The porta-crib is a great idea for the brooder. I may check out the craigslist in my area for a used playpen.
My coop came yesterday, we have the weekend to put it together. I purchased a children's playhouse and we are converting it into a coop. The playhouse came in two huge boxes it is 8 x 10. My peeps come the week of April 23rd. I am planning to brood them right in their coop. I am going use the playpen or someone else to corral them and put a heat lamp for the night. I think the coop will get very warm ( I hope not to warm) as we live in Southern Florida. The coop has a lot of windows, we are going to cover them hardware cloth to add extra stability to help avoid prey invasions.
I am still trying to figure out the layout of the coop of what would work the best. Here is my coop http://betterplayhouses.com/stratford.php I am hoping we can turn the windows upside down to make them a bit higher.
I am going to purchase the pre made nest boxes, I think I am going to get 2 four hole boxes.
We have a kid looking for some good tree branches to use as our perches.
In my bird-house for my Amazon Parrot we have really nice big driftwood perches, they are the best for the health of the feet to avoid arthritis down the road for her in her old age.
I would love something like this for my chickens.
We are getting 26 birds, but 7 of them are the meat birds so we will only have them for 8 weeks or so. So our flock will be 19 layers in the 8 x 10 coop with 8 next boxes. I think that is plenty of room. One of the birds is the "mystery" one and if it ends up being a Roo we are giving it away to a friend and if any of the birds end up being sexed incorrectly will be given away as well. I would like to have a Roo but my Amazon will learn the language of the Roo and make for a very unhappy home since she lives inside with us. She picks up everything so fast simply an incredible talker and singer.
We are going to free range on our property. We live on 1.77 acres which is fully fenced. I am thinking of clipping the chickens wings to avoid them flying over the fences. ( I used to work in the bird department of a pet store) and I have owned birds for 10 years. I spent my childhoods on my cousins chicken farm in Canada. They used to have 10,000 birds in two huge barns. They sold eggs and then they had the meat birds too. I learned a lot during my childhood about chickens. I gather that is where my love of birds was created.
Really excited over getting the birds and looking forward to the eggs and roast chickens.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
3LilBirds 
They are our feathered kids. We love them bunches! lol We are working on getting a coop built but the porta-crib has worked out really well as a brooder. It was just sitting in the closet waiting to be given away or sold so I thought hmmmm... It's bigger then the brooder they had. lol Then I make sure the dogs and cat is locked up and take the chicken wire lid off so they can roost on top for awhile. I have to vacuum daily though because of the dust.
