BUNGALOW BUNGLE FINAL TOUCHES HOPEFULLY SOON SEE END OF THREAD

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My house was built in 1898!!
The website did say one of the measurments was including the nesting box. Weird how they make it look bigger than it actually is. Man after I put this thing together the first thing Im going to do is take the hose to it. It better not leak!! I just got inside, its like 10pm, I was working on my existing coop. Im addding a double decker off to the side. My neighbors came over to see what all the ruckus was so I gave them some eggs. Luckily they were very nice, somewhat impressed and chicken fans themselves. You know how sometimes you can get a neighbor that could make life miserable? Im very lucky. Also I have a huge yard which is awesome. Wow in Morgan Hill you can have up to 15 chickens before its considered to be a "ranch" where you have to meet all of these special requirements. I dont want 15 but I may get up to 11. I have 5 right now and Im getting 6 bantam easter eggers. I dont know if I will keep all six, I may just keep 4. Anyone live close to Morgan Hill interested in a couple of baby chicks?? I think 6 may be a bit much. My 3 day old silkie is doing well! And so cute. I'll post some pics as soon as I figure out what wacky setting my stupid camera is on, the pictures are a really weird color.
 
BUNGALOW UPDATE. Wow I cant believe this thing came so fast, I ordered it on Monday, today is Thursday. Not bad for free shipping. So I took a couple of pics to give you guys an idea. WOW it is SMALL. Its also pretty stinky so it would defintely need time to air out. Thankfully I have quite a while before I have to put any chickens in it. I put some dried meal worms in front of the front panel to give you guys an idea of the size. I think 6 full size chickens would be a bit of a stretch. The roof has overlapping slats, but not much of an overlap, I may have to put something on the top of it if it leaks, which will tick me off regardless. So Im kind of bummed its so small but the dimensions were on the website so I think for 4 bantam chickens it will be fine.
 
Eeek! It is small. Once you got the chickens in there for scale, it becomes evident. I wish they would put a chicken in front of every pre built coop. Looks like I'm building one myself. Ugh.

I cannot find anything prefab I can work with. I'm really tall amd so is my husband, so I can't see getting a coop that I can't fit in to clean. It would get so nasty, so fast!

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

I'd like a decent looking one, but even the sheds I'm seeing just don't cut it. I would just rather modify something but can't find any good base to work from, honestly. Is that why you built your peach palace? Just couldn't find anything to work? With bantams, you can get away with more, but with 3 FBCM and 3Ameraucanas, I'm stuck getting something bigger.

Thanks for the update.
 
Yeah, its weird how it looks bigger than the picture. I started looking at coops on line and they just wanted to much dang money. I started building the peach parlor off of some plans I downloaded off the internet but the a frame was 60 degrees which was ridiculous because you just waste to much room at the top. So I started making it 45 degrees and pretty soon I just abandoned the prints altogether. Today, I bought my 3rd 100 foot roll of wire at 300 bucks a pop, Im up to almost 1000 bucks in wire alone. I bought the really sturdy stuff, like 16 gauge and 1/2 by 1 inch squares. Not even a large bug can get in this thing. They told me at feathered haven not to even bother with regular chicken wire, the octagon looking stuff. The raccoons will chew right thru it.The only thing thats missing now is a gun turret.
So TODAY I nearly had a cow, make that an OX. I went in the Tractor Store and saw a dog house that could totally be converted into a coop for 138 bucks. I could have bought two of these things and put them together and had twice as big of a coop for half the price.
http://www.tractorsupply.com/ware-manufacturing-premium-doghouse-large-1039751 CHECK IT OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Do you have a Tractor Store anywhere near you???? Dang I wish I would have seen this, the whole top opens up like a giant lid, it would be a snap to clean out. The top is also weatherproof, and all one peice, which makes it pretty much leak proof. Im going to start putting the Bungalow together tonight.
Im getting a headache thinking about the dog house at the Tractor Store. You could totally modify it, put some perches inside, put a removable peice of plexiglasssor down on the bottom to protect the wood from the chicken poo, or better yet just make a removable lift out try so you can just dump it and hose it off. Cut a window in with a jigsaw and cover it with wire mesh for ventilation. This is killing me. I could put 4 of those things together and make tunnel inbetween all of them.
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AAAHAHHHHHHHH!!!! Anyway, I'll take some more pictures after I get the Bungalow put together. Im thinking I might even have to anchor it down if I feel like it doesnt weigh enough, it can get pretty stormy here sometimes. Let me know what you think about the dog house!
 
Classic. The closest tractor supply is Bakersfield. At least 100 miles away. The darn thing is ONLY available in stores. I guess that's my penance for living in LA...

That would be pretty easy to mod. I'd just want it on stilts because I'm over 6' tall. That could be arranged easily enough though. Darn. I'm back to building. I will say, amazon had 48" wide 19 gauge 1/2" hardware cloth in 100' rolls for $91. That's pretty cheap and that stuff is tough. Doubt much could get through that. I may just build a big run for now so I can get the stinky chickens outside. They are about 5 weeks old and getting big and restless in their ghetto brooder (aka giant cardboard box) even at 6 x 2 x 3, the kids are getting restless. And stinky. Did I mention that? Clean all you want, box gets funky.

I guess I best get my arse in gear and get out my tools. Good thing I'm addicted to power tools, no real excuse now! Ugh. Worst part? I've been prepping my yard for a month to get ready for the coop. I ripped out a 18x24 concrete slab, planted grass and have been building an antique brick path. I'm tired. Building a coop sounds like the seventh circle of hell right now.

Don't you hate it when your project winds up costing a small fortune? My house is Spanish with a tile roof. I'm conspiring to try and match the house with a mini Spanish colonial coop. This will not be free. Crap. Crap. Crap! I'm a designer also, so this means it must look just so. Looks like I'm going to grovel to my brothers and beg for someone to help me build the Alhambra. Oye.

Don't feel too badly about your thousand dollars in hardware cloth. My husband and I, 6'4 and 6'2 got dive bombed by a Cooper's hawk last week. It saw chicken dinner. At least your girls are safe! I'd feel awful if that giant hawk ate one (or all) of my chicks. We have bold predators around here!! Safely locking things up,at night is probably worth the additional costs. That doghouse isn't gonna stop something like your palace...
 

So today I put the Bungalow together, it only took about 45 minutes by myself, it went together fairly well. #1 dissapointment is that it LEAKS!!! The roof itself doesnt leak but the roof over the nesting boxes leaks horribly. Also theres a huge gap inbetween the coop and where the nesting boxes attach to the side of the coop, (you can see that in the close up picture with my dog with the frisbee in her mouth) and there is nothing stopping water from running in there! WTH? I dont know what they were thinking on that one. I will probably replace the hardware, its pretty cheesy and I think a mischeivious raccoon could manipulate them open fairly easy in my opinion. Im just not willing to take any chances with my chickens. Also the bottom tray is very flimsy so I will be beefing that up with a 1/4 inch peice of plexiglass in the bottom. There is NO WAY I would try to house 6 full size chickens in this thing, 4 would be a stretch. I took a picture with Annie (the Buff Orp) in the front and also with my battery drill on the inside to give an idea of the size. Keep in mind my dog is a MINI Aussie and only about 22 pounds. So Im already thinking about how I can add to and or modify the roof to keep the thing from leaking, which totally sucks, if you pay 500 buck for something you would expect it not to leak. Bottom line is, I will not be buying anymore prebuilt chicken coops unless I can read some reviews or see it already built and have a hands on inspection. I will let the My Pet Chicken know about the gripes that I have. Hopefully it will be something that they are willing to fix and improve on. I think I would have been better off with the dog house I saw in the Tractor Store or just building my own again. Hope this helps you guys. If I had to give a rating of 1 to 10 I would proabably get a 5.5 or maybe a 6. I'll post my modifications when I get done. I am going to expand the roof and make it bigger by elongating it with some trim to cover more area and then I will be putting some composition roofing material over the top of it. The connection of the nesting box to the coop will be a little tricky, I'll have to think about that one for a while.......
S
 
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