A little background;
My daughter and her 2 kids moved in with me when I bought this place at the end of April. So, we've been here almost 5 months now and love it. We have 36 acres, 20 of it in woods. She will be 37 in a few days, I'm in my 60s, have had back surgery and have very arthritic knees. It slows me down but doesn't stop me.
I got my first chickens a year ago. We've enjoyed them so much (and got good prices on eggs, especially over the winter), so we've decided we want more, lots more.
Now "building" anything is new to us. I bought my Grandson a play gym/swing set/fort thing, that's waiting to be put together. Now that it has cooled off some, it is on the list of things to do.
The coop... The idea of trying to build a roof etc had us pretty fuddled. The price of ready made is way out of line for us. So... on this property is what the previous owner called the hay shed. Okay. It is 35' wide and 20' deep. There are 3 breeds we'd like to keep separate and just a few hens and 1 rooster of each. Then have a ladies only section for layers, at least 25 of them. I've been looking at this hay shed thinking how I could divide it into 3 smaller coops and 1 large one. We wouldn't have to build a roof!!! We would have to figure out how to frame in the front for a door and windows. Also figure out how to put windows into the existing metal building. Dividing up the inside would just be a matter of chicken wire dividers. That I can handle.
I have another piece of land (5 acres) I'm going to sell. It has a beat up old mobile on it that isn't habitable. But, I'm thinking the kitchen cabinets from it would make great nest boxes. I'll also take all the windows from the place to use in the coop. Big plans, now if we can just do it. Curious what y'all think of starting with the hay shed, and my plans. Now these plans I made from a local furniture store's website. They have an area for planning out your room. LOL. Whatever works. The "plans" are not to scale, just a general idea.
Open to any and all ideas, corrections etc
The hay shed -- excuse the mess.
The side yard where 1 run would start
The back of the row of outbuildings. One run would go back behind the other buildings.
If we get good at this building thing, maybe some day we could put a brooder coop here in these trees. It's right across the drive from the hay shed.
The "plans". Like I said, general ideas and not really to scale but as close as I could get it.
My daughter and her 2 kids moved in with me when I bought this place at the end of April. So, we've been here almost 5 months now and love it. We have 36 acres, 20 of it in woods. She will be 37 in a few days, I'm in my 60s, have had back surgery and have very arthritic knees. It slows me down but doesn't stop me.
I got my first chickens a year ago. We've enjoyed them so much (and got good prices on eggs, especially over the winter), so we've decided we want more, lots more.
Now "building" anything is new to us. I bought my Grandson a play gym/swing set/fort thing, that's waiting to be put together. Now that it has cooled off some, it is on the list of things to do.
The coop... The idea of trying to build a roof etc had us pretty fuddled. The price of ready made is way out of line for us. So... on this property is what the previous owner called the hay shed. Okay. It is 35' wide and 20' deep. There are 3 breeds we'd like to keep separate and just a few hens and 1 rooster of each. Then have a ladies only section for layers, at least 25 of them. I've been looking at this hay shed thinking how I could divide it into 3 smaller coops and 1 large one. We wouldn't have to build a roof!!! We would have to figure out how to frame in the front for a door and windows. Also figure out how to put windows into the existing metal building. Dividing up the inside would just be a matter of chicken wire dividers. That I can handle.
I have another piece of land (5 acres) I'm going to sell. It has a beat up old mobile on it that isn't habitable. But, I'm thinking the kitchen cabinets from it would make great nest boxes. I'll also take all the windows from the place to use in the coop. Big plans, now if we can just do it. Curious what y'all think of starting with the hay shed, and my plans. Now these plans I made from a local furniture store's website. They have an area for planning out your room. LOL. Whatever works. The "plans" are not to scale, just a general idea.
Open to any and all ideas, corrections etc
The hay shed -- excuse the mess.
The side yard where 1 run would start
The back of the row of outbuildings. One run would go back behind the other buildings.
If we get good at this building thing, maybe some day we could put a brooder coop here in these trees. It's right across the drive from the hay shed.
The "plans". Like I said, general ideas and not really to scale but as close as I could get it.
