Garage Chickens...Who does this??

[franklinstreetwest]

So, I'm sitting here over a nice meal with my fabulous other half, and we have a chicken housing debate.....

We live in the city and INSTEAD of a coop, keep the chickens in one half of the garage. One of us thinks this is normal/more likely to be the way chickens are kept. The other person thinks that "normal" people would rather keep both their coop and their chickens seperate and outside. This is in the city or urban type area remember.

So the question is.....

Do you raise chickens in your garage full time?

We are both really curious to know if we're as weird as we imagine that we are.

 

[ericz]

sounds plausible to me. why not? do they ever get outside? are you in richmond perchance? west of the boulevard?

 

[AinaWGSD]

Technically I think you're both right on this one. I think most people would prefer to have a separate coop area and garage. It keeps the car cleaner, and is safer for the chickens if you like to go out and warm up the car before getting in it to go to work on cold winter mornings.

However, most people would also prefer to not spend a small fortune on a chicken coop and would readily use an already standing building. The first person I ever knew to have chickens built his coop in the corner of a shed in his urban backyard. I'm not sure if this shed was originally a garage or some other outbuilding (his house is a hundred+ year old farm house that when it was first built housed ranch hands) but it certainly looks like it was used as a garage at one point in time. Another person used their old carriage house (again, an older house in a "historic" urban neighborhood). It was used as a garage at some point but the current owner did not park their car in there.

So while I don't think it's necessarily a "normal" housing for chickens, I'd say it's not uncommon either.

 

[Hawkeye95]

I know there are several people who have built coops in their garage. I think it works out fine. If you have the room outside and they are allowed- then I'd just build a coop outside, personally. BUT... having said that, I do have a bunch of chickens in MY garage.

I keep my brooder in there for one. I also have large pens in the garage, too, for birds I am keeping an eye on. Even my turkey sleeps in the garage. I've turned one of my horse stalls into a coop, too. I'm also nearly done with a cute little coop in my backyard... gosh, I guess there are endless places for them to go. If you use your garage-- just keep it clean, change out your pine shavings frequently, and you'll still have a fresh smelling garage! Oh, and I would lay down vinyl or something to protect your cement. I would not put the shavings and birds directly on the cement floor. It is porous, and it will suck in the smells and yucky wetness. My floor is protected, but I've smelled other garages where they didn't seal the floor really well or lay down vinyl to protect the cement. Yuck!!

 

[F106A]

I'm sort of embarrassed to say I've had mine in the garage for some time. Of course they are in my oversized "brooder" which has helped tremendously, but due to, uh, let's just say circumstances that's the way it is. Yes, I have a coop in progress outside in the backyard. In fact a long-time friend of mine was all over my back today to get the durn thing finished.

How does that saying go? Life is what happens when you're busy making plans?

By the way, I've had a two-car garage for years and have never parked one of my cars in it!

 

[NovaAman]

If you have it completely sectioned off, solid wall, then why not?

I do not park my car in the garage. I have a riding lawn mower, snow blower, to much other crap... That and its a small garage.

Oh, I also have a coop in there! And one outside...

 

[blkpoodles]

i agree with what the others say, why not, i've thought of doing it too but the garage is a mess, so i have 3 coops in the back yard.

 

[franklinstreetwest]

Thank You for the responses.

We currently have chickens in our garage. It's not really a debate wether WE should keep them there or not. We were wondering if other urban chicken ranchers keep theirs in the garage. And what would other people's concerns for and against be?

We have our small flock in the garage. On the one side of the two "car" garage (and by car I mean buggy or carriage, cuz I can't imagine how you would get a car into it...not even my hatchback economy Nissan Versa. The place in the yaard to drive in isn't big enough to turn a car and drive it into the door) so we use that side for the birds, and we just wash and dust the bird area down like it's inside the house. Not as much dust as most people assume from chickens. And there hasn't been a car in the garage in at least a year. I would NEVER leave my car running to choke my birds with exhaust. The cement floor is the smooth polished type...other than a general chicken body odor in the air, it doesn't "stink" in a way that is offensive or permeates the wood/cement and leaves the odor permanently there.

We were wondering what other urban chicken enthusiasts would PREFER to keep their birds in. The garage? A structure that was designed with similar details and colors of the house you live in, or a standard simple 2"X4" & plywood coop/hutch with a slant roof, nothin fancy, & simple run?

 

[Chickenaddict]

We started out with a little slapped together 4 by 6 coop with a slanted roof, nothing fancy is and understatement LOL. It leaked horribly, no windows, and too much ventillation. We soon moved our flock to our garage for a few years while we were "in the process" of building a new coop outside with a run. I liked having the birds in the garage over the winter but in the summer it got tooooo darn hot and alot of the bedding got into the house being the garage is attatched to the house. Im talking around 40 banties and a pair of call ducks taking over the majority of the space in the 2 car section of the garage, there is another 3rd stall attatched to that but kept seperated for my other halfs "mancave". The dust was horrible and all that dust got into the exposed rafters piled with stufff we store up there. I much rather have them outside in the fresh air and locked tight in their own coop verses my garage with the exception of winter.

 

[ericz]

i brought my chickens into the garage during hurricane irene, and before that when they were brooding, but that's all. i think the hard cement floor is a real drag for them.... no way to scratch around and nothing to peck at. also, in my garage there's not a lot of natural light.

but if i had to keep them in there i would probably make a dirt floor, or leaves, or grass clippings... anything like that.