The run and coup as seen from the
back porch.
Side view of the coup, showing the
plywood wheels and how it simply buts up against the run
The front wheels are just painted
plywood (pre cut from Home Depot) on a conduit pipe axel. End-caps keep the
wheels on. I spaced the two wheels apart a bit with scrap wood to keep them
from wobbleing. Also, the pipe is only as wide as the coup itself, then a
female to female coupleing is used next to the inside of the wheel with a
short extension through the wheel center and the end cap on the outside.
The rear wheel of the coup is a
swivel. One adult can "easily" push the coup around.
View into the coup from the "working
end." The chicken wire is not visable from the house. We made use of available
resources, including the tree. Notice how the ground slopes up to the back
wall; this was wasted space anyway.
The gate and retaining wall which
forms the back of the run.
I've added a pully, weight (old
paint can), and rope "door closer" so that it always shuts... even when the
kids forget. And two latches (top and middle) so that it always catchs. Chickens
are escape artists in case you didn't know.
Front door of the coup, locked up
for the night. The extra length on the sides makes for a gental ramp when
the door is opened
High speed morning exit!
Looking in the coup, you can see
the wire screen area which is just under the roosting pole. This helps to
keep the pooping while roosting out of the coup. On really cold nights, we
close that space off.
Passing through the girl's front
door and up into the coup, we can see the nesting boxes in the back. They
only use the bottom center one. They all lay their eggs together.
The girls hard at work scratching
and turning the leaves, etc that we shovel in from the top rear. (needs more)
notice the buildup of compost already starting at the bottom. This migrates
down into a garden bed just in front of the run. That compost has NO (none,
nada, zip, zot,) smell of chicken poop.
And this is why we do it! Looking
down into the back of the coup after lifting the lid and moveing one of the
upper nesting boxes forward.
One of the girls come to see what
I'm about. They actually seem to want to roost the other way, with their
tail feathers sticking out the direction "Angel" is looking. (We named one
"Buffy" so of course there had to be an "Angel")
The covered section is actually
just a tarp over some old lattice we had.
