When trying to decide what type of chicken pen and house to build, we wanted something that would blend with the house and the yard. I remembered a Red Barn frame that we had used at our church for Hee Haws and thought what a cute idea. We used the barn pattern and since it had no roof or back, we started by framing it up.
We then added a door to the back and my husband cut out a hole for the chicken boxes so they would set outside the barn and not take up space inside. Right now we have to go in to get the eggs when they come, but later on we are going to add a door from the outside.
The roof is made of plywood and we are going to add shingles later.
After we had the barn ready, we went to work on the yard. We have a lot of predators in our area, coyotes, fox, and hawks. My mother informed me that we needed to cover the top to keep the hawks out. We used Iron Rods that we already had and 5' chicken wire, which we buried about 5 inches of it all the way around the yard ( we hope this helps with digging predators) and used 6' chicken wire to cover the top. I have landscaping timbers laying all the way around the yard, which we will probably use with the Dog wire later to double up. My husband also suggested concreting the bottom of the wire to keep out predators.
Here are the girls and guy being introduced to their new home! We used sawchips from our local sawmill for the floor and boxes. It was free, we just had to scoop it up in buckets ourselves.
The inside of the chicken boxes!
Most of the material we used we already had laying around . We bought new wire, of course, a new feeder and water pan. Later on we are going to hang the feeder and we still need to install roosting poles. But the chicks seem to have taken to their new home.
We then added a door to the back and my husband cut out a hole for the chicken boxes so they would set outside the barn and not take up space inside. Right now we have to go in to get the eggs when they come, but later on we are going to add a door from the outside.
The roof is made of plywood and we are going to add shingles later.
After we had the barn ready, we went to work on the yard. We have a lot of predators in our area, coyotes, fox, and hawks. My mother informed me that we needed to cover the top to keep the hawks out. We used Iron Rods that we already had and 5' chicken wire, which we buried about 5 inches of it all the way around the yard ( we hope this helps with digging predators) and used 6' chicken wire to cover the top. I have landscaping timbers laying all the way around the yard, which we will probably use with the Dog wire later to double up. My husband also suggested concreting the bottom of the wire to keep out predators.
Here are the girls and guy being introduced to their new home! We used sawchips from our local sawmill for the floor and boxes. It was free, we just had to scoop it up in buckets ourselves.
The inside of the chicken boxes!
Most of the material we used we already had laying around . We bought new wire, of course, a new feeder and water pan. Later on we are going to hang the feeder and we still need to install roosting poles. But the chicks seem to have taken to their new home.
