Bantam Ark

I acquired four bantams when I was originally going to get ONE bantam and keep her in the sunroom as a semi-house chicken. Housing had to be acquired. There were no plans involved, just me walking around the barn thinking "What the heck can I build a chicken house out of really fast so I can get the birds out of my sunroom? What was I THINKING anyway??"

I had some big shipping pallets left over from a previous project, and a bunch of hardware cloth. So, I covered two pallets with cloth, and decided to make an a frame. 

Sorry there aren't more pictures of this part. I was building it by myself, and didn't have enough hands to keep stopping, taking pictures, and getting back into the groove.

I wanted an elevated platform for the birds to roost on and to get up out of the mud when it rains, but I didn't want to have to clean poop all the time. So I made this little platform out of a piece of cattle panel and hardware cloth. 

Here's the finished ark. We use two hand trucks to move it to new grass. The door is kinda janky. Well, the whole thing is kinda janky, but it was free. Even the steel roofing panels were scrounged from a friend's junk pile. At some point I'd like to redo the door and make it less, I don't know, less thrown together. As is, I wire the door on with baling wire. 

First rain we had soaked their feed. I also had this old grill lid that blew up in our yard in the last big storm. I wired it up as a cover for their food, and it keeps it perfectly dry, even in a big driving rain and hail storm. 

Here they are! The bantams easily fit under the grill lid. You can see the nest box I made from an old kitty litter bucket. Wouldn't work for large fowl, I don't think, but my bantams are perfectly happy with it.