I got home last night with my new Serama Summer Cottage. This will be their home when the weather is tolerable outside and they will still live in the garage in the coldest part of the winter.
It looks like an ordinary cage but after I'm done with it, it will be transformed.
It's 12 foot long and 6 foot wide and currently divided into 4 sections. I'm planning to divide 2 of those sections into four 3 by 3 foot rooms and leave the other two sections the 3 by 6 foot area they are now, one for chicks to grow in and another for a possible larger family, a rooster (or two if they get along) and 3 to 6 hens. I have considered that my chicks are from small hatches so I'll likely go ahead and divide that last section for the younger and older chicks especially since it's 6 foot long and would require a net to catch them in such a large pen and I want to be able to just reach in and pick them up, a lot.
I'm just going to use it as is until I get a really good plan figured out and I may change my mind for the layout as I figure out what their real needs are. I love the idea of a 3 by 6 foot run but it may be impractical. There is a single little wire door to each of the 4 sections. I think I'd like to enlarge the doors, they're really small and sharp to reach into and set up sort of in the middle so it's going to be inconvenient to reach in. My husband can frame it and make little "screen door like" doors to put wire in and decorate like an old fashioned screen door with embellishments and I'd like to put trim along the top, under the roof line with some gingerbread type trim pieces. The next boxes are going to be "different" too. I'd like to have them set up where they are mounted on a board that goes top to floor in a way I can take them out to clean easily. I have a lot of ideas in my head and it may take all summer to get it done a little at a time. My husband is very handy and we should be able to do a lot of it with scrap materials. I have a rather large piece of shade cloth that I thought would be cool to attach under the trim along the roof line, gathered just a little to look like a valance/curtains. It might give it a cute look but better than that, it would give a little shade to help keep it cooler in the summer and it would be very weather proof. The pens are tall so a bit of it covered will keep them from being over exposed to too much sun.
I hope to eventually enclose it with a yard for grass time but it's not going to have a really large area so I'm holding off on that till I get it all set up the way I want. I have a small clump of bamboo that makes 12 to 15 foot tall canes, I'm going to start saving them and by next year, I should have enough to weave them together using a nylon twine and cut to fit the around the bottom of the cage if I need that but that's not for sure yet either. I may just put some white picket fence around the bottom or leave it open if I enclose it totally. It's going to be in the yard so I want it to look nice but it's definitely going to be a fun project. My father in law loves to do wood projects so I may see if he will make the nesting boxes.
I'm going to check at the local pet stores to see about picking up some of the parrot perches. There are some made that connect to cages on each end so they're easy to remove and clean and I'm pretty sure the will fit a 3 foot length perfect and they just attach through the wire.
I'd like to find her a new home since she can't be outside at this point and I doubt she'll ever lay an egg, but I'm afraid she wouldn't survive a trip shipping
