Choosing a Chicken Coop: What to Look For
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.ค. 2024
- Choosing a coop can be daunting. There are so many on the market and making the wrong choice can be an expensive mistake. In this video we take you through all of the options passing on what we've learnt to help you make the right choice for you and your chickens.
Additional information including space recommendations from the Poultry Club of Great Britain:
www.poultryclub.org/resources...
We breed Buff Orpington chickens and have kept them for a number of years.
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This also reminds me that I need to give my heavy birds a good long ramp at a lower pitch to make it easier for them to get on their perch. My other girls can just jump up 3 feet if necessary to get where they want to go :)
Well worth doing
I'm an apartment dweller who dreams of being a chicken mum to some ex-battery hens.
Would love to give a couple of feathered friends a good home (with a huge run), an easy life, and lots of treats.
Any eggs they lay will be a bonus.
Videos like these give me hope, and keep me informed.
Thank you for making them!
Until you get your own, feel free to vicariously enjoy ours 🙂
This has been really useful as my husband is currently putting together a raised house for our six ladies - thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
I'm loving your videos thank you. Would you make a video showing how to build a coop like your fav one with directions etc. Your design seems to be the ideal coop for happy hens and owners
Thank you so much. The next time that Hugh builds a coop, we will record the process and produce some plans!
@@EnglishCountryLife That would be fantastic, as a pensioner the shop bought coops appear to be very expensive and not very practical for an elderly hen keeper. Once again thankyou and happy homesteading x
Many thanks, lots of good information. We still over night some of our birds in our dog kennels, tyres make good perches and nest boxes! They can stay there for winter whilst we relocate the others to the barn. Hopefully some new outdoor coops will be made next year.
Dog kennels make very good alternative coops. Great idea.
Really enjoy all your videos, thanks guys.. learnt some great tips and you are completely correct about the coop with the hinge roof and the pointy bit in the middle. It was my second coop and although it looks lovely, it’s not practical fit cleaning. Damien is currently transferring the sheep shed he built into a chicken house and we haven’t decided how to door it up yet, but I really like the idea of a sliding door horizontal not vertical.. and Hugh please stop teasing me with the zipped hoody I really really want one still haha 😂
Hi Donna! How are you guys???
@@EnglishCountryLife afternoon Hugh & Fiona, hope your both well. We all good thanks, crazy busy with our new abode and family life.. currently planning our plots for growing next year and planting an orchard. Please keep your amazing videos coming. I learn so much and pick up some great tips.
A couple of our Buff Orpingtons will sit on the floor for a while. All of them then go up on the roosting bars for the night. Do you think they're just following the lead of the others? Fun video! Cheers!
I think there is a lot in that, they can certainly perch if they want to
Most informative again, ive just been going over the boot polish vids etc, brilliant. Try some vids on how things used to be done on keeping and remedies etc, careful though you will be creeping into Jack Hargreaves territory lol, but there was certainly nothing wrong with Jack was there. Regards Alan.
Jack made my favourite television for decades - oh to be as good as him! Hugh
Ah very nice. I have 12 buff Orpingtons. They live in a caravan about 2.5 x 5 metres. Their run is is about 10x20 metres and has a large tree in the middle of it. I wonder if their caravan is too big. They sleep on the floor all together except for one who chooses to sleep on top of the large food bin lol.
Buff Orpingtons are fairly hardy as you know, but if it worries you, it would be easy to box off an area with a small entrance that they could warm with their body heat 🙂
@@EnglishCountryLife I was thinking that too. A renovation and rearranging is in order this weekend I think 👍
@@THEMAYQUEEN1 I bet your Orps are like ours in cold weather - one big heap of floofy feathers 🙂
@@EnglishCountryLife yes they are lol they are so cuddly when they let me hug them. I love them 😍
Thank you for the great video! I’ve loved watching your whole series in the lead up to 3 orpingtons joining our family. One question I’ve not been able to find the answer to is: if their coop is raised up and sits within a fully enclosed and predator proof run (7m x 3m for when we can’t free range them), do they need to have a closing pop door, or can it just be an opening? We’re in South Australia so heat is more of an issue than cold here. I’m not sure if they’d be happy with a possibly draughty coop or not 😊
If the run is definitely predator proof then our only concern would be drafts. Ventilation is better high up to avoid birds getting cold, but if there is no risk of that, it should be okay. We know people whose chickens sleep up trees! Hugh
Concerns for auto opener, my neighbour had a hen get caught as the door came down ...sadly she died,
How sad! That must have been a very heavy door 😟. All our doors are either aluminium or light wood. As the door begins to open in the morning the birds put their heads under and just lift the door to be first out - no way they could trap or injure a bird 🙂. If it is a concern, the Omlet autodoor has a built in pressure switch so if it touches anything at all, it detects & reverses.
I`m wondering how this coop can handle the weather, for example, the rain. 🤔
Maybe you should make a video if there a rain, and how situation inside the coop (Where there is a bunch of chicken inside it). 😅
We could do that, which coop do you have in mind?
@@EnglishCountryLife : Maybe the biggest coop? (And the lowest one?). Since the water ripple, or maybe a flood will be impacted in the coop floor, or in the side of the coop.😅
I`m living in a tropical country (Indonesia), even a house has a problem during the rain season, especially a house with very little canopy. So for this case, maybe people wanna see how this coop can handle the rain impact from the side (etcetera) since this coop is made from wood.
Sorry, with so many requests, this just come out from my ideas, because I have never seen any chicken owner on youtube showing the coop condition during the rain (except in winter). 😀
@@HusniArsyah It's an interesting idea, let me think about to film it
Thank you so much. You have been a good help. I have a coop that is up on legs it was a prefab one. Would it be good to cut some holes at the too for circulation. I have read this is important. The coop has slider air windows but it’s right where they roost and I was concerned about drafts. I’m also looking into plastic coops for my new chicks. Thank you again.
You are quite right that high level ventilation is best. I have used a two inch hole cutter to drill holes in one of ours near the roof apex. I put some wire mesh inside and made a small cover with some scrap material and a single bolt. The cover can be twisted to the side to open the vent or pushed down to close it. Simple enough but it works. Hugh
@@EnglishCountryLife you are the best! Thank you much for answering me.
@@CR10.07 Anytime, we love talking to like minded people 😁
Great video! I’m new to the buff breed and have lost one to what I think was a damaged crop. What signs would you say, is a damaged crop? I have 2 females left and just acquired a male buff. One of my females looks like she too may have a damaged crop 😔 she bobs her head as if she’s having trouble swallowing and if suddenly spooked she will vomit. I could really use your help. Thank you
Damaged crops are normally either due to injury (with 2 this is unlikely) or genetics. If the crop doesn't work properly essentially it will become impacted and the chicken won't be able to move food through it's digestive tract.
To allay some fears, it's normal for chickens to stretch their necks in an elongated motion to help move food through their crops. What's not normal is a solid crop so if you see this behaviour a lot it's worth gently feeling when they go to roost and again before you let them out in the morning. The crop is very delicate so it's important to be gentle. If you don't feel a change then please seek veterinary advice as impacted crops are serious.
If you don't think there is an impaction but you'd like to help them with their crop movement try removing all treats for a week only giving them poultry pellets supplemented with some chicken grit and if they are laying, coarse oystershell. That should help.
@@EnglishCountryLife thank you! i do believe it was genetics as I found out later they were inbred. looking at your girls and seeing a difference compared to mine in the eye area tells me they may have some abnormalities, meaning my girls have redness around their eyes. now that may not mean anything, but I wouldn't know. the one who passed away, i thought had more of a soar crop, so I proceeded to treat it. her crop was hard & very full. I treated for a week to no avail. when I feel one of the other girls, i do feel hardness and it seems to hang, and swing as she runs around. i don't have a local vet that does chickens unfortunately. feeling very uncertain. and my male? well either he hasnt been with a girl or he's extremely "active" lol he's a little too rough. i'll be sure to work on him to calm down. lol
Great video! My coop is small and homemade but it is satisfactory, since I only plan to ever have a few chickens at a time. I have an unrelated question about chickens though. My oldest hen currently is about 8 months old and she has gone broody. She doesn't get off the eggs unless I remove her from the nest, and even then, she growls at me and only stays out for about 30-40 minutes before going back to sit on her eggs. She has some of her eggs that I think were fertilized by our rooster back before we rehomed him, and some eggs that I borrowed from a friend, and she sits on the whole clutch all day. Is this normal for a hen of her age? She is a silkie/ameraucana mix.
The hormone that causes a hen to lay eggs is also the hormone that (in much larger quantities) causes them to become broody so if she has laid eggs and the weather conditions/daylight hours are enough, then yes she can go broody. Silkie's and Orpingtons are by far the most notorious chickens for being broody so as a Silkie cross she's probably retained the broody tendencies.
Good luck with the eggs. I hope you have a great hatch rate.
@@EnglishCountryLife Ok thank you for the help!
Hello from Park Hill Oklahoma! We are in year 3 of retirement and totally into chickens cuz they are FUN! We have 4 different breeds. ISA's (9)separate because they came first and the others (21) hatched on the same day and shipped to here. I would like to know why you have so many little coops instead of one coop/run/outdoor space for all? How is it that the hens know where to go when they all like to bunch up? One site said they lay their eggs in one nest because they are easier to protect and hatch. So what keeps them separate? Is this the way you started out so you stuck with it and could build up the flock? Also, I'm wondering how cold your lowest temps are? We can get into the -10's. So we insulated. This is turning out to be a very fun adventure for us. Also, I would move to England in a heartbeat. Country of course
Oh, lots of questions! Fab!
We have lots of little coops because we use the natural broody tendencies of the Orpingtons to hatch eggs. Broody hens have the best success when they have peace and quiet once they have adopted their nest plus as we attach runs to the coops once a broody hen is installed, other hens are closed out. This means that no new eggs are added to the clutch; new eggs won't have enough time to incubate before the brood hens leaves with hatched chicks plus new eggs would risk a viable egg being pushed out of the nest. We have a series following through a broody hen and the first 2 episodes will take you through all of this th-cam.com/play/PLDluIIoNPslcOAqx9uc0EWlAHgG0ID9TP.html
Yes hens like to all lay their eggs in the same place. From an evolutionary point of view it makes sense. A hen can only lay 1 egg per day but can incubate on average around 10-12 eggs. If a hen has to wait 12 days before it can start incubating a clutch (the eggs only start to grow chicks once a broody hen brings the egg up to temperature) that adds 12 days to the period of risk where the eggs could be attacked by a predator so it makes sense for 12 hens to lay 1 egg in the same nest and one of the hens start to brood. Does this make sense?
In winter we go to 2 coops. One for the Orpingtons and one for the egg laying breeds. We only have lots in summer because we multiple clutches. Right now we only have 3 coops in operation because we've sold most of the chickens we hatched in Spring. We have a few more to sell and then we'll close up 1 coop.
Chickens are creatures of habit and generally they will always return to the coop that they know although as the brood hens naturally return to the main coop and make the youngsters independent we do find they sometimes group together. As most of our youngsters were hatched this year within a 10 day window we did have 4 coops merge into 2 and then once we sold most the remaining chickens merged to 1 coop fairly quickly without us having to intervene. Sometimes merging the coops is a bit harder but we have a 4 day process which works quite well to get them used to naturally adopting a new coop in their free range field.
Finally, our lowest temperatures in the day are around 5-7c and night around 0-2c but we will have short drops sometimes at night to -10c or a few years ago -15c but these are generally very short.
Does all of that help?
@@EnglishCountryLife wonderful description - helpful info!
Ohhhhhhh! I have Buff Orpington pullets (for the first time this year) who don't seem to gravitate to the perches. All my other birds, the higher the better. I use 2x4's on flat side so I think it's enough support for them but maybe I should give them their own perch lower and wider. I just don't like them sitting in their own poop at night - can you address that please?
Hi, we did a video on our poop management
th-cam.com/video/Iu0Me4_zGCE/w-d-xo.html
I just installed my Omlet door. And I am look at one of their hen house for a brooder this spring.
I do have a question with the many hen houses you have in the big fenced area, do the hen's pick their own box or do you show them a few times the box you want them to use?
Hi Michael, most of the coops are for broody hens to raise chicks in. When a hen goes broody we pop her in on her own with a small attached run until she adopts that coop (takes a couple of days). She stays in that coop till the chicks are grown then naturally returns to the main coop. We have one large coop for the Orpingtons and another for the other breeds. We choose which coop they go in, but after a few nights they will always return there.
Thank you for the video, I clearly overkilled my coop size by miles, they have a palace and it's only got 3 chickens in it, have you ever experienced lash eggs/salpingitis? and do you have a natural remedy that you use if you do?, thanks again.
Thank you.
We're lucky enough to have had one lash egg in all of our years of chicken keeping and it wasn't repeated or followed by soft-shelled eggs so were comfortable it wasn't caused by a deep seated infection.
With salpingitis it's an infection of the oviduct so there are no natural remedies that will kill infections only provide some extra strength to help fight an infection. Vitamin drops will help provide strength but it's similar to giving soup to ill humans, it makes us feel a bit stronger but it won't kill the virus or bacteria. If you suspect salpingitis and it's on-going, veterinary care will be needed to provide prescription antibiotics to eradicate the infection. Sorry!
@@EnglishCountryLife Thanks for your reply, only had a couple of these unusual things, got antibiotics for it and all is good again, there is so much contradictory info available on the subject thought it best to err with caution thanks for your reply
Thanks once again for the video, I'm looking to replace my girls coop, but am struggling to find a one where the nest box is lower than the perches. On my current one the nest box is higher leading the girls to sleep in it. This can lead to grubby eggs. Any recommendations? I don't have the skills to build myself.
Thanks
Hi Sean, Hugh here. We've had nest boxes that are higher & at the same height & lower and some chickens sleep in it anyway I'm afraid! We eventually removed per he's from the Orpingtons coop and that helped as they just didn't want to perch. The downside is clearly that we have to clean out daily.
@@EnglishCountryLife Hi Hugh, sounds like im going to have to accept they're contrary little buggers then! Am i right in thinking if i want to water glass the eggs they need to be spotless but i can't clean/wash them?
@@seanmckeown6120 That's right, there's a membrane on the outside of the egg that you don't want to remove
Do your chickens decide for themselves where they’ll roost?
Hi! No they are creatures of habit so, once we've got them to roost in a certain coop, they tend to continue roosting there 🙂
I have a question for Fiona, queen of the chicken world or la reine des poules as they say round here. Concerning ventilation in the coop. My coop looks very similar to the coop in the video where the handsome Hugh is talking about materials used to make coops, and it has the sliding ventilation openings at each end. Unfortunately, I have had to block one of them up in order to mount the Titan Cube opener as recommended by the man himself, which by the way is amazingly quiet. So, do I need to cut a new hole in the end with the door, will one vent hole suffice with the door open and how far should the sliding vent be open to give enough ventilation without making it too cold ? Ps. The chickens are arriving on Wednesday. 😲
Hugh was most put out that you only wanted to chat to me (lol).
Anyway, the ventilation is important to allow a circulation of fresh air in the coop so ideally which is most important at night when the door is shut. What we're trying to achieve for the chickens when they sleep is ventilation high up so fresh air replaces stagnant air inside the coop, but it should be as high as possible so as not to create uncomfortable draughts for the chickens.
On that basis, during the day with the door open there will be draughts low down, but the chickens aren't spending much time in there, so at night, you ideally want a vent at opposites ends as high as possible. Otherwise there isn't sufficient air exchange.
In terms of opening the vents, in summer they should be wide open and unless you have chicken breeds that are cold intolerant e.g. frizzles or silkies, or if you only have a small number of chickens in a very large coop, or if the temperatures plummet way below freezing at night, you should have very little need to close the vents.
I hope that helps.
Sorry Hugh, I'm sure that I will have a question for you at some point. Thank you Fiona, that was very helpful, I will now cut a vent hole which I think will squeeze in just above the door opener. Hang on a minute, I did refer to Hugh as 'Handsome Hugh' so he shouldn't be too upset. @@EnglishCountryLife 😄
@@chrishamilton-wearing3232 😁
@@EnglishCountryLife Hello again, sorry to bother you with another question for the Foxy Fiona 😘 Sorry Hugh, it's a beautiful morning here, frosty with pale sunlight just appearing above the hedge line across a misty orchard but alas, all is not well in chickenopolis. Having lost one chicken within 24 hrs we now have a girl with what appears to be an impacted crop. We have done a lot of searching on the net for advice and of course there is a lot of conflicting views on what to do. The most common view is to massage the crop and administer olive oil via a syringe, which was the view of our local vet although they don't have massive experience with chickens. One other thing which is out there is to invert the bird whilst massaging the crop in order to get them to regurgitate, this was on a UK website amongst others, I am always bit sceptical about all the ideas from across the pond. As you are our most trusted authority on chickens can you give us some advice on what to do. We have administered 2 doses of olive oil along with a good massage and the crop does appear to have softened somewhat, and she is isolated from food in a cage about a metre square with a box in one corner for her to cosy up in. There is water and grit, shelter from any wind. However, this is now day 3, we noticed it first on Thursday afternoon, and we are concerned about her starving. Can you give us any advice on what else we can do ? Is the inverting thing the way forward ? Thanks in advance. Chris.
Hi Chris. The only site that I trust for chicken treatment advice on the web is the British Hen Welfare Trust. Why? Well, they actually train vets to provide care for chickens.
The guide to treating impacted crops is here:
www.bhwt.org.uk/hen-health/health-problems/impacted-crop/
I absolutely would not invert the hen.
A few questions:
Was the crop rock hard?
In her isolation cage, were there droppings in the first couple of days?
Are there dropping now?
If the answers are Yes, No and no, she must see a vet asap. She may need surgical intervention to release the crop.
If her crop is full but not hard, make up some watery mash for her (her pellets with lots of hot water. Allow it to cool to a tepid temperature and the pellets will swell and go very soft. This will give her soft food which should move easily through her system.
The key for concerns in impacted crops is, is food still flowing through her system, so in this case poop is your friend. If she poops after the soft food, there is less to worry about.
I'd also recommend checking her body condition index by feeling tghe muscles either side of the keel bone. A guide to what to look for is on the infographic:
www.poultrydvm.com/infographs/chicken_body_condition_score_chart_poultrydvm.jpg
Finally, the crop normally becomes impacted because of long grass or hay or sometimes straw is eaten by the hens and it gets tangled in the crop. If you're not using pet or equine grade wood-shavings, I'd advise changing changing the bedding as soon as possible and strim down any long grass in the area.