Our Backyard Chicken Coop

I mentioned to you on Monday that I had a few boys here visiting and decided to put everyone to work enlarging my chicken enclosure.  I am so pleased with how it turned out.  First, I’ll show you our enclosure then our chicken coop. 

I have the most adorable little chicks, purchased a week ago.  They are Buff Orpington’s and Rhode Island Reds.

I had ordered through the mail, Auracanas & Black Australorps. They are 3 weeks old in this picture. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to mix 3 day old chicks with these 3 week old chicks but it was no problem. The older ones did not hurt them in any way.

I love my chick enclosure that we built. Two of the metal roof panels are removable so that I can get in there and clean, etc. You can not mix newborn chicks from the hatchery with adult chickens. The adult chickens will kill the chicks in 30 seconds flat – maybe less. They think they are an interloper.

Last year we had one hen that would sit outside this enclosure all day like she was their mother. Finally, we put her in with the chicks and she did’nt harm them in any way but was their adopted hen mother. 🙂  When we released the chicks into the larger pen, she protected them from the other chickens, fluffing up her feathers in an attempt to make herself look intimidating.

We not only put boys (and girls get their fair share, too) to work when they come for a visit, family gets that priviledge dubious joy as well.  My dear brother-in-law built me these beautiful nesting boxes that I think are just the cutest.

Here’s a tip I learned from my nephew this year. I’ve raised chickens for years but never thought of doing this. Put your chicken waterer up on a block to keep the water clean. Chickens just love to kick up dirt and it always gets their water nasty. This totally eliminates the problem.

So now that you’ve seen our backyard chicken coop, here’s the change we made last week.

We have an adjacent stall next to our chicken coop. The fencing is hog panel that you can pick up at Home Depot. Here is what it looked like.

I know. We have a lot of rock. Our property is actually the site of an old mining claim that was never developed. Lots of dynamite was used to blast our home site and barn area. Anyways, we ran 2 rows of chicken wire across the hog panel to make it impossible for the chickens to get out. (This is the adjacent yard next to the chicken coop.

To release the chickens from their yard into this larger one during the day, the boys cut an opening in the chain link fence enclosure.

Then my son made a contraption that has a sliding door. I open the door when I want to release the chickens into the new enclosure and at night they go back into the chicken coop and roost. I then can close the opening and they are safe from all predators.

I’m thrilled with having a larger enclosure. It will be wonderful to have when my 40 baby chicks are released. They’ll need more room than what our chicken coop can hold.

Are there any improvements you can suggest?  Just leave a comment.