Bee Hive Chicken Coop

[GeorgeIDH]

My wife and I recently started beekeeping, we built our own top bar barrel bee hives.
But once we finished the hive we learned about chicken tractors and realized that you don't need a lot of space for a coop for just a few chickens and had this idea...

What if we built a chicken coop out of the base of our barrel bee hives?

We couldn't find anything online where people had bees and chickens in this close of proximity but nothing that really suggested it wouldn't work either.

Has anyone here had experiences with bees and chickens in really close proximity?

Here's an article I wrote explaining our ideas and how we built them: http://www.independencehomestead.com/2012/04/17/top-bar-barrel-bee-hive-chicken-coops/

Here's a picture of what we ended up with.



Would love to hear any comments/suggestions!

We plan on having 3 hens in each coop.

 

[maybelle'smama]

I think these are great!!

I do think they are maybe too small for 3 hens each, unless they are Bantams, especially since they aren't going to move like traditional chicken tractors. Do you plan on letting them free range all day?

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

 

[GeorgeIDH]

Thanks!

We have some friends with chickens that can take an extra hen or two if they end up needing more space.

Original plan was to have two birds per hive/coop, but state law requires us to purchase 6 chicks at a time. So we'll see how it goes with 3 in each to start.

We don't have a good way of protecting the hens from predators if we let them free range in our yard. But will certainly let them walk around the yard when we are there to supervise as much as possible.

 

[AlabamaSweetpea]

Quote:
what kinda law is that????

 

[farmguycitygirl]

Sounds like TSC law!