Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Chicks Coop ideas

Thanks guys for the help. Im looking more of egg layer but open to meat birds. I have a general idea of what I want to build, but keep the suggestions going!

Chicken Tractor .

Experience says this is a good thing. The Gulag house is too short.

Don't know where you live, but predators are an issue in most places one can have a few chickens.

The digging kind require some extra precautions and if you have critters with strong teeth, chicken wire might not stop them. I used 3' of 1/2" hardware cloth along the bottom of my chicken yard. Of course, I live their little access door open all night. I may look into one of them solar goodies mentioned above, then I don't have to worry so much should one manage to get in.

Some pics of mine and others on this thread

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...0189/re-if-we-had-some-eggs#Post15860189

Good luck with it.

A person can also lock the chickens up at night.


Using your hands and bi-pedal locomotion.

Ordered 4 Freedom Rangers for a test run this spring. Coming April 17 or so.

No more of them friggen Cornish Cross bishes that can't even hold their own breast off the ground.

Slower the better.


I think Orpingtons would be good to eat.

Here's a couple of ideas. If you spend enough time on youtube and agricultural ed sites, you will find dozens of designs.

This is one. You'll like the chicken names. 😄

https://youtu.be/qMsFhV1jhCE

Here's a more advanced idea with time saving auto feeders. Might be good if you leave for weekends.

https://youtu.be/G5QjAcTDkBw


The last time I went to the store, the good Lord gave me three dozen fresh eggs for $1.
I can't raise them at that price. However, the benefits of home grown, ( not talking about the hemp around the first video), is the following.

1. I have become severely allergic to chicken meat. I think that it's the soy and Glyphosate/ Round Up in their commercial feed everywhere.

2. ORGANIC feed eggs are OK. The others cause a digestive sickness that lasts a day. Keep in mind if you plan to sell them. The free range bug and weed scratching feed is best the sunlight provides free vitamin D3 supplements. Yokes are orange and tasty gormet. Most feed sold from ag stores provides very limited nutritional value and tastes bland. Just my experiences and ask around farm communities. You'll likely hear the same, but most do what's cheapest and easiests. If you want that too, there's lots of organic gardening videos that show how to get the best of both worlds. One is the Back to Eden documentary.

Best to your health and success!

Happy Camper

Good for you Geno. My instinct tells me that they have a higher feed efficiency. They don’t seem to eat as much because they move more and eat less. They seem to need an extry week to be ready. Typically @ 9 weeks.

A couple years ago, I was telling everyone about my 10 pound COCK!

Them boids can get big!

[/b][b]DON'T DO IT!
My wife only wanted seven or so layers which I agreed to. So built a four by eight coop and spent a fortune on panels to build a yard for them.

Everything was fine and dandy and then she got turned on to the Seramas. Now she has about twenty of the worthless things running around.

Two incubators that are always running.

Buying and selling and trading and going to chicken shows.

I'm just warning you of what could happen if left unsupervised. She even has three chicks that will grow up to twenty five pounds. called Cochillas or something like that.

It'll NEVER end,

Do you get snow? If so they’ll spend a lot of time inside the coop in the winter and you should build it big enough for them to each have ~3 sq feet each. It helps reduce them pecking each other.

Build an entryway that allows you to go into the coop without stepping directly in with the chickens. It will give you a place to store supplies and food and allows you to close the door behind yourself before entering the chicken area.

Lol 😄

Look at the bright side......
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She could've gotten interested in cats instead.

I'm still not sure where I'm going with this chicken thing. Down to 4 hens and a rooster, averaging 2 eggs a day, sometimes 3 now that we're getting more daylight. Don't like having to leave their care to my wife if I take off for a hunt or some such, as it was my idea to get them.

I see lots of cool looking ones on the feed store posters, and think, "yeah, that one would be cool, and two of those. I'll just put another addition on the Gulag"

I wonder what kind our ancestors ate. Probably just .............................chickens.

OMG! You’ve created a monster! 😁

Thanks for the hint about the Rangers. We'll see how that goes.

Had the shoppe electrified last summer and picked up a freezer, so if this works out, I may get more the next year. Wife loves chicken, and she's always buying it. Don't know about cost effectiveness, but even those damn white things tasted better than store bought.

My wife had the idea a few years ago before we moved and the idea was nixed.
I looked for a cheap 2 horse trailer that could be predator proofed, movable, and easily pressure washed out.
Growing up we had a 20x30 metal building used for a coop, would lock them up at night, but we raised quite a few.

Thanks guys. Awesome ideas!

I bought a shed kit & then fitted it out, after insulating it;









After these pictures were taken, I added a 4 tier roost & 3 nesting boxes, the following day.

Lost 1 hen to Deb's GSP pup, so now 5 eggs a day.









Frikken delicious eggs !

Yall have given me some good ideas. Thanks!

We converted an outhouse to our chicken coop. Use the toilet seat as the doggy dog for them to come come in and out. Little yard, chainlink on top and all sides to keep the toothy critters out. Between this place and my last we tried a couple different breeds, but have settled on leghorns. Seem to be the best producers. Only have 8 or 6 now. Can't remember, wife tends them mostly.

I absolutely abhor cleaning birds. When mine die they feed the toothy critters somewheres else. Otherwise I'd still have a bunch of barred rocks probably.

Nothing like good eggs, and i've found few things to eat a dippy egg doesn't make better.

Those eggs look good. Be even better with some bacon.😉