Hens go broody when you don’t want them to… and won’t go broody when you do. 
We recently had a dog attack our birds, in fact 2 x dogs. So it was a matter of urgency to get a coop for my coronation sussex chicks ,who were fast outgrowing their brooder. My long suffering husband didn't have the time to build one from scratch so I hit the classifieds looking for something befitting a king. King George to be precise! I found an unused, no longer loved cubby house / fort. Straight away I could see potential, all hubby could see was more work.
It had been cemented in , so out came the chainsaw and we lost 6 inches of height . Every time I hit my head , I curse that 6 inches. Once we got it on site the first job was to mesh the bottom half in to give me a rooster " sin bin ", that is currently in use . We cut a hole in the floor and created a ramp for access. Put some nice old windows in that we had salvaged from a federation house down the road , closed the back half in and gave it a lick of paint. Manor red and antique cream, the same colour scheme as our house.
There a lots of things laying around doing nothing that would make for great coop conversions.
" Think outside the square ". Now I don't condone anyone, repossessing their 8 year olds cubby, but if your kids no longer venture anywhere near the cubby house, give it some thought.
