barn coupe pen

[schmism]

The new property we moved to has a 3 story 1914 timber framed dary barn with full livestock basement.

The old coupe is still at our old property. We intend to move it but many more things come before that project.

At the time of the move our flock had been whittled down by predators to a small couple of 2.

When we moved here a month ago we just kinda stuffed them in the barn saying, find a place to roost... there are lots of options. That has worked out well for them.

As we got settled in we wanted to rebuild the flock some. A local CL add for some home hatched chickens (of various ages) was hte perfect opertunity to add some about to be laying birds as well as a few already laying girls.

we brought home 7 and did the same thing, stuffed them in the barn.. .said find a place to roost and they did. BUT unfortunately within only a few days one went missing (the stupid one that refused to roost in the barn) this ment that over the next couple of nights, mr cridder came back for more chicken

We had to do something and FAST!

The old barn has the orginal built in pens. We took the end one (as it already had one solid wall) and set about converting it to a chicken "coupe"

Wall off the end, put a door up that was laying around the basement of the barn, staple up some chicken wire and heavy wire and put some roosts in. For now they will use the old grain feed tray in the built in hay feeder as a nest box while i build some traditional nest boxes this week.

They will stay in there new home for the next day or 2 to get accustomed to there new "home" . The back of the barn came with an enclosed 6' high chain link fence, burried to prevent digging, in an area about 30'x30' so they should have plenty of run.

bla bla bla you want pics i know

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

I hope this solves your "critter" problem. What are your plans for the rest of the barn?

 

[allieloveschickens]

nice job! Any pics of the run?

 

[Honeysucklefeathers]

Oh my gosh! So many options!!! I love old barns and outbuildings! Good luck and have fun putting it all together!

 

[schmism]

Quote:
the new girls have been safe for the last 2 nights now although one of our 2 girls we moved who free ranges went missing today. she was here this morning and last we can recall she was scratching around one of the gardens mid afternoon when the DW was out watering but failed to show up for evening roost with her girlfriend..... odd as no critters have been seen and our labs have been out all day with us.

if she continues not to show for another day then our last original girl will get moved to the new pen.


as for plans for the barn.

we want to add a few alpaca and llama. the basement livestock area would be perfect for this. We have to reclaim the old pasture adjacent to the barn first as well as get the other property either sold or rented in order to make shure the $$ is there to support more animals.

the first floor (ground floor) is split between a my man cave and a wood shop on the large side and we intend to make a craft room for the DW etc on the other side.

2nd floor will be storage although long term we would love to have a game room/home theater guest quarters in it. the other half of the second floor to the roof (20' above the second floor) will be hay storage for if/when we have large animals. We will make use of the existing hay chute that runs through the middle of the barn from the 3rd floor to the basement.

pics of the barn (and you can see the run in the forground)

http://snjschmidt.com/pics/peoria_homestead/2011_05/barn_rear.jpg

for some reason i dont have a good shot of the front side of the barn

http://snjschmidt.com/pics/peoria_homestead/2011_05/barn_N.jpg

 

[hcppam]

looks like your working it all out.

 

[jtbrown]

Cool barn, what possibilities!

 

[schmism]

well the people that had the chickens for sale were selling because they were moving from the farm.

they had to be out of the property by the 12th.... We had said when we picked ours up a week or so ago, that if they didnt find a home for the rest of them we would take them.

SO wed we got the call to come pick up the rest. For some reason the people thought we were going to pay there asking price at that point

ummm no? its fire sale time people im trying to do you a favor here....

so anyway we cut a deal for about half of what they were asking (which puts the chicks inline with what they should be for what they are)

so we brought home ~40 more birds. ~19 2 week old .... ~19 6-8 week old (below) and 2 less-than-a-week old chicks.






we found a brooder box in the basement of the barn for the little ones (~2 weeks old) and we put the ~6-8 week old ones in the next animal stall over from the big birds. As the pickup for 40 birds was short notice, i knocked together some frames for the 2x4 welded wire and used those to pen off the stall.

Next trip back to the old property we will pick up the pasture pen and they will move to it.

We hope to sell some on CL but if we dont then the extra will go to freezer camp.

we are shooting to have a laying flock of 12-14. we currently have 5

so shameless plug if your in the central IL area and are looking for some birds... PM me.

 

[wava1vaughn]

Hi from Ga. Sounds like you have everything under control. Good Luck.