The temporary chicken brooding area is done and it is 3/4. If there are twelve eggs this morning and another broody I will fill it up.

Not sure the suggestions you wanted but I'd cut those rafter tails off close to the metal 'cus they look like perches/ladders over the wall to me.

Just a thought Buddy.

The temporary chicken brooder is built and in use. I noticed last summer that the chooks became a lot less broody not too long after the days started getting shorter so I am trying to employ their mothering instincts as soon as possible. They are in the half-built barn.



By next year I will hopefully have something a little more permanent set up.

That's on the to-do list Pops

They're only there over-hangin', as I'm undecided about whether to put a gutter on and collect the rainwater for the chooks... I'll cut them when I know the length needed.

Kathy,

Of course there is a nice thick cushion of straw and litter under the nests so any fall will not be deadly.

The chicken yard is surrounded by fence but all the chickens do jump to the second rail and move out into the yard and garden. The chicks will not be able to get out of the chicken yard though, so they be protected somewhat. At least from the dogs.

We have another hen that got the crazy idea to lay in the garn (garage/barn) and she is sitting on a clutch in there. I'm more worried about them because our cockapoo Monk can get in there even with the doors closed. We trained him with a shock collar to stay away from the chickens but who knows with delicate little chicks.

Finally! Finished this coop good enough to get the chicks to a bigger space. It took about 20 hours and $600 to do this much so far. The run will add to it but it should last for years to come.

As I've said about this building; it was our chicken coop when I was a child. I did countless chores in this shed and then one day dad decided it was better off as a shed for a manure spreader so he ripped the front off of it. It has been used as a shed for the last 25 years or so. Now it's back to being a coop again.

Anyway...here is how it looked a week or so ago.



Now here is the one I took tonight. It still needs the run and bit of a cleanup but that can wait until the weekend. I'm taking the rest of the week off... I wish!

I still have to build roosts and nests but that is not so important right away.



We moved the little darlings in right away. Here is my new brood settling in.

SpringCreek!

That's a great upgrade. Kudos

There is nothing like resurrecting and old building and giving it new life. My next project in that regard is breathing new life into an old dairy for our milking cow. I'll have to post photos when I get to it. We could almost have a thread on this kind of thing. I think Pops might have even started one from memory, but i can't remember the title.

Well done

Thanks for the comments guys. We're sort of like each other's cheering section. There is a thread called "Repurposing" which is where I first posted this coop but I felt this story belonged in the chicken thread.

The chickens looked good this morning and even though it was a little cooler outside, the inside of the coop was nice. I had set their water off the block last night because they weren't going to it while it was up on the block but this morning I noticed their was litter in it so at least they were near it. I cleaned the waterer out and set it back on the block again.

Here's a picture of the new summer home for our new chickens. The old girls get to stay in the old coop, but the new ones will be in the orchard this summer.

The open sides are covered with 1" chicken wire, and the floor is plastic "hardware cloth" of about 3/4 inch mesh.

They are enclosed with a 150 foot long fabric/electric easily moved fence.

Nice looking coop wisJim, my carpentry skills bite so I am a little jealous. Do you have predators where you are cause my coyotes and racoons would go through chicken wire fast, it is more for keeping birds in than varmints out.

Rule Number One = Don't let the wife and kids name the poultry and make pets of them. If you have to kill a sick or lame chick/poult... don't make a secret of it... just do it. Nothing to be ashamed of. I don't enjoy killing day old, cute n' fuzzy chicks, but sometimes it just has to be done.

Rule Number Two = All the predators don't wear fur. Just today, I killed an adult male peacock because it was attacking my brood hens and their poults. The peacock was in full bloom, with a 6 foot tail and yep... he belonged to the neighbors. I'd asked the neighbor to keep his birds at home... I even put up a fence... but to no avail. Lesson here is, do what you gotta do... despite ignorant neighbors.

Rule Number Three = Good fences keep out the riffraff. Note that in the following photos... all of my pens/shelters are fenced. (A Stevens Model 77 16 gauge pump will take care of fence jumpers.)
Growing Pen....



Field Shelter...


Between the fences.... Momma and some Narrangansetts

Got the chicken run for the coop finished today. Here is a picture of the main chicken coop and run. I had once considered tearing this building down but I'm glad I reconsidered, now that it is finished.





I can now take chickens off my list for a while until it comes time to insulate the coop and prepare for winter.

Thanks Ludi.

I forgot to mention, and it's worth mentioning, that with the exception of drilling the post holes in the rocky ground, the entire chicken run was assembled using hand tools and a cordless drill (for driving screws), charged with my barn solar system.

I finally got my chicken pen finished

On Sunday I made a door frame out of the spare 2x6’s left over from building the garden beds. On Sunday we also put a bird net over the entire area along the side of the house and blocked off some holes and things so the chickens cannot get out. On monday I made a door from our old screen door frame. I covered the screen door frame with chicken wire and put it on hinges. Then used a gate latch to hold it closed.

I also built 4 nests out of 5 gallon buckets and screwed them to a frame. The frame is propped up between two wooden pallets. Then I covered the area between the pallets with a piece of plastic roofing.

We have a lot of chickens that run loose in our neighborhood. Some of our neighbors raise chickens and let them run around, there are probably about 40 chickens running free, and always coming in and out of my yard. So we caught some and now we have 7 chickens(3 roosters and 4 hens). We have (1) 6 month old rooster and hen, (1)3 month old rooster and hen, (2) 1-1/2 month old hens and (1) 1-1/2month old rooster.

I caught the three 1-1/2 month old chickens on Friday and put them into a cage for a few days. Then on Monday after the netting and door was up I was coaxing our 6 month old hen, that we raised, to go into the new pen. While I was chasing the hen around the yard the two 3 month old chickens went in the pen(not knowing that I had put the net over the top.. hehe), then I finally got the hen inside the pen and closed the door. Well the 6 month old rooster didn’t like being separated from the hen so after a few hours he came right on over and we let him in. So now we have 7 chickens!

The hen we raised from a few days old should be starting to lay pretty soon, right? She is about 6 months old.

Fun eventful weekend huh!

I am going to advise against the heat lamp...

even if you are worried about them dying it is so cold, I am going to advise against the heat lamp.

I was expecting goats to kid when it was -20 at night so I safely secured a lamp... there was nothing more I could have done to keep it safe, I lost the shed and four rabbits. If I had been responsible and locked up the goats that night I would have lost all of the goats as well.

1. You are correct, the rabbits do not need it and the crocks work just fine for water.

2. Depending upon you location you might not be able to breed in the winter if it is too cold (or keep the kits alive) but we can talk about that in the rabbits section if you like.

3. I plug in a lamp and use one of the light sensors that they sell for christmas lights. You can set it to stay on for a set number of hours after dark. That way I keep the chooks at about 12 hours of "light" a day, adjusting it as the winter progresses. Our egg production has just started to go down... I will butcher some of the older hens later in the month and then start their light therapy.
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edit: the rabbit thread