04-17-2006, 06:52 PM
We just used the metal frame since it was already existing, not because we thought it was a better building material. We hoisted it out of the gulch and put it up in the back yard. We have another chicken coop which is made from one of those metal shelving units Costco sells. We got it from a yard sale so we've got $2 invested in it. Edge welded a couple of the shelves together and set the bottom of the metal legs on concrete footings. Scrap wood across the back, tin roof on the top and two nesting boxes on the side. I was building it to replace the other ugly coop, but we ended up with two coops. They all sleep in the ugly coop but some of them like to lay eggs in the new coop.
Having it about three feet off the ground is the "anti-mongoose" part of the coop. When a hen is setting on eggs, we move her into one of those big plastic dog kennels until the chicks are a couple weeks old. (Baby chicks can't make the jump into the coop.) Then they get locked into the new chicken coop until they are big enough to run away from mongooses. Then we let them out and they can sleep where ever they want. Usually most of them will go hang out with everyone else in the ugly chicken coop.
The chicken feeder at the back window is a pair of closet shelf/ pole brackets with a bit of closet pole between them and a bit of plastic roof gutter where the closet shelf would normally go on the bracket. The chickens jump from the rock wall to the pole roost. We kinda use the chicken feeder as a garbage disposal. Open the window and put the scraps from the plates into the feeder. Makes plate scraping more fun when there are interested chickens watching.
Having it about three feet off the ground is the "anti-mongoose" part of the coop. When a hen is setting on eggs, we move her into one of those big plastic dog kennels until the chicks are a couple weeks old. (Baby chicks can't make the jump into the coop.) Then they get locked into the new chicken coop until they are big enough to run away from mongooses. Then we let them out and they can sleep where ever they want. Usually most of them will go hang out with everyone else in the ugly chicken coop.
The chicken feeder at the back window is a pair of closet shelf/ pole brackets with a bit of closet pole between them and a bit of plastic roof gutter where the closet shelf would normally go on the bracket. The chickens jump from the rock wall to the pole roost. We kinda use the chicken feeder as a garbage disposal. Open the window and put the scraps from the plates into the feeder. Makes plate scraping more fun when there are interested chickens watching.
Kurt Wilson