I love my landlady!

[Felicitas]

My landlady just came by and told me she is going to fence off a 10'x50' section along the back of our house. The back faces a pasture, and she is getting a couple of horses. The main purpose of the new fence is to keep the horses away from the house, but she also wants us to keep our chickens in there! This means we can build a larger fixed coop instead of the chicken tractor we were planning to build, and also that I can have a lot more chickens.

 

[kinnip]

Super-duper! With so many people being evicted from rentals due to foreclosures, it's good to see your landlady has it together enough to make improvements.

 

[RIVERA69R]

Thats awesome time to expand SWEET!

 

[Felicitas]

Even better news. Along one side of the house is a long, wooden storage locker. It measures about 16'x7'. My landlady has suggested using this to house the chickens. That space can be set up as a coop for practically nothing - all we need to do is install a pop door, roosts and some nest boxes.

I was excited before, but I am really excited now!

 

[Joy1]

Congratulations are in order.

 

[toletiquesbysam]

I hope you're going to supply her with eggs!

That is really a great Landlady!!!

 

[orcasislandchickens]

She sounds like a realy nice landlady. Eggs for her for sure.

 

[Felicitas]

I double checked the size of the storage locker, and it ain't no 16x6.75.

The dimensions are bizarre: 16 feet by 2.25 feet by about 8 feet high. I was skeptical at first but after doing a lot of measuring and thinking, I think it could work just fine.

Here are my sketches. The first is a top view. On the right is the roosting area. I think that placing two 6-foot 2x4s parallel to each other, then putting 1-foot 2x4s across in ladder style, will provide ample roosting space and all on one level. The roosts will be supported by four posts: basically this is a ladder-table. Underneath the roosts will be a droppings board which can be easily pulled out for cleaning. On the left, a gangplank leads from the roosts to feed and water stations and the nest boxes at the far end of the locker.

Next is a side view of the same setup.

Next is how the setup will look from the outside. We will cut ventilation windows in the top of the doors, and cover them with hardware cloth. We'll also probably put hardware cloth along the bottoms of the doors, just for extra protection. The pop door I am still mulling over, but right now I think the best place will be on the side with the roosts, to cut down on traffic in the feeding and nestbox area.

Comments, feedback, any reasons why this will not work at all?

Oh and the landlady definitely gets free eggs.

Everyone else has to pay, though. Except my mother. And maybe my mother-in-law.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Love the design.

If it was me I would put the chicken door strait out the end farthermost away from the nests. As far away as you can get from the nests an no human/chicken interference. An if its backed up tog a wall, if they get scared then wall will funnel them in to the coop. But then I don't know the place it is going.

 

[lovemychix]

Sounds really nice. I'm building a fenced area for my birds this spring. I can't wait....good luck.