McMurray Hatchery Blog

First Place

The first place winner is Maria Beason. She won a $100 Murray McMurray Gift Certificate for her photo of “The Chicken Mansion.”

Photo by Maria Beason

To see photos of the inside of Maria’s chicken coop, along with more information about the coop, visit the link below:

Chicken Coop Photos and Description from Maria Beason

Second Place

The second place winner is Cindy Benkert, with her photo of this lovely “Egg Yolk Yellow” chicken coop designed and built by her husband Dale. She won a $50 Murray McMurray Gift Certificate.

Photo by Cindy Benkert

To read more about this chicken coop and photos showing the inside of the coop, visit the link below:

Chicken Coop Photos and Description from Cindy Benkert

Third Place

The third place winner is Jennifer Gallus, for her photo of this elegant, round-top chicken coop designed and built by her husband, who is a carpenter, with the help of several other family members.  She won a $25 Murray McMurray Gift Certificate.

Photo by Jennifer Gallus

To learn more about the coop, visit the link below:

Chicken Coop Photo and Description from Jennifer Gallus

Other Photo Contests

To see information and announcements about our other poultry-related photo contests, visit the link below:

2011 Photo Contests

The Chicken Mansion - Photo by Maria Beason

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Maria Beason for winning first place in the Poultry Housing Photo Contest, with her photo of “The Chicken Mansion.” She won a $100 Murray McMurray Hatchery gift certificate.

Size and Description of the Chicken Coop

Maria’s husband, who is also a homebuilder, designed and built this impressive chicken coop. It has two floors. The bottom floor is nearly 400 square feet and is partitioned into a number or separate pens and chicken runs. The Beasons keep a number of different breeds of chickens, include bantams, Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orpingtons, Red Stars, Black Australorps, White Rocks, and Cornish X Rocks, each within a separate pen in the large chicken house. All of Maria’s chickens were ordered from Murray McMurray Hatchery.

The Upper Floor

The upper floor contains brooders, hatching equipment, and a sink.

Winter Use

The Chicken Mansion is well insulated, and with a small electric heater, Maria can keep the temperature inside the coop at or above 50° F throughout the winter, which helps the hens to lay well during winter.

Automatic Waterers

Inside the coop, Maria uses automatic water bowls.  These together with feeders provide enough water and food for the chickens to go 3-4 days between refills.

Other Photos of The Coop

Click any of the photos in the gallery below to see a larger view.

Other Winners in the Coop Contest

To see the other winners in the coop contest, visit the link below

Poultry Coop Photo Contest – Winner Announcement

Photo by Cindy Benkert

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Cindy Benkert for winning second place in the McMurray Hatchery Poultry Coop Photo Contest.  She won second place and a $50 Murray McMurray gift certificate. Here is Cindy’s description of the coop:

This chicken coop was built and designed by my wonderful husband Dale.  This past winter, I was reading through poultry magazines and always loved seeing the beautiful chicken coops in all shapes and sizes.  Our 13 year old son Jordan is also a big chicken lover and shows chickens in 4-H.

This spring I convinced my husband it would be a great project for he and Jordan to build us a new chicken coop! Using pictures of coops from magazines as inspiration of things we liked, Dale planned out and designed the coop.  Jordan helped with the construction, and I helped with the painting. When picking out the paint color, as soon as I saw the color “Egg Yolk Yellow” I knew that was the one!

One side of the coop has a large door that lifts upwards for easy cleaning of the coop.  It also has a side entrance door for easy access to the food and water.  The roof and top of the attached nest box area are shingled. The many windows allow nice air flow through the coop.

We have 5 laying hens and 1 bantam rooster in the coop but it could easily hold a few more.  We let them out for a few hours each evening to roam about the yard for grass and bugs. When I go to close them in for the night I just peek thru the window and count them all lined up on the perch to be certain they are all in.

Chicken Coop Size

The dimensions of the coop are as follows:

The house itself is 8 ft long by 4 ft wide and has 4 ft high walls, but the roof peek is 6 ft. It is 2 feet off the ground.

The attached nest boxes are 16″ high by 1 foot wide and 8 feet long for a total of 6 nest boxes.  The frame of the house is made of 2 x 2′s.  The outside run is 4 feet high, 16 feet long and 8 feet wide.

I have attached a few additional photos to better illustrate the features. Our family loves are chicken coop and we thank you all so much!

Cindy, Dale, and Jordan Benkert

 More Photos

Click any of the photos below to see a larger view.

Other Winners in the Coop Contest

To see the other winners in the coop contest, visit the link below

Poultry Coop Photo Contest – Winner Announcement

Photo by Jennifer Gallus

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Jennifer Gallus for winning third place in the McMurray Hatchery Poultry Coop Photo Contest.  Jennifer won a $25 Murray McMurray Hatchery gift certificate.

Here is Jennifer’s description of the coop:

Our coop was handmade by my husband in the Spring of 2010 after years of looking for an old style, round-top chicken coop (we have one that we fixed up, but we wanted another one).

After not finding what we wanted, my husband who’s a carpenter, decided to make one from scratch. He designed it on paper and then got started. He hand made the trusses, which took the longest. The side windows have stacked glass block in them. The front windows were made by my husband’s cousin, and the cupola on top was made by a family friend.

It is a 12′ x 10′ coop with a 16′ x 10′ run out the back. The inside is divided into two areas, one for egg layers and one area for show birds – both have runs out the back.

We have about 50 chickens in it right now. What we like best is taking pride in the original build and the old-style look of it. The only thing we would change is that the nesting box lid is too heavy… we made it with too thick of wood, then you get the shingles on top of that and that makes it even heavier.

The barn and our Polish chickens were featured in a local farm publication. I think one of the interesting features is the interior design with old pictures, a clock, hanging corn, and we framed the ribbons we received at the county fair for our eggs and hung it in the barn – that way the egg layers can enjoy their fair winnings!!

Other Winners in the Coop Contest

To see the other winners in the coop contest, visit the link below

Poultry Coop Photo Contest – Winner Announcement

Poultry Open Class Contest

This contest is for photos of all types of poultry that we carry in our 2011 catalog or on our website. This includes chickens, ducks, guineas, geese, partridge, peafowl, pheasants, quail, swans, turkeys, and several other types of fowl. Each photo may include a single bird or more than one bird. Ideas include chickens or other poultry in a natural setting, chickens with adults, chicken or other poultry with children, and poultry together with other livestock.

For the most current information on this and other contests, visit the link below:

2011 Photo Contests

Female Poultry Photo Contest

Our fourth photo contest of the year is now open. It is for photos of hens, female ducks, female geese, female turkeys, and female poultry of any other type that we offer in our 2011 catalog or on our website.

For the most current information on this and other contests, visit the link below:

2011 Photo Contests

Egg Photo Contest

This contest is for photos of poultry eggs. The eggs can be from chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, swans, quail, guineas, peafowl, pheasants, or any other type of poultry that we offer in our 2011 catalog or our website. Assortments that contain more than one type of egg are also acceptable. We encourage photos of eggs in interesting arrangements and settings.

For the most current information on this and other contests, visit the link below:

2011 Photo Contests

Description of the Contest

Our second photo contest of the year is the Male Poultry Photo Contest. It is for photos of roosters, drakes, ganders, tom turkeys, and male poultry of any other type that we offer in our 2011 catalog or on our website.

For the most current information on this and other contests, visit the link below:

2011 Photo Contests