I wasn’t going to do a tour of our chicken coop as we’re about to pull it down, but before we do, I thought I’d share the existing suburban chicken coop setup. In this video I go through things that didn’t work, problems we’ve had with raising chickens, things I’d do differently, breeds we’ve had, how we integrate chickens with our vegetable garden and ideas for our future coop.
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11 Comments
Great video mate, good to see how others have their set up. Cheers.
I highly recommend using the metal chicken nipples for watering. I have a few screwed into a length of 90mm storm water PVC. No cleaning as its essentially a sealed setup. Love your vids 😊
Love your chookies. Cannot have chickens where I rent. I miss my chookies. 💐😍
Deco granite as chicken base with deep litter system .bell water system
I don't have chickens but I would do anything to have them sadly. I watch a lot of chicken raising youtube channels along with Vege Gardening/ Homesteading & there is quite a lot of people that have now moved on to using sand as it absorbs their urine & droppings clump instead of getting soggy in hay/straw. It can then be thrown easily into your mulch pile & works well in the garden beds. Cheers Denise at Geebung, Brisbane. 😃😃
Straw is my favourite on a soil /clay base. It does get a bit muddy outside in enclosed run in the winter but if they are out free ranging that won’t be a problem. Straw keeps internal area nice and is great for vegie patch. I have 30 chooks.
😆 I was wondering about the fence height. Our naughty crew would be out of there, wreaking havoc, in 5 minutes (apart from our pendulous lavender girls 😆) I've got a photo somewhere of our OG's perched on a fence exactly like this one, at my old place, in spite of their clipped wings 😂
Love the overall idea though! We're currently re-doing our chicken areas (almost finished 😵💫😅) and have fenced off in a similar fashion. It's wider though, but only because it was an existing garden bed with large trees.
We've gone metal for the primary run and chicken house now too, after the old one rotted out. Sand as bedding too, and yes, we've also gone with extra roof covering over the run, due to the deluges we get 🫠
I love my chookies. We use woodchips in the base of our coop and it really helps with the smell. We have 8 chickens. I don't think we have any problems with rats and mice due to having a cat and two dogs. We have Isa Brown chooks that lay really well and they are super friendly.
I dont use a base, we have ours on large star pickets to raise it with walls around the roosts to protect from the elements but open from the bottom which makes cleaning so easy and gives great air flow.
I use either mulch or straw as bedding and put it directly onto the garden as mulch…. ive never noticed an issue 🤷♀️ you're in good company. Everyone says it will burn the plants but I love it.
We have 6 chooks on our 600m2 suburban block on the Southside of Brisbane – they are about 2 years old. I have a wooden flat pack that is doing the job at the moment. But my dream is a metal coop and run. Currently we use wood chips in the actual coop, winter I clean weekly but as the days are now longer I find cleaning almost fortnightly works. I scatter a small amount of poultry dust before putting down the wood chips helps with insects. (We had a mite infestation when Indian mynas took over our yard last year) In the actual run we use hay every so often. I really don’t like our wooden frame as the chooks like to dig themselves dusting holes we get holes near the side of the run. I like the idea of digging down, laying some pavers then putting sand on top.
Love your cookies. We don't currently have chooks, and I'm not sure we will get them again. My kids are big teens now, and I am currently enjoying not having pets, but things may change as my husband is keen. I love all the plants you have planted along the run. I agree about the fence line being a highway for rodents. I always found 4 chooks sufficient for a family of 4, enough for baking and for breakfast. 😂