We bought a home 6 years ago that had 80 acres, a large garage/barn, and one old shed I called Ye Olde Sugar House. The previous owner's grandparents had a shack there where they'd boil maple sap to make syrup. The previous owner replaced it about 15-20 years ago with the current house we have now. I finally convinced the hubby to get chickens (25) this year so now we have started the task of cleaning the sugar house up and making it livable for the chickens. We do boil maple sap, but we don't use this house for that so it was just waiting for a reason to exist.
I make it sound horrible, but really it is in excellent shape. It was just creepy with all the cobwebs, wasp nests, dirt and leaves. It was always kind of an icky place to me, but now that we have started to fix it up, I wanted to journal our progress. The house is just about at a point where we can put the chickies inside while we finish work on the outside and the run.
The house's inside dimensions are 11'4.5" x 21'1" so roughly 240 square feet and the goal is to house everything there, even storage. The run is easily twice that. The previous owner used to raise deer for commercial sales so we have miles and miles of fencing. We just unhooked it from the posts and wrapped it around the trees edging the run. There's a 20' section that we need to finish off and then put up netting or chicken wire along the bottom 3-4' of the fencing because the squares are larger than they should be. But anyway...here are the first set of pictures.
There is a door on both sides and a window on both sides. There are two vents on top and a hole in the roof where the stove stack used to be. I think we'll good with ventilation.
This is the backside of the house. The "patio" is where they used to store wood for the fire (to boil the maple syrup). It makes a great covered area for shade or cover from snow. You can see a little bit of the fencing in the far left side of the picture.
The southwest corner and more of the fencing...
The roof, with the hole and the vent...
The unfinished roost. The opposite corner will likely have food and water set ups. The floor is concrete.
The north east wall...
The (human) door out to the run on the north west wall. We haven't cut a door in for the chickies yet, but it will be on this wall.
The south wall and front door...
The nesting boxes, walk and ramp. We'll make more boxes if we need them, but 8 is good for now. My FIL has half our flock (12) and he only has 4 boxes and that is working out for him.
The west wall. I want to put the brooder in this space opposite the nesting boxes.
I make it sound horrible, but really it is in excellent shape. It was just creepy with all the cobwebs, wasp nests, dirt and leaves. It was always kind of an icky place to me, but now that we have started to fix it up, I wanted to journal our progress. The house is just about at a point where we can put the chickies inside while we finish work on the outside and the run.
The house's inside dimensions are 11'4.5" x 21'1" so roughly 240 square feet and the goal is to house everything there, even storage. The run is easily twice that. The previous owner used to raise deer for commercial sales so we have miles and miles of fencing. We just unhooked it from the posts and wrapped it around the trees edging the run. There's a 20' section that we need to finish off and then put up netting or chicken wire along the bottom 3-4' of the fencing because the squares are larger than they should be. But anyway...here are the first set of pictures.
There is a door on both sides and a window on both sides. There are two vents on top and a hole in the roof where the stove stack used to be. I think we'll good with ventilation.
This is the backside of the house. The "patio" is where they used to store wood for the fire (to boil the maple syrup). It makes a great covered area for shade or cover from snow. You can see a little bit of the fencing in the far left side of the picture.
The southwest corner and more of the fencing...
The roof, with the hole and the vent...
The unfinished roost. The opposite corner will likely have food and water set ups. The floor is concrete.
The north east wall...
The (human) door out to the run on the north west wall. We haven't cut a door in for the chickies yet, but it will be on this wall.
The south wall and front door...
The nesting boxes, walk and ramp. We'll make more boxes if we need them, but 8 is good for now. My FIL has half our flock (12) and he only has 4 boxes and that is working out for him.
The west wall. I want to put the brooder in this space opposite the nesting boxes.
