My Chicken Coop

[EddieWalker]

After a lot of research and probably too much thinking, we've started building our chicken coop. The reason for starting this is that we where given a dozen guinea fowl as a wedding gift from one of the nurses that works at the hospital with Karen. They are still pretty young and will need a safe place to stay for another month or two before we let them loose with the three we already have that roam freely.

Then we will start getting chickens and go from there.

A friend gave me a dog kennel a few years ago. She needed it to disappear, and I've had it leaning up against a tree ever since. The plan is to set posts at the corners and middle section. We are going to use the four panels for the front, two side sections and the back, then we will use our existing garden fence for the fourth wall. We will wrap the bottom three feet with 1/2 inch screen to keep the animals out. We might wrap the top half too, but for now, it's just going to be the bottom half. Then we will dig a trench under the wire and pour concrete up to and over the wire. The roof will be metal at a 4:12 pitch to match our house.

Here is what we got done yesterday.



Eddie

 

[deerseeker001]

looking good Eddie.

 

[MossRoad]

Shouldn't it say "Beware of the Chickens"? haha

My kid wants chickens for eggs, but we don't seem to have enough time in the day as it is now, and.... there's a family of foxes in the back yard. I'll be watching this thread. Thanks. :thumbsup:

 

[tallyho8]

After a 7' rat snake got in and ate two of my young turkeys last month, I learned that I have to cover my pens with 1/2" hardware cloth completely and make sure there is no clearance by the gate openings.

 

[joeyd]

Knowing how you build I'm sure this will be the Taj Majal of chicken coops! :thumbsup:

 

[MossRoad]

After a 7' rat snake got in and ate two of my young turkeys last month, I learned that I have to cover my pens with 1/2" hardware cloth completely and make sure there is no clearance by the gate openings.

As I recall..... Eddie don't like snakes!

 

[/pine]

If you like/have plants/flowers etc...they won't last long once you give the guineas the run of your place...!
They make great "watch dogs" and will alert you to anything strange happening around but they love to devastate yard flowers etc... in my experience anyway...good luck with your fowl adventure...

 

[EddieWalker]

To start, we are just planning on wrapping the bottom three feet in 1/4 galvanized mesh. Once that's on, we are going to dig a trench under the wire and pour concrete up to and just over the wire. Nothing will be able to get through it or under it.

The door is still where I need to do some thinking. Right now, I'm leaning towards a wood frame inside the door so when it closes, it's tight against the wood.

Eddie

 

[XMS]

You won't need concrete. Just pull it out a ways and set some gravel on it.

You need a roof, or at least some heavy fence up there to keep out the coons and possums and hawks and owls and fox and...

All of the above have eaten at our free-pasture buffet. I lost 60% of an entire new hatch of ducks and even more geese from a band of fox and racoons that found flaws in two new hoop houses this summer. Two night of utter devastation. Kicked myself hard.

And even the old houses have occasional problems. Nothing is secure forever with racoons around. They jumped into a two-year old secure coop and run by working loose some wire. That was four weeks ago. Only one lost bird, but a rare blue Muscovy.

Cover everything 360, and pull on the fence and wire. If you can get a hand in there, you will lose birds. Guaranteed.

 

[MAN IN BLACK]

Remembers me when my grand father started in the egg business from old pictures I saw.
Today, my building is holding 18 000 birds very comfortably and we live just as comfortably from it.