Modified Chick-N-Barn/Yard Updated with new Expand-A-Run (pg.2)

[Dawn419]

Hi Amy!

I'd made a comment back in November about wishing I had chickens again...the very next day, DH calls from work to tell me that he'd found our first coop, a prefab playhouse. Gotta love it!!!

Luckily, he's a carpenter and loves building things so when I showed him pix of everyone's Chicken Tractors, I knew he was hooked!

He's already planning #2 as I type.

Dawn

 

[wendy]

Hi Dawn419,

That is nice what yall are doing
My husband works offshore, he is out there right now working
But should be home Sunday. And there are somethings he has talked about doing to the coop to add. I don't know what he has in mind
I have been looking to add some chicks or rooster pics on the outside to dress it up and put some planters by there there windows. I sure they would love to look at some flowers as the sunsets and they roost away, hee hee

 

[yearofthedog]

That is the COOLEST coop! I love, love, LOVE it!!

I'm trying to re-design/customize my coop and that space beneath the coop is the space that I've been trying explain to DH we need to utilize(we are on a small quarter acre) and your coop illustrates it perfectly!

 

[Dawn419]

wendy,

DH used to work a crazy 2nd shift job and we never got anything accomplished. Since he started his new day job, he may work alot of hours but he still comes home in the evenings and helps me with the chicken projects. He's enjoying them as much as I am and I'm very thankful for that!

We are getting busy on the playhouse coop's run again and he came up with the idea of a raised bed garden along the south-side of that run. I'm excited about that!

Thanks yearofthedog!

Our place is close to 2 acres but there's not alot of flat space. This sits in the front yard (gotta love livin' in the country!!!) and we will eventually add wheels so we can move it with the riding mower.

After we finish with the playhouse project, we'll be starting on our own version of this one which we hope will be bigger and better.

Dawn

 

[wendy]

that is nice, i have somethings i want to do. just doing little at a time. plus my youngest two are so young i can't get alot accompished right now without full attention on them. i was lucky to paint the coop in a day

 

[Dawn419]

Well, we still haven't added wheels to the Townhouse to make it easier to move. I've tried moving it myself, after getting tired of waiting for Skip to move it, and it doesn't budge an inch. So I decided to build the Silkies a "day-time only" extra run to give them more room.

We still had a few 4' x 16' cattle panels left over from completing our main run. I broke out the tape measure and was able to get 3 sections out of 1 panel. There are two, 4' sections and one, 6' section. Skip used the SawzAll to cut the panel into sections for me.



I used 1/2" hardware cloth attached to the panel with J-clips and wire. The sections are tied together with zip-ties. The next step was to figure out how to enclose the top. We found some heavy-duty plastic hardware netting at Lowe's. I cut it into 3 sections, zip-tied them together, then attached it to a 1" x 2" on one side and a 1" x 6" on the other side, using more zip-ties.



I'm using the back 4' section as my access door...



The finished project...



The Silkies love it but it is hilarious to watch them forget how to get back over into the main area after just having come through the small door...



Any questions or comments???

Dawn

 

[skatcatla]

That looks really good, congratulations! I sometimes wish now I had got the Chickn-Barn instead of the Chick-n-Pen. The Pen is too small for 4 birds, really. But the Barn wasn't introduced until after I already had got the pen. :-(

 

[Dawn419]

Thanks!

I know what you mean about room, or lack there-of. The Barn is pefect for 5 Banty Silkies but even with it being raised off the ground, the yard area just doesn't give them quite enough room to be chickens. They get over in the new yard and it's a blast watching them flapping around attempting to fly.

Dawn

 

[MiniDriver]

That looks so cool! I have been eying the chick-n-barn for some time, and it seems like with some modifications it could be perfect!

It says it houses 10 comfortably -- I only want 6 so I think it should be ok. How many do you keep in yours?

 

[Dawn419]

Hi MiniDriver!

First off, welcome to BYC and the addiction!

I love our Chick-N-Barn and wish I'd thought to buy atleast another one (if not 2) since coop construction to seperate our Banty breeds is at a stand-still with the shorter days.

If I remember correctly, they claim it would house 5 Standards or 10 Bantams. We house 5 Banty Silkies in ours and the Barn is just the right size for them but the Yard is on the small size, in my opinion/experience since we've had it.

One thing I would like to do is get a roll of TekFoil for insulation. Until I can order it, I just added a couple pieces of 2" x 4" in front of their access door so I can use the Deep Litter Method to help them stay warm this winter.