Building New Coop/Barn...Phase 5 Great Barn Build, OCCUPIED! 3/6/16

[1muttsfan]

I just finished reading the last half of your story; wonderful! Hope you are both feeling better now that that major building project is done, and it looks great. Your place is so nice! Mary

Hi Mary

 

[speckledhen]

Hey, all. Adding to the thread because we made a new addition to one of the barn pens, a double "condo" for two very arthritic (as in, lost use of one leg to it) hens in our Old Hens' Retirement Home & Hospice pen. They had a double dog bowl and it was murder trying to manage them with others wanting to eat their food, throwing shavings into their food and water, Tiny wanting attention when you bend over (if it's DH, she will peck and flog, the crazy wench). So, with Snow and Amanda up high with their own dedicated food and water dishes and the other four below, they're all set, and so are we, for an easier management.
All of this is scrap wood and fencing scavenged from other projects/buildings. We only bought hinges and some very long screws we didn't have.
Later, we will do a complete wall in the center, but as long as it's just Snow and Amanda, no real need for that. If one dies, we will have to put up a panel to separate whoever is in one side from a new bird in the other. And it's tall enough for any rooster to stand up inside.

Below, on the end, you see two short 2x4's screwed together, which is a holder for a rabbit feeder that can be put in there if we have a bird whose feed/water doesn't have to travel around the pen with it. It was for the purple feeder you see sitting on top at the far end, but we just decided to use the double bowls for now.

 

[aart]

Nice!
I was thinking good for arthritic hens,
and arthritic keepers-easy stand up access.

 

[speckledhen]

Nice!
I was thinking good for arthritic hens,
and arthritic keepers-easy stand up access.

Exactly! It was a trial getting both those hens food and water on the floor every day, multiple times each day, with the four others scratching shavings into their water and eating their food rather than the food in the wall PVC feeder. This way, they don't have to put up with that and neither do we. Better on DH's back, too. Less frustration. I hated to separate them because, believe it or not, Amanda is the head hen as well as my oldest bird (almost 11), though she can't really even walk. And she's been laying over the past two weeks, four eggs! That hen is a wonder. Now, she has her own condo, but is not really alone.