areas right across from him where the upper part of the door is just screen and 6 in. window gaps on either side of the door, not to mention various wide cracks throughout the wood structure of the coop.

It's a good coop and a good system. I can leave the eggs overnight in the nests and collect them the next evening with that day's take and never have to worry about frozen eggs, even in single digit temps.

Makes for peace in the winter, not having to worry about frozen eggs, frozen water, uncomfortably chilled chooks. Even feeding wet feed each day doesn't present a problem.