. I know, I'm asking a lot. We will see how it goes. It may be good if I don't have too much time to think about it since I'd probably never make a decision. I'll never be able to do anything fancy anyway.
Haha! I get that!
Am often stuck in Analysis Paralysis.
But I'm a 'planner'...hate to get stuck with panicked emergency mode of 'fix that right now cause you didn't think it thru first'.
Especially true when it comes to live animals....like ordering too many.
Not so much a matter of 'fancy'... but sure needs to be adequate of size and security to keep the birds in a healthy way.
Best of cLuck to you!
We built an 8x12 enclosed run with 8x4 coop and a shed roof over the enclosure where one side is 7ft and the other is 6ft tall (I'm 6'0, so I had to be able to get in there). We spent around $1200 for wood, paint, paint misc, hardware cloth, hardware (brackets, screws, hinges, handles), roof. We covered the entire bottom of the coop with hardware cloth, that added some cost, but not too bad, and we still have a good amount of hardware cloth left - a chicken tractor amount! We went to Menards, they had the best selection of wood, and we used their rebate gift cards to buy more product. Some of that also includes pvc materials for water and feed. Just a note, we purposely built it near the end of the garage to block the high westward winds, which get pretty brutal in the winter!
It's about 80% done, I have a few things to paint, including the egg box, just waiting for the weather to cooperate! I want to add more windows (plexiglass), and do the same thing as I did with the door: cut grooves in the wood so I can slide it out when winter is over and give them a good cross breeze to survive the awful humid summers (it'll have hardware cloth "screens"). I need to change up the roosting bars too, because all 8 have decided they deserve to be on the top bar, and some decide to parallel park and then loud arguments ensue for 20min. Anyway, it'll be 2 at the same height, with a plywood shelf about 4" under that and a medium dog crate tray to catch the free fertilizer. This will add more floor space beneath the plywood. I hope to work on that this weekend, as well as change up the inside water situation... I was using those poultry nipple cups inside and they don't do well under pressure! Oh yeah, I need to give the chickens their own mini door for letting them outside the run for the supervised all you can eat salad bar!
I used one of those farm water heaters in the winter, and insulation must be added to the external pipes. Will the chickens tear it apart? Absolutely!
My Orpington was inspecting my horrible work (I had ONE warm day in February, I tried to get the external egg box all done, I skipped details in the end, knowing I could revisit when spring hits).
The door can be opened and closed from outside, and by using plexiglass, its both light weight wise and serves added internal light.
This was to give an example of the food container I made, there is one inside also, I think I might add a third outside and try a slightly different design.
I have a screw closure for the top and bottom, however based on where its positioned, rain hasn't gone in the food yet, but it is April - Monsoon season in Michigan!
We built an 8x12 enclosed run with 8x4 coop and a shed roof over the enclosure where one side is 8ft and the other is 7ft tall (I'm 6'0, so I had to be able to get in there). We spent around $1200 for wood, paint, paint misc, hardware cloth, hardware (brackets, screws, hinges, handles), roof (brackets, 1x2s, grooved pieces and hard poly carbonate roof = $300). We covered the entire bottom with hardware cloth (bought it on sale), and we still have a good amount left over for a future chicken tractor. We added 2x 6ft bed fulls of sand on top of the hardware, plan fo use sand all year except the winter when the deep litter method comes in. We went to Menards, they had the best selection of wood, and we used their rebate gift cards to buy more product. Some of that also includes pvc materials for water and feed.
It's about 80% done, I have a few things to paint, including the egg box, just waiting for the weather to cooperate! I want to add more windows (plexiglass), and do the same thing as I did with the door: cut grooves in the wood so I can slide it out when winter is over and give them a good cross breeze to survive the awful humid summers (it'll have hardware cloth "screens"). I need to change up the roosting bars too, because all 8 have decided they deserve to be on the top bar, and some decide to parallel park and then loud arguments ensue for 20min. Anyway, it'll be 2 at the same height, with a plywood shelf about 4" under that and a medium dog crate tray to catch the free fertilizer. This will add more floor space beneath the plywood. I hope to work on that this weekend. At some point I also need to add a mini door for the chickens to access the yard, supervised of course. Oh yeah, and figure out some shade solutions for the hot humid summer!
We purposely built it next to the garage to block the west winds, which are brutal in the winter!
I used one of those farm water heaters in the winter, and insulation must be added to the external pipes. Will the chickens tear it apart? Absolutely!
My Orpington was inspecting my horrible work (I had ONE warm day in February, I tried to get the egg box all done, I skipped details in the end, knowing I could revisit when spring hits).
The door is made of plexiglass and can be opened and closed from outside the coop. The wood on top of the plexiglass piece helped add weight for closing, as well as block a small gap to the ouside from the top.
Here is showing what all went into the roof. It's a heavy plastic with a minor flex, we picked the thickest one they had.
This was all done in lower Michigan. I didn't use any insulation or heat lamps and they did fine in the winter. I now fear our humid 80F+ July-August with 70% humidity!
Here is one i took the other day. It's mostly done. I'll have to take some more pictures tomorrow.
We ended up going with a chain link dog kennel panels for our run. My next door neighbor offered them to us for a great deal. It saved us about 1/2 on the run and allows a bit more flexibility because of few extra panels he had.i did end up putting hardware cloth on the bottom two feet or so of the run and buried it down because we have a dog that likes to dig.
