Giant Chicken Aviary

[LuWis]

One of my life goals is to have a giant chicken aviary/coop! I want to know if anyone has seen one or built one. The aviary I have in mind will be predator proof and ideally it will be bigger than half an acre on all sides...
In my mind, a coop the size of a football stadium! Of course, something that size has to benefit the community and it will in various ways. Am I crazy to want this and actually planning and investing in it?

 

[QueenMisha]

I can't help you with the feasibility of the project, since I've never built or seen one either, but I don't think you're crazy! I have a pretty similar dream, but not as much an aviary as a barn coop; a really big barn, like, ideally, Costo-size. OK, maybe not that big to start off - from the research I've done, it'll be a couple years saving up with a well paying job to put in a barn maybe 50x150 feet, to start. What I'd really like to do is go to college and get a PhD in Poultry Science, but I don't have the academic background or financial means to get into any kind of college with a decent poultry department, and besides, a lot of them focus on commerical raising, broilers and such; and hey, broilers are cool and all, but I want to learn about the rare breeds, the exotics, the fancy foreign birds that no one's heard of.

I'm right there with you about a dream coop though! I spend maybe an hour a day just thinking exactly about how I'd want it. I've got some serious fears about contagious diseases (bad past experiences) and of course loss to predators, so it will be an indoor confinement operation, but I don't want to be unpleasant for the birds at all! I want to put in skylights over the whole length, so they have natural sunlight, and a dustbathing pit in each pen. They'll have fodder boxes too, for access to natural greens. In my mind, the barn itself is metal, with a big isle down the center and each pen separated by a wooden frame with chicken wire, and corrugated metal sheets along the bottom of each divider so the cocks won't fight. Dozens of breeds. Hanging feeders and automatic cup waterers to keep the bedding clean. Oh, now that must be my idea of heaven.

 

[LuWis]

Wow!that sounds amazing! Will it be just for your eyes or will people be able to come in and see?

 

[QueenMisha]

Wow!that sounds amazing! Will it be just for your eyes or will people be able to come in and see?

I'm thinking of using it to start my breeder/hatchery business, and the flock will be NPIP, so no visitors because of disease worries... but I do want to make a website for my hatchery, and I think I'll try to put a "virtual tour" sort of thing up, so people can see exactly how the birds are raised and cared for! And another dream of mine is to open a small rooster rescue, like maybe space enough for 50 birds. Run on donations and left over money and all that. People would be able to visit that! I'd have to take biosecurity precautions, of course, like having them put plastic booties on and washing their hands super thouroughly before entering the building, and all that, but once that's done they'd be able to come in and see the roosters, maybe there'd even be a little play room so families can take out a rooster and handle it, to make sure they picked the right one! People say I'm crazy, but I think I could make it work.