Building a CHICKEN COOP on our Tennessee Homestead 🐓
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- čas přidán 11. 09. 2024
- With the pickup day for our chickens around the corner, it was time for us to start building our DIY Chicken Coop here on our Tennessee homestead. We went with a large but affordable design and reused as many materials as possible during this build.
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#homestead #chickencoop #tennessee
Hello from North Tennessee!!. Here is my advice when you first get your chicken get a small cow bell. And a bag of meal worms. The 2 weeks you plan to keep them in the coop. Give them a few meal worm everyday but first ring the bell it gets them trained to that sound. Every time you give them a treat ring it. So as u know Tennessee can get some bad storms mid day. So if the chickens are out and about on the property and an emergency happens or a bad storm and you can ring the bell and they will come to where ever you are. To get them safe. It works great.
I do something similar, I use soldier fly larva in a big plastic container that sounds like a drum. Every time I tap on it, they come running .
I love this idea. Chickens are smart. I don't have any chickens but do feed wild birds. They recognize me and go crazy when I go outside.
30 year chicken owners here. You did a good job. I'd paint the inside too though so you can hose it out at least quarterly to keep mites and things away. Most of your predators will be at night. Hawks during the day. Those feeders are fine when they are bigger but mine eat off the ground. Will need an alternate plan if you are getting biddies. You are right. When I had 30 chickens, they used 2 nesting boxes. When I had 10, they used 2 nesting boxes. Welcome to the crazy chicken owner's club.
Hey guys, just a heads up. The 2x4’s for roost is to wide. They need to be able to wrap their feet around the roost. Best is limbs from the woods with bark. It’s what we use and cheap to replace lol
They could put it sideways so the chickens are roosting on the 2” edge.
@@Geema2004 yes but they can’t wrap feet around it it’s a balance/grip thing when sleeping on perch
Rounded edges might be good, but what I am seeing on searches shows 4 inches wide preferably. I guess the bird rests on it like a nest rather than a limb maybe????
@@jeffer2350 just know it’s what we used for generations was limbs around 2” circumference. 🤷♀️
@@simplyme6558 We raised chickens for years and yes it's best for the bird to have a round one to roost on. You want your chickens to lay more eggs and do their thing, why not give them what's more natural to the bird. Nature provides branches 😊
Chicken Wire to contain chickens, heavier wire to keep predators away. Give 4 - 6 feet between fences.
Lookin' good, Y'all! Find you a piece of linoleum for the floor for the easiest cleaning. Maybe call a flooring store for scraps.
Chicken dig hole almost more than a dog. They use it for a dust bath. While they are enclosed a dust bath will save you from twisted ankles and keep them from pests.
With nine hens, you'll get a TON of eggs! Chickens are easy. Just keep anything from killing them, feed them all your food scraps plus good, high protein layer feed and provide ground oyster shells. Check for snakes in the nest boxes before sticking your hand in there to collect eggs. Provide a dust bath with equal parts fine wood ash and diatomaceous earth. Also helps with mites in the hot months. I think that's all i know about chickens 😊
I cook a dry bag of pinto beans and just before done I put 1 bag egg noodles in and cook until tender.let stand overnight in refrigerator. It helps for laying more eggs and will even lay in the winter. I have 5 hens and 1 rooster.I get about 22 to 27 eggs a week. And before that I only got 11 eggs a week or less.I Have 2 hens that lay in the morning 🌄 and 3 hens that lay at night.
One thing I would definitely add it’s to put a frame around that wire on the windows to keep raccoons and possums from just pushing through and popping that wire out and getting in. If y’all have any spare linoleum you could put in on the bottom of the coop to make clean out even easier also
Oh boy! Fresh chickens! Yummy. Weasels love fresh chickens. So do foxes, coyotes, and yes skunks love fresh eggs. Even racoons. So be mindful of the hazards of fresh foul.Ken
@RunawayMattCass it is absolutely gorgeous, I love how it came out. Beautiful job torching the wood it is so professionally done 🙂
Awesome job you two. You’re killing it!!!!!!!!
I just wanted to come on here and say you guys are Amazing 😊 keep up the Awesome work
suggestion put sheet vinyl on coop floor.....use a strip to seal nesting box hood....
Matt & Cass I think you should put saw dust on the bottom of the coop, this will allow cleaning more easier and can use as mulch for the garden 🇯🇲💯
❤ your creativity. We also use the burn style on our wood projects . With the placement of the front windows it almost looks like the coop is Smiling 😊!!!
I suggest using a vinyl floor and hemp so you don't have to clean the coop. Do a deep litter method by adding on top as odor is noticeable. I still have mine for a year so far, no smell. I'm pushing for two years and should make a nice compost material. It cost me 60$ from Carolina Coops, that includes shipping. So far, last year I spent 120$. I bought 4 new 33lb boxes that should last me. I'm getting 25 new chicks next week to add to my flock. I started with 21 and am down to 4 hens, 1 roo because of predator attacks. I just ordered premier fencing and hope it keeps the stray dogs and foxes, coyotes out. Hawks are another concern, you can string across your area to prevent them swooping in for lunch. I am following that advice from another chicken keeper. Wish you guys luck, I love mine.
If yall go another route on the bedding, I would be interested in what the cost is compared to hemp. I like not having to clean the coop. I shoveled mine out of my brooder to add back into the coop. I start out fresh for the chicks. The great thing about your coop is chickens can hide from overhead predators, roosters are great alarms.
Enjoying your channel and all the adventures, good luck from an E. TENNESSEEAN Up Greeneville way.
Linoleum the bottom of the boxes if you can. Just makes clean up easier. Also, i have a metal roof. It leaked. My fix was my husband put a coat of roll on waterproof coating on top. It's used for RV's. Did an amazing job. Being in Az its 110 degrees in the summer and it sure helps cool the coop. I also have a mister system on a timer for my girls.
Loving what you are doing with the coop. Looks very nice. I think the chickens are going to like there coop.Will look very nice by the time it's all made. Can't wait to see it. On the next video.😊
Great job on the coop and kudos for repurposing the solar crates. If you get a chance check out "The Hollar Homestead" channel and check out how Ben uses his chickens to produce mulch. He has a great system that yields a good amount in a short time. Again, great job!!
You all are doing a great job setting up your homestead. Chickens also do a great job with eating yard insects and pests, you may want to consider putting in wheels so it can be towed around to help keep down the ticks and other buggy critter.
Carol and I had chickens in Texas before we moved to Georgia and it was our first time as well. Our yard was cleared of weeds and bugs in a part of the country where both dominate due to the long growing season.
Chicken owner here - in our experience, yes, they will try to use (and fight for,) the same two or three boxes; however, if you don't have enough other boxes to accomodate the losers, it can lead to pecking issues... just our two cents. :)
Looks nice good job On our nesting box, I made the back hinge down so the roof could be sealed and to allow for easier clean outs.
#1 protect your hens from predators. #2 get a rooster! He will help with protecting his hens and he will keep them in a group if danger is near. #3 put a roof on your run. Wire is fine as long as nothing can get in. Birds of prey will swoop in and steal your hens. #4 cover the bottom and keep predators from digging under. Hens are most variable at night while resting. Free ranging is fine as long as you are diligent. If your dogs don't bother them , they should be abe to provide protection. Geese will also work wonders in that dept as well. Geese can be pretty territorial. Good luck in your latest project 👍
Snakes and rats can fit in that gap at the top. I only had one place with a gap like that in my coop. I went out one morning to find a 6ft black snake had been eating my silkie chicks and couldn't fit back out the hole. It killed 5 chicks more than it could even eat. So I got some of those grabbers you pick up trash with and a a pet carrier and caught it.i left it in the carrier for 3 days thinking it would be mad and never come back. I was wrong it bought its whole family now I had 4. Had to take action only one made it out and I've never seen it again. 😢 under your coop is a good place for dust bathes. Pour sand there and they love it. It stays dry for lots of dust.
I love chickens I've had mine about 15 years there's really not a wrong way of taking care of them just plenty of fresh water and food, your coop is neat, my chickens roost very close together. They will eat almost anything, they love cooked pasta/noodles, cooked rice, any type bread, scraps. Good luck they are little gems, I've read different types of do's and don'ts but I tend my chickens my own way and they do fine, you'll learn your own way as you go...🙂 Also be very mindful of predators with the free ranging some are very brazen even with it being day time..
Coop looks great!
👊😜👍
Predators will dig right under that netting make sure you go down into the ground with it a few inces to keep the preditors from getting in. Being in the woods your chickens are more prone to getting killed. I would also consider doubling up on the poultry netting raccoons can attack through that netting and snatch a chickens neck. Get some rubberized sheeting to cover your nesting box lid to the main structure. It will get wet inside even with an over hang.
U two are awesome keep up the great videos
Great job building your chicken coop
Been skimming through some of the drama surrounding your cabin. It would seem as though TN prohibits converting a "ready removable" building into a dwelling. So follow along. Sometime years ago Mississippi legalized riverboat gambling, but normal casinos structures were outlawed. To get around this, they dug out small lagoons connected to the Mississippi river, built their casinos on barges, and set the barges down on top of wooden pylons, but the hotels were actually built on land. See where I'm going with this? All you need is a small holding pond just barely bigger than the cabin and deep enough to float it, put some pontoons under it, and a trolling motor on the back. Get in touch with the TWRA, and obtain a Hull Identification Number. Congratulations, your ready removable building now legally identifies as a BOAT. Get a temporary electrical service and run your cabin off shore power and connect to septic via a big hose. Problem solved.
should have put nesting boxes off the floor,so the other chickens dont poop in them,and also to keep mice and field rats out.great job.
Thanks
!!! Matt... at 7.35 you say "it's working pretty good"... well I heard someone say "great, I am getting hungry" IT IS A FOX in the bushes...
You should probably add a strip a rubber to the top of you roosting box door. rain hitting the side will run into the coop. If you have an old innertube or a cheap bike tire tube from Walmart.
Good idea. And Tennessee rain is sometimes partially sideways so it will happen.
if u get a turkey in say feb or march u can have a home turkey for thanksgiving
That's an interesting homesteading deal: buy solar panels and get a chicken coop. Your chickens will be so zen in their shou sugi ban coop. The beard is looking great, and so is Matt's.
😂
Keep the girls from sleeping in the nesting boxes it keeps the eggs clean, so open nesting box during the day closed at night
Not sure how the snakes are where you're at, but in NC the black snakes will go after your eggs. I would like at covering up every bit of openings that you can. Whether with hardware cloth or something else. They can fit in some small areas.
I believe you should have turned the 2x4 roost boards the other way. The chickens need to wrap their claws around them.
Chicken lady vs grizzly Adam’s…got my money on chicken lady lol. Yall are so funny. Also maybe for temporary you could put a chain with a hook clasp on outside and when flip door up have chain hook into an eyelet on door?
Vinyal flooring might make for easier cleaning. Great episode. Farm is really shaping up! Love keeping up with your videos. Huge love from Wisconsin ❤
Need to be mindful and prepare for predators from above. Not much overhang. What about driving rain and snow?🇦🇺
Absolutely love your enthusiasm! Great episode!
I would have used T-11 instead. I would also get a couple of Peacocks, mine would make a certain warning scream when predators arrived.
Great video Matt and Cass
Make sure your fence goes down into the ground, like a burried " L" , so fox or coyote's can't dig under it and get your chickens!
Linoleum flooring with wood shavings would be easier to keep clean.
Also my hens only use 2 nesting boxes.I have 6 nesting boxes and hens take out hay in 4 boxes. I got tired of refilling the 4 nesting boxes.
Nice job on the budget coop. I suggest you plant Apple, Pecan and Walnut trees as soon as possible. All three should grow great there and provide more food than you will be able to eat.
Thanks so much! We have 2 apple trees going and 2 chestnuts. Matt loves Pecans so that will be next to plant :)
@@RunawayMattCass Don't forget that planting income producing crops or crops that you can barter for things you need is beneficial as well. Is there a local co-op? If not, can you start one?
Looks good 👍
AWESOME AWESOME job 💯♥️♥️
Cheers from BC Canada start getting some good pickled egg recipes
The droppings!!! It's metal steel!!!!
get the lil red watering cups w the yellow peck valve things. they got w 1/2 inch pvc and can be gravity fed easily. bowls they knock over and poop in ALOT, plus it saves water
Looks good
would still like to come up there and hang out for a weekend, love what ya'll are doing...It would be (probably Friday night and Saturday night , (as i am in extremes SW corner of Tennessee, Memphis) and i would head back home sunday morning.... i have my own place to stay ,a 2020 Jeep Gladiator Rubicon overlanding rig, with roof top tent, fridge , cooker , Anker battery/power supply etc. let me know if this is acceptable or not..would love to figure out and maybe solve some of the the world's problems around a camp fire (and maybe have at least one of those beers you just recently brewed) i will bring some of my own store bought too ...
I did see the dogs licking their lips and saying yum yum….
You can use a piece of flexible weather strip making for a water tight hinge down the nesting box. In as far as ground contact and pressure treated wood as long as water can't pool tends to be ok. The roof, I've never had good lick with the white vinyl washer deal, they nearly always end up leaking on me. I used the ones that are already assembled that have a soft black rubber contact point and they have a "Mash Cap" atop the rubber.
We've camp in Western NY, two years back I bought metal roofing from a place that manufacturers it about 40 miles distant from our camp. So when they delivered it they told me due to the amount torrential rains that happen now and again in "The Wine Country" to affix on the ribs. They actually have a barrier material that goes under the ribs but told me I could use a thick bead of good silicon (heat rated, metal roof get real hot in direct sunlight) along the ribs. I was told basically in heavy rain that the roof will flood hence putting the screws into the ribs versus panel point where they'd be submerged and would likely leak if not immediately over time. Also the reason for the silicon bead as where the panels overlap as the roof floods the water via capillary action can leach up over the ribs and pour in.
Last season OH MY GOSH did we have some heavy rains, I mean, HEAVY rain and all was good. Yet a fella who had a canopy built by a contractor over his camper and deck ($12,000 worth of it!) guess what? Yep... Drips from the metal roof panels, the contractor mounted them like you have. So keep an eye on it. If it does leak all is not lost. You can go to Lowes and they have a black roofing seal stuff, like $20. Take the existing screws out, widen out the holes a little bit where the screws were and goop some of that roof seal in. Enough that when you put the panels back up it "squishes" through the old screw holes, then remount putting the screws into the ribs.
I also use whatever seems come in handy preferably at no cost LOL. So towards that end start collecting freight pallets as you see them. You can make just buckets of things out of them and you'll find many a youtube video of how. There's a fella at camp who made a settee surround their firepit all from pallet wood and its just gorgeous, I'd guess if one were to try buy something like it be over $2000 and he got the details on youTube.
Nice
Home depot's got a Gray rubber sheet. You can take and put about 2 inches up on the side of your purge. Come across your doors and that would be just don't cut it at the hinges. Just come down and leave a little bit of loop a humper and then come right across your hinges with a little hump. That way you can raise it up-and-down and you'll be fine. You won't have to worry about it. I did mine, but if you're worried about it, put a little 10 on it. Just leave about an inch gap between the scoop and the metal. That way when you flip it up, it'll turn
"Kyle's Cabin" raises chickens on his off grid land in Minnesota so you might want to look at some of his videos of his chicken coop and how he free ranges them, especially in winter. They have a bunch of them, and have a walk in coop. They have more issues with foxes than anything but look up all their predators as they get attacked from many ground animals and from the air.
And if you had to have more nesting boxes, just go above. Then other nesting boxes put another cut. Another hole in. Put your nesting box in and just put a couple of rails up there. Roosting rails up there to where they can jump on each roosting rail and get up to the second set of nesting boxes
Put vinyl flooring down, it will make clean up a breeze.
Beautiful job! If you want to waterproof the hinge on the laying box, you can use a bicycle innertube cut open, then install a piano hinge on top of the innertube. I did this on my teardrop camper that I built several years ago and it worked great.
Your neighbor in Chattanooga, BigJim
Good job y’all it looks great! I use dog kennels with chain link over the top I’ve scavenged over the years to keep the hawks out of the run.
Thanks so much! That is a great idea. We have been chasing the hawks off as much as we can.
put some linoleum down so your floor don't rot works great
Hey, good afternoon, how you guys doing today like?What you guys are doing?Keep up the good work.I like your chicken cage.Get together tonighter have a good day
String with a loop to hang doors open
Great idea for the interim until we get the solar door
you know I did not like you to start with I was thinking you were stoners but I stay to see what the truth is and now you have growen on me you are on to it and very smart love you stay safe later
Looking forward to meeting the new girls!!! Blessings from Oregon.
Here it goes (arm chair quarterback) - Predator pad - concrete Cap block and 11 x 11 concrete squares to build out the base and put the coop up on it - and then ANCHOR the coop, the wind will be an issue. Then under it - that is going to be a B to clean out under as low as it is. The door to nesting boxes, will leak down the walls into the nesting boxes. Put metal roofing on it with a J-Channel above it. Or make the door a roof and have a drop down door to get to the nesting boxes. My issues with mine is cleaning and keeping it fresh, and really want a walkin coop and will work in that direction. Mine are in a poultry pen with a predator roof and concrete cap block predator pad. So far so good. Yet, the Hawks know where we live and visit each evening about 6 pm-ish. I saw it this morning, flying south towards the ridge line, knowing it will be back. Everything loves chickens, and you if given the chance. Good luck with the coop and hope it all goes well. Also one chicken = 999999999999999 chickens, just saying.
❤
some golf ball will help when you get no eggs
The only thing you gotta worry about is coyotes dogs c**** Anything that's gonna attack a chicken chicken Hawks. You know just things like that
All 10 of my birds use the same nesting box. Sometimes, I see 3 girls in the box at the same time.
Brock. Brock. Brock. We got an egg
Awesome video God Bless you and your family Amen
Thanks for being here on our journey!
🐓🐔🐓🐔🐓
Looking good
Thanks so much! We are so excited to get our gals
Yall might want to put a couple logs or timbers under the footing... looks great !!
That is a great idea!
Ya have to give them air & lite don't close them up completly
One bad thing about free range is losing lots of eggs, they will lay wherever
Just curious why you’re not putting chicken wire on the front of the coop, just figured most people would wanna be able to watch them while they’re cooped up
👌👌👌👍
The roosting 2x4 is not good checkens any bird really feet are designed to wrap around it is not good for a flat roost. The floor you may want to get some vinyl floor the poo the most at night.
This tip has nothing to do with the chicken coop but as someone with a lot of family that does work kneeling down a lot 😅. Get some knee pads they may seem dumb but in 20 years. You will be grateful.
Be ready to expand or build a second coop. Beware of Chicken Math! Chickens are the gateway animal, and more will come. To keep predators out, I suggest electrified solar-charged Chicken netting. Will you be adding an automatic door? If you don't put the bars across the ramp, it becomes a chicken slide. Potentially problematic.
Set up a steel cage
If you want some good authentic information on chickens check out Chrissy at Paragon Ranch in Oklahoma on CZcams. She's awesome and knows her stuff!!!
Will definitely have to check her out. Thanks for the recommendation. See you on the next video!
Guinea hens are great for eating ticks ,fleas and other rodents but are annoyingly noisy.
feed and water OUTSIDE....otherwise theyll make a complete mess inside and the pee and spilled water will warp and rot the floor making cleaning harder
Way to reuse. It’ll still degrade over time, but not for a while. Mentally prepare for loss. One or more will get killed by predators at some point….chicken hawks, raccoons, skunks, snakes, etc. Might want to have some dangling items like CDs or something to deter aerial predators. Roosters aren’t omnipotent. You’ll learn as you go. I’m assuming these aren’t meat birds and are layers. Being free range, don’t expect them to use the nesting boxes all the time. Egg hunts can be fun. Haha. Keep on keeping up the good work.
guiney birds r carzy noisy but good at alerting to danger....i despise guiney fowl. neighbors had some.
SCREEN EVERY hole...snakes can get in to...rats also...
You might want to anchor that big wind catcher of a chicken shed to the ground in case of a heavy wind. Don't want that thing flying around all over the property spewing feathers all over the place. Ask me how I know this. I've seen much bigger things than your coop blown around like a house of cards. A "Flap Seal" is what you want for the nesting box lid. It goes under the hinges and you should add two more hinges to that lid. It will keep the lid straight over a much longer period of time. One last thing. Raising chickens is not rocket science. Your worst enemy is other birds getting in there with disease and parasites. So inspect your chickens thoroughly and regularly for parasites. Keep the coop floor clean and make sure they always have plenty of water. Don't read too much other "science" into the picture. Now predators is a whole nuther subject....
another thing is dont over extend yerselves w daily chores and money needed to buy feed. when u start the big house every 15 min chore takes away from house buildin time and the money part is self explanatory
Put chicken
I'm sorry I had a stroke