HELP!!! My chicken coops burnt down

[davidr]

Cheap temporary/emergency housing ideas?

- 1/2" osb is about $6.oo sheet, an A frane structure uses the least anount of materials.

- bales of hay 2 high stacked like bricks a couple of sheets of ply for a flat roof cover with a tarp.

- large tent with an attached floor

- if you have a garage your almost done.

none of them will be pretty, but they will work.

If it was me, I'd go with the A frame.

good luck,

David

.

 

[Wifezilla]

You might also check the Habitat for Humanity store for used, cheap building materials

Colorado Springs has a Habitat RE-Store and I LOVE IT. You could get plenty of building materials VERY cheap at your local version. Amazing what you can build out of some old doors in a pinch.

Freecycle and hay bales are also good options. In fact, you may end up using a combination of all three.​

 

[DawnSuiter]

If I had an emergency like this here is what I would do

First, run a clothing line, drying line, as long as I could and have it still be VERY strong... hopefully at least 30' even if I had to add a support to the center of it.

Then I would buy the HEAVIEST tarps I could, which here are about $25 for a 10by12... 3 of those and I would then use the clothes line as a tent support and tent them over the line & stake them down. $75 or so
I would buy 6 bales of the cheapest hay I could find for each tarped section and line the walls with it, so they had a "runway" down the center of the tarps and can roost/perch on the hay. For me that would be close to $100 in hay, hay is pricey here.

Then I would figure out how to use some scrap plywood or similar material to lean up against the front & back end of this now long row of tarps with hay under them, to prevent any additional wind... ALSO 6mil or stronger plastic will also work or extra wimpy tarps too, even a rain fly from a tent.

If they all need to be seperate from eachother, that complicates things a bit, but you could STILL use this idea, but put a divider of chicken wire between each tarp and then leave the last grommet or two undone with no hay in the way, so you can open each section to let the chickens in or out.. or yourself for that matter.

They need wind protection and snow/rain protection.

I have open coops.. essentially a wind block & a roof, but I also have Orpingtons who handle the cold really well.

 

[B'villechicken]

Try finding free shipping pallets and get a tarp. Good luck.

 

[Hollywood Chickens]

check CL playhouses go cheap and can easily be modified, eBay has a lot of chicken coops and sheds, ask your neighbors and friends they may have something.
I have used folding tables with netting in emergancies

 

[sundance]

So sorry to hear of your loss, guess thats why I have been so afraid of heaters in our coop. we built ours out of 4x8 sheets of what looks like chips glued together, can't remember what its called, put a coat of waterseal on the outside and painted it. this is going on the third winter and no problem with it. try Habit for humanaity, or any place that might have pallets. most of the time they will give them to you to save on hauling them off. good luck marrie

 

[blurose]

Five years ago I built a "temporary" chicken house out of wood pallets (floor and all walls) topped with a plywood roof and stapled woven nylon feed bags on the walls to keep out the wind and most of the rain. This was certainly not very pretty but very functional. Temporary turned into 4-1/2 years duration. This past spring my SIL and son built a "permanant" chicken house for me that cost me about $130. We started with the old standby of wood pallets nailed together to form the floor, covered this with 2 pieces of plywood (the coop measures 8'x10'), framed walls with 2x4s, covered with more plywood and used recycled windows. I purchased the 2x4s and plywood from a discount lumber store specializing in less than prime grade lumber.

 

[DawnSuiter]

This went up in a weekend for lots less than $200

4 posts
12 2X4s
4 2X6s
20 rafter brackets
5 sheets metal roofing
box of special roofing screws
2 rolls of wire
and a door

We're about to wrap it with 6 mil plastic for the winter. That's this winter's layer house

 

[Katy]

So what time of the day did they burn?

 

[Harleyontherun]

Thank you all for your ideas. Anyone live by Wisconsin Dells, WI???

I do not know how to cut wood, LOL Plus it is only me putting it together. I still hold the hammer at the head. I think the fire was in the day time as all of the babies were out of it and not burned. I have no clue who put the fire out, isn't the fire dept suppose to notify you if they did it? I know someome put it out as the wheel barrow that was in the open stall, full of all the saw zas(?) and round saw thing were burnt up but the barrow was pulled completely out of the stall. Now the new thing is my birds are starting to disappear like someone is taking them, of the people type. I have 20 lb birds, in two days 2 were taken, no feathers nothing. Then the next two days two of my three ducks are missing. Again no feathers, nothing. My count of Ginney hens was 9 and today I only have 4. This is really making me sick. I'll lose them all before I get a coop for them. Theresa