Chicken Palace

[Mousefield]

Looking at getting more egg laying chickens as we have more customers than eggs.
Started off by leveling the area we wanted to put the new chicken coop, 12ft X 28 ft. Started bad as I drove the tractor over the area to level it and next thing you know I was struck. Went down about 19 inches but luckily had the backhoe on so was able to lift the back of the tractor up and put some board under the wheels. So plan # 2 was move the coop about 30 ft to what seemed like a dryer area. Problem was I had a stack of big logs waiting to get milled, so had the band saw fellow come in and mill them, of course that got us about 3 weeks behind in building. Got the area level and put down some gravel. Friend and I put up the foundation forms and got the concrete truck in. After we had formed the foundation we decided to put in a storage room for feed, so it will be about 8ft X 12ft. Poured the pad for it but had to leave about 6 inches gap around it so we could get the framing wood out. Had a few days of rain on and off so that slowed down the construction some more. Well got the roof on Thursday and put the skylights in on Friday.To much to do by myself so I had a helper with me to build it, he is on the ladder, did a lot of the heavier lifting/work. Still some finishing to do, upper siding to do and trim around the doors and windows. Glad the main building is up though. We have a barn for our goats known as the Goat Palace so figure this new chicken coop will be called the Chicken Palace. The actual chicken coop will be 12ft X 20ft. I will put in a wall to separate the storage room. The open shed side will be a nice place for my tractor. Used full dimension Douglas fir lumber from our trees and had to buy the siding, roof OSB sheeting and the roof shingles. The windows and skylights I have had for years, scrounged them from garage sales mostly, just waiting for a building to happen.

 

[NSBound]

That's quite the chicken house. I hope they appreciate it and present you with lots of eggs!

 

[broncorm]

And my wife calls what I had for her chickens a palace. You could fit the whole pen inside that. Looks good.

 

[lakngulf]

Good job, Mousefield, I know you will get good use from it. My wife looked at this thread and wanted to know why my tractor parking spot did not look that good.

 

[Mousefield]

Good job, Mousefield, I know you will get good use from it. My wife looked at this thread and wanted to know why my tractor parking spot did not look that good.

Moved gravel and leveled it on the open side today. Have Lots of height even with the ROPS up. Nice thing is if I want to close it in one day in will be pretty easy. I will be putting in an electrical panel so will have lights and plugs. :thumbsup:
Have to admit it was a lot of heavy work lifting and cutting all that wood. Have a to-do list to make sure it does get finished properly and in a set time.

 

[forgeblast]

very nice thats going to be awesome.

 

[Thomas]

Fancy,nice work..if the chicken thing doesn't work out you got heck of nice storeage shed.

 

[deputy11]

There should be some smiling chicken lips there!:laughing: Seriously, I'm looking to build a new palace for the wife's birds, they are in several different outbuildings now and winter care is a chore. What are your electrical and water plans, heat? Going to have heat for water supply? Hate changing out water in the winter and trying to keep combs from freezing so any good ideas appreciated.

 

[Luremaker]

Wow Mousefield, that is going to be one chicken castle. Any problems with CFIA in your area? My egg selling neighbors removed their road side signs last summer because of the CFIA inspectors.

 

[Mousefield]

There should be some smiling chicken lips there!:laughing: Seriously, I'm looking to build a new palace for the wife's birds, they are in several different outbuildings now and winter care is a chore. What are your electrical and water plans, heat? Going to have heat for water supply? Hate changing out water in the winter and trying to keep combs from freezing so any good ideas appreciated.

I will put in an electrical panel that I have had for a few years, got it cheap at a garage sale and it has a number of breakers in it. Will put in some inside lights, several inside and outside plugs, plus several outside motion lights as we often have bears around. Will have a surface pipe for water so has to be shut off for several months in the winter. Will not have heat in it, same as our barn, does not get usually get real cold here. We will have only egg layers in the Chicken Palace, think 60 will work nicely in the space of 12 X 20 ft.

 

[Mousefield]

Wow Mousefield, that is going to be one chicken castle. Any problems with CFIA in your area? My egg selling neighbors removed their road side signs last summer because of the CFIA inspectors.

Not a problem up our way. Can only have 99 egg layers though, otherwise the egg marketing board dumps on you.

 

[Mousefield]

Fancy,nice work..if the chicken thing doesn't work out you got heck of nice storeage shed.

One day we will have to sell our place so the idea was to build a good sized, well built building. It could be used for almost anything if the new owners didn't want it as a chicken coop. Am putting in a temporary type wall to divide the feed storage room from the coop part. Would be easy to take the wall down and then there is a 12ft X 28ft open room.

 

[deputy11]

Thanks for the info on water and heat, had no idea it does not get that cold there. Same idea here as to making a building that new owners could use for something besides chickens but sub-zero weather for some days in a row is a normal winter here.

 

[Obed]

Mousefield,
Looks great! I'd love to have some chickens someday, just for our own eating. Maybe after we finish building our house. I helped my grandmother who lived next door to us on the farm raise chickens. I can still taste her fried chicken and the large double-yolked eggs. I doubt I'll have a palace anything nearly as nice as yours though.

Obed

 

[irvingj]

Very nice! A lot more expansive than mine-- it's "portable," but sometimes I wish I had something more stationary..

 

[irvingj]

Oops- now I have a coupla pics....

 

[duck spy]

Looks great,glad chickens do not know how to use a computer or my girls would go on strike...

 

[lakngulf]

Do you have any chickens in that new palace yet? Is this sorta like building a new sub division east of town, and the old chickens sell their current location, and move to the subs? And then the newer generation buys the older homes? Or will there be new chickens for the new palace?

What have the temps been like in your area? We are burning down here.

 

[Mousefield]

Do you have any chickens in that new palace yet? Is this sorta like building a new sub division east of town, and the old chickens sell their current location, and move to the subs? And then the newer generation buys the older homes? Or will there be new chickens for the new palace?

What have the temps been like in your area? We are burning down here.

Still a fair bit of work to get it ready. Since I posted with pics I have.
Put up the top part of the siding, filled in the space between the rafters on both walls so mink etc can't get in, put up trim around the 2 doors and 4 windows, put up 2 sheets of OSB where the nest boxes are going and also filled in the studs at that area so stuff can't get behind the OSB, started caulking the trim areas, filled in with cement the 3 sides of the pad. Still need to build and put up the nest boxes, build the wall between the actual coop and the storage room, fence an out side pen about 30 ft by 50 ft. Planing on staining a couple coats of cedar color for the siding. I'm sure there will be a few other things as well. My target was to get new chickens in September, at that time we will get rid of the 17 hens we now have as they should be close to the end of their laying cycle. Once I have it stained I will post a few more pics.

 

[jimmyj]

The chicken palace is really awesome looking. Can't wait to see it done with some hens enjoying their new digs.