My Hen House

tmoney438

Hatching
7 Years
Jan 4, 2013
8
0
9
Louisiana
I just finished building my hen house to house my 5 hens. I wanted to build to something that would be movable and yet also substantial enough to give them shelter in the winter. I guess the whole bottom is really a "run" and the loft would be considered the "coop". I used a lot of re-purposed material i had around such as fence panels for siding, cypress for framing, old screen door i but to size, and pallets for the loft. i had to buy tin for the roof, cattle panels for the structure, and chicken wire for the front and added security on the sides. let me know what you think!






Couldn't do a video but t hat whole front panel of the loft is on hinges and folds down for easy cleaning.



 
You've done a nice job for sure. I'm curious about one thing, however. In this pic:


Are those your nesting boxes? If they are you should nail up a 1 x 6 along the bottom so bedding doesn't spill out, etc. It also makes the hens feel more 'secluded' .. silly chickens!
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Nice looking portable coop and run.
LL

If i can be so bold as to offer some advise, i recommend putting 1/2 inch hardware cloth at least two feet up from the bottom to keep predators out such as raccoons and weasels.
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Ha, I knew I would get some great advice posting here! Will def do the lip on the nest boxes, I remember seeing some like that, didn't think that was important, but I get it now. As for the hardware cloth, yes I'm in Louisiana so opossums and coons are an issue, but I have a coon dog that roams around and love treeing animals in the middle of the night and alerting me. As money allows I will add that. It's got 1 inch wire now, I like that it lets bugs in but have heard that it is susceptible to animals. I am hoping they will eventually hang out in the loft which I will get a door that will lock at night. Anyways, thanks for the advice, keep it coming (surprised that's all that's wrong!)
 
Ha, I knew I would get some great advice posting here! Will def do the lip on the nest boxes, I remember seeing some like that, didn't think that was important, but I get it now. As for the hardware cloth, yes I'm in Louisiana so opossums and coons are an issue, but I have a coon dog that roams around and love treeing animals in the middle of the night and alerting me. As money allows I will add that. It's got 1 inch wire now, I like that it lets bugs in but have heard that it is susceptible to animals. I am hoping they will eventually hang out in the loft which I will get a door that will lock at night. Anyways, thanks for the advice, keep it coming (surprised that's all that's wrong!)
LOL, well actually the size is a bit small for your seven birds but it will do for now lol. Rule of thumb is roughly 4 square feet per bird in your coop and 10 square feet per bird in your run. But it is a cool looking coop and run as i mentioned before lol.
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My GSP and German Rott does the same thing, they will chase off any predator such as coyotes, javalina, ect. My GSP even goes after hawks and turkey vultures lol.
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Nice papas, yeah the loft is a little small (3 sq ft a bird) but the run is actually 12 a bird if I did the math right (it's 8.5 ft x 10 ft , that's 12 something right?). The plan is to free range them using electric netting during the day and eventually have a paddock system that I can rotate them though. For now they free range most of the day when I can stand the heat and be out there with them. (Side note, this pen seems HUGE coming from pasture pens I started raising my meat birds in haha. Again keep the suggestions coming!
 
Im going to be making a chicken tractor for my girls to help get rid of these pesky ticks, im going to make it 20 feet long by 10 feet wide by 3 or 4 feet high. The frame is going to be made out of 2x4 and the bottom wall is going to be made from all purpose cages that i have from our old bird buisness and the top portion of the wall and the roof is going to be the dreaded chicken wire lol. Five feet of one side is going to have 1/4 inch plywood on the top and all sides to protect them from sun and weather and im going to attach a set of bike wheels on the shade side for easy moving. Ya i know it will be getto looking but whatever works right lol.
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Correct me if I'm wrong but where did you get these chickens? Because I am pretty sure the first one in that pic is a barred rock rooster at least I think it is because I had one just like that!
 

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