JOYFUL HEARTS FARM

OUR CHICKEN COOPS

Know well the condition of your flocks,
{And} pay attention to your herds........
Proverbs 27:23,27 (NASB)

I've had many folks ask about our chicken coops. Those who visit have encouraged me to put up photo's of our coops. So this is for all of you! =)

This is our first real chicken coop. Prior to this our chickens were living in a chicken ark that we purchased from England. We still use it as a grow pen when we hatch out chicks each year. I'll post pictures of it later. So, our first coop was a Tuffshed that we had built in 2005. The nice folks came out on-site and put it up in one day. We chose the colors and when they delivered it, it was already painted for us. The chickens seem to approve *grin* We have 2 windows for their viewing pleasure, a skylight which makes it very light and airy inside, and vents for their comfort. We also insulated the roof and the west facing wall since we had no shade trees at the time.

Now we started customizing it. First we put in a door and nest boxes so we could collect eggs without going inside the coop.

Here is the inside and the nest boxes we built. We are just applying primer here.

Interior shot. We are priming it.

This is our original ladder roost. At the time we built this, 4 yrs ago, we only had 6 chickens. We now have this in their run. The girls like to sunbathe on it on cold mornings.......or it is a nice place to get away from the roosters!

Here is the new feeder we purchased from Murray McMurray. You can also see the floor and interior has been painted.

The girls moved in. We still needed to build a run for them. In the meantime, we put up cattle panels for a temporary safe haven from the hawks. Of course they have their very own peach tree, which they love to sit under on a hot day. Needless to say, *we* do not get many peaches......the chickens have fun plucking off all the low growing fruit. It is nice to share! =)

This is more recent photo's from 2007. The wind blew down the rooster weathervane we had on top when these photo's were taken. You can see the run we attached to the coop they use when they are not free ranging.

MORE PICTURES TO COME!

Page created on October 12th, 2008