Pics are pre outdoor run and without stain!
In early January 2023, we started assembling our flock of chicks. At first, we placed them in our detached garage/shop bay in a borrowed brooder (8'x4' with 2' walls and a center divider. We used a heat lamp and small waterer/feeder. My wife, Kari, started with ~10 chicks, and unfortunately, we initially lost several. As she replaced them, she continued to add to the flock. Of course, in our signature way, we hadn't started with the coop.
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By February, the chicks had grown significantly, and we increased the crew to more than 30. It was soon becoming A LOT for the one bay in the shop. What a mess. Kari watered and fed the chicks twice daily, and we learned we have at least one rooster. We began clearing and leveling the build site.
In March/April, we finished clearing the lot, harvested trees and processed them at the sawmill, and build the 12' x 12' coop. We added a few windows which Kari bought years earlier for craft projects (never completed), and built a stout door. Around the base, we trenched 12-18" and installed hardware cloth below the ground level to prevent predators from digging underneath the walls. We blocked the eaves/soffits with hardware cloth to prevent any predators from entering under the roofline. We added a few solar lights to the front of the building, too.
We installed gutters on the back roofline, installed a first flush and the elevated IBC tote, added the Plasson broiler drinker/waterer (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!), and built a new hanging feeder (holds a full bag of feed!). We also built the roost out of 1.5"-3" trees. We were finally ready to introduce our first batch of chicks to the coop, and did so over a few weeks in batches based on their age/size. As we added the young birds to the coop, they adapted well to each other. We didn't witness infighting or bullying so we were very pleased with that whole transition process. We moved our final batch of seven birds to the coop in late April with a total headcount now at 37...I think.
We built a roost to give them a spot to enjoy their evenings. The picture of the chickens roosting does not include all of the chickens; we still had some in the brooder. Nonetheless, it is pretty clear that we oversized the roost! They put on their skinny shoes to pack into a fairly small space.
Once we completed the coop, we enjoyed a one minute sigh of relief, and then quickly began building the oversized 'L' shaped outdoor run, approximately 30'x30' with a 12'x10' portion on the side of the building. It is all connected as a single run and provides for approximately 1000 square feet of outdoor space. We purchased several 4'x100' rolls of hardware closth with 1/2" squares. To support the overhead hardware cloth, we have a number of support posts and use 'beams' to help carry the overhead load. Like the building, we trenched 12-18" below ground prior to installing the first row of hardware cloth siding, and backfilled it. The hardware cloth is not at all easy to manage for those 30+' lengths; it takes a bit of brawn and lots of patience and adjustments. We used a single strand of wire to sew each joined, overlapped section of hardware cloth to prevent critters from squeezing in between each of the strips.​
Of course, we couldn't call it finished until we built the nest boxes. They are each 48" wide by 24" deep, maybe 14" tall. Of that depth, 8" are outside with a 4" height to collect eggs. I added a false floor to create/adjust the angle so that when the hen lays her egg, it will roll to the collection area. This serves two purposes: 1. the hen won't accumulate feces on the egg if she decides to rest in the nest box for a bit, and 2. hens will not have access to peck at and break the eggs. I didn't screw down the false floor. Instead, I rested a 2"x4" under the back to generate the height for the slant and will, once it arrives, add fake turf grass to the floor and as a back stop in the collection bin. With the turf, we can easily pull it and wash it weekly to keep it clean. As of this writing we are only getting 1-2 eggs per day (slackers, lol - they're just starting), but the eggs roll nicely to the collection box and are 100% clean so it seems the design is working well thus far.
The two key elements to this design emphasized minimal daily inputs for maintaining clean and adequate water and feed. 1. The IBC tote is full of harvested rainwater, so our only water requirements are to dump/clean the Plasson waterer once or twice a week. 2. We add a new bag of feed to the feeder every five or six days.
