# New coop



## cga

Hi folks. New to this forum and could use some advice on what to do, as well as what not to do, finishing the interior of my new coop. As well as what I need for starting out with new born chicks from the hatchery. It seems that this time of year, you must buy 20 or 25 minimum.

Can't seem to find any White Leghorn chicks right now, but that gives me more time to do it right the first time. Leghorns, because the kids won't eat brown eggs. I'm converting half of my fire wood bins into a chicken coop. For now, it will be 8x10. I've got to use up some wood before I can expand any further, but it will be 8x16 when finished. I plan on using vinyl flooring to cover the plywood floor, and to build the nesting boxes on the exterior. Not sure on the nesting boxes, because of the bear population in my area. The run area, well, I haven't given any thought to that yet.

From the start, to where I an today...............


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## robin416

You might want to consider hot wire around the perimeter if you are concerned about the bears. It certainly looks solid enough but when it involves the power of a bear, who knows?

I would not put the nest boxes on the outside so you questioning that as maybe not the thing to do is right on. A bear could demolish a protrusion like that in nothing flat. And the door swings out, another good bonus. Its a lot harder to push the door in when it doesn't open that way.

This time of the year most hatcheries are not doing much. Its getting too cold to ship day old chicks. So, if you can't find them locally you will probably have to wait until Spring.


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## cga

After seeing a bear go right through my daughters garage door like it was nothing, (next house down from me),I was leery about the exterior nesting boxes. Thanks for the tip on the electric fence.


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## robin416

I've got a double hot wire around the bottom of my chicken pen to run off things like raccoons. I don't have the threat of bears here, hogs? Yep, lots of wild hogs. So far so good. 

It sure sounds like extra steps are going to be needed in keeping your flock safe. Where will the feed be? That's another thing that will have to be under secure wraps.


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## cga

The feed will be stored in a 55 gal. drum/s with a lock ring that secures the lid, in the wood bins for now.


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## cga

Up-date...

Just checked Meyer's web site and they had White Leghorns. So.................


Poultry: Ship
Estimated Arrival Wednesday Nov 13, 2013 through Friday Nov 15, 2013

Merchandise Orders: Standard Shipping
Most shipped in 1-3 business days, and arrive in 10 to 14 business days.*

Our records show that you have ordered the following:
Item#	Description	Qty	Price	Total

WTLM White Leghorn Male 2 $2.11 $4.22
WTLF White Leghorn Female 14 $2.31 $32.34
MRK Marek's (HVT) Vaccination Service 16 $0.53 $8.48

Sub-Total $65.05
Shipping $20.01
Tax	

Total $65.05



I guess I'd better get busy.


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## robin416

Oh, you were getting started birds. I thought you were talking about chicks. 

Hate to do this but you should probably order two females if you can. Just in case. If you lose one that means the one left is alone with no companion and chickens really stress over being alone.


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## cga

I ordered 14 hens and 2 roosters.


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## robin416

Duh, I just saw that. That's going to be really tight. What I would do since you don't want that many is to advertise. I did that with Guineas, in one day someone was there to buy the extras.


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## cga

By the time they are ready to be put in the coop, it should be 10x16, not 8x16 as I stated earlier. Will that be enough room for 16 chickens?

Also, the only chick starter feed here is from Tractor Supply. Is DuMor 20% good or should I try to find something else.


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## robin416

It should provide them with a good amount of floor space for those times they have to be up. That's of course assuming my math is right. Your building will be 160 square feet, multiply the number of birds times 4 comes out to 64 square feet needed.

I started a lot of chicks on Dumor. Watch your dates on the bottom tape, TSC buys in to the six month thing for it being time to restock. Taking in to account that the minimal amount of requirements are part of the recipe and that vitamins begin to lose their potency quickly, at six months chances are the feed will not provide all that they need. Also, watch for fines. A ton of fines in a bag is not acceptable and you shouldn't have to pay for wasted product.

Is there a co-op any where near you? That is one place you can be assured that the feed is fresh. I used grower flight conditioner on all of my birds, adults and chicks alike. That will give you back up should TSC not be filling your needs.


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## kessy09

cga said:


> By the time they are ready to be put in the coop, it should be 10x16, not 8x16 as I stated earlier. Will that be enough room for 16 chickens? Also, the only chick starter feed here is from Tractor Supply. Is DuMor 20% good or should I try to find something else.


Even 8x16 gives you enough space for 16 chickens. Mind you, it isn't as big as some people like but the recommendation is about 4 sq ft per bird. You have to subtract floor space being taken up by roost ladders, waterers etc but if it's all free floor space that's 5 sq feet per bird so you should be more than fine. 10x16 gives you tonnes of space.


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## cga

Thank you for the replies.

Not sure of any co-ops, but the Mennonite Church has a feed store in town that I forgot about. I will check to see what brand they carry. I do know that everything is delivered there in bags. They don't mix it themselves.

I have a planner in my garage and can make my own wood shavings. It's pretty fine. Can I use that for bedding, or should I buy the larger chips from Tractor Supply?


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## kessy09

cga said:


> Thank you for the replies. Not sure of any co-ops, but the Mennonite Church has a feed store in town that I forgot about. I will check to see what brand they carry. I do know that everything is delivered there in bags. They don't mix it themselves. I have a planner in my garage and can make my own wood shavings. It's pretty fine. Can I use that for bedding, or should I buy the larger chips from Tractor Supply?


You can use the wood chips. Is it fine like sawdust ? Because then that may not be a good idea. I imagine that would be really dusty. I was buying bags and bags of pine shavings but then I read on here to use leaf litter. So I switched and it's fantastic, also free. All my neighbors and friends know now that I want their leaves so they save them up in bags for me. I have more than enough to take me to next fall now.


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## cga

The wood shavings are fine, and there is a fair amount of dust mixed in. Off of the jointer, they are a lot coarser and very little dust, if any.

Great news on using leaves. I make a lot of compost each year and have a very large quantity of leaves in contractor bags right now. How fine should they be chopped? What I have chopped right now, is approximately 1/2'' in dia. and smaller. Mostly Maple.


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## cga

Well Poop............

Meyers just called me and said they don't have any Leghorns?????? 

Said they had them this morning. They had 90+ hens/ 100+ straight run/ 100+roosters. Order was confirmed and dinged the credit card. 

And I just got this e-mail..

''This is an urgent message from Meyer Hatchery about your baby chick order number 350300. There is a problem fulfilling your order. Please call us immediately at 419-928-0107 or 888-568-9755 X309 so we can discuss this matter and fill your order today. We have a number of substitute breeds to offer.

Please note, this is a time sensitive issue and we must speak with you before 2:00 PM EST today to resolve the matter, otherwise we will have to use our best judgment, and either ship your order short, reschedule for another shipping date or cancel the order.

Understand we are dealing with live poultry. Despite going against the old saying, we make every attempt to accurately count our chicks before they hatch. Due to many factors the amount of chicks that actually hatch is not always in line with what we predicted. Also, with shipping live poultry comes a very short window of time to get them into the mail stream. Your quick response and understanding is appreciated to help us meet our mailing deadline.

We are sorry we aren't able to fulfill your order as originally scheduled, but look forward to speaking with you to find a resolution''.

Thank you.

Meyer Hatchery



I passed on their substitute. Back to square one.


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## robin416

That's odd. How can anyone mess an inventory up that badly? I suspect something else is going on.


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## cga

robin416 said:


> That's odd. How can anyone mess an inventory up that badly? I suspect something else is going on.


Something's not right, for sure.


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## kessy09

cga said:


> The wood shavings are fine, and there is a fair amount of dust mixed in. Off of the jointer, they are a lot coarser and very little dust, if any. Great news on using leaves. I make a lot of compost each year and have a very large quantity of leaves in contractor bags right now. How fine should they be chopped? What I have chopped right now, is approximately 1/2'' in dia. and smaller. Mostly Maple.


I use all sorts of sizes of leaves. Sometimes full (straight from being raked into the coop) and some have been totally shred to pieces. I throw everything in there-branches, pine cones, needles from old spruce tree...they really like it-always digging around in it. It's good to develop a good thick layer and when it warms up it will start to compost. You can just turn it or throw some scratch in there to get the chickens to claw it all around and that mixes the poop right in. The poop will also start composting and be excellent for your garden next year. You can keep the deep litter/compost going and by next winter it will be such an active compost it will be hot enough to help to keep them toasty in the winter. I've had my deep litter going for five months now. Haven't cleaned it once-just kept turning and topping up with fresh stuff and you can't smell a thing in there. People who've come to buy birds from us are amazed at how fresh/woodsy it smells.


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## kessy09

Ps-sorry about your weird order. I bet they had some sort of incident and lost the whole batch of chicks they were hoping to hatch today. Power outages, incompetent staff, faulty temperature/humidity controls could all be a factor in why their hatch rate was so off compared to what they were expecting. Maybe see if there's any breeders in the warmer parts of the country willing to ship chicks to you. More likely to get better stock that way anyway and I know there are people who are hatching year round.


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## cga

Today I'm going to build the nesting boxes and roosts. How do you determine the size of nesting boxes? I see sizes from 16''x16'' 14''x14'' to milk crates and 5 gal. buckets, ect.

I'm going to steal leviparkers idea (thanks) using stair stringers and 2x4's for perches.


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## TheLazyL

robin416 said:


> That's odd. How can anyone mess an inventory up that badly? I suspect something else is going on.


****?

Incubator died?

Grandchild playing unplugged the....?

Working tripped when moving the eggs from one incubator to the other?


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## robin416

TheLazyL said:


> ****?
> 
> Incubator died?
> 
> Grandchild playing unplugged the....?
> 
> Working tripped when moving the eggs from one incubator to the other?


When it comes to McMurray you have to think a hundred times larger than grandchild unplugging bator.

They have had a health issue in the past. Unfortunately that problem was not realized until after thousands of chicks had been shipped out.


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## cga

Finally got some chicks last Friday. Myers Hatchery, here in Pa. had them. But I had to order a min. of 25. So I ordered 26, 12 brown and 12 white Leghorn hens, and one of each color, roosters. They added 4 extra free of charge, for a total of 30. One died 2 days later, but the rest are doing fine. Their brooder is approx. 4'x12' and they are having a great time in there. They run from room to room, flapping their wings and jumping over each other. Fun to watch. Coops almost finished, it's 10'x16' now.

Not all turned out for the photo. A video camera, upper left, is linked to a monitor in the house.







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Inside the coop, it's 32*. But, nice and warm inside the brooder boxes.







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A little blurred, sorry.







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Sliding back door. Need to get the fencing up. It will be 6' chain link with a
cover over the run. 







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## robin416

Look at the snow and ice. You really got pounded from the looks of it. 

You changed the door? Does it still swing out? I can't tell from the pic. If you run hot wire around the outside of the pen it will keep bears away. I've got two strands to keep other critters away from mine.


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## cga

Didn't change the door, it's a little blurry.(take the picture and wait for the flash) Still swings outward. Bear season just ended here Wednesday. I hope they thinned them out, a lot! They will be hibernating now. I probably will be using some sort of electrical fencing, but not sure what type, just yet.


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## cga

Surprise!!--------- The bears are 'NOT' hibernating yet.-------- I just went over to the coop to check on the chicks(with the lights off) and walked right into this big ole fat bear. Yeah, I was startled. I yelled at him and he ran about 10 feet to a Oak tree next to the coop. He went up about 4 feet and stopped. So I nailed him in the ribs with a hard packed snowball. He just looked at me, like, is that the best you can do? My daughter said "that was a nice touch, dad". She's a math teacher, whats' she know?
Anyways, I went back in and got a flash light, camera and shotgun. Here is my hand print by his foot print.


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## robin416

I don't know how to respond, shock, relief, or perfect timing is zipping through my head. I guess its all three. 

Its a darned good thing you decided to check on them. No telling what the bear could have gotten in to. Next time please put some lights on before you cause us all to have a heart attack. Maybe a baby monitor would be a good idea. Place the remote one outside under cover so you can hear if something is going on out there.

The seasons have been so messed up the past few years you might be seeing more of this late hibernation thing happening.


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## cga

We have this setting on the bar. It's quite hilarious to watch them.


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## cga

The coop is almost finished. Got a window put in the front today, and got some primer on the exposed plywood. Now I need to get two windows on the back side, and a small clean out door to shovel out the dirty litter. I also insulated the ceiling.










What the chickens will see.


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## robin416

A room with a view. LOL

What are is the next step for bear proofing those windows? Can you tell I obsess over stuff like that. Until I got my hot wire up I worried all night long about my flock.


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## cga

Heavy duty frame on the inside covered with heavy gauge, 1/4'' hardware cloth. Or, on the outside if I can make it look half way decent.
Inside and hinged would be better for me. If at all possible.


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