So last spring I found THIS on Craigslist:
It has a front door, too, and is 8 feet long x 4 feet wide by 12 feet tall! The guy used it to hunt out of (putting his gun out those little windows
, which have plexi over them that drops down--real sporting). Anyhoo, turned out it was only a few miles from me, so I bought it (for $150!!!) and had it hauled over.
I finally completed my reno of it. My original henhouse, for my 2 pet chickens, was this:
Very cute, and we worked hard on it, but being so small, it was impossible to heat, a complete PITA to clean, and I had to leave the water out in the run, where it froze, etc. Just wasn't working.
Here's the new one (old coop hasn't yet been removed). You can't really see this in the pix, but I dropped the plexi window covers down and securely stapled on hardware cloth, so in the summer they can be open for ventilation, and in the winter, closed to keep in the heat.
The nest box (it's really a litterbox--I liked the round cosy shape of it) will eventually be up on a little shelf:
The run is a 10X10 dog run, which I got on C's list and (1) covered; (2) put a hardware cloth apron around (shown here prior to staking-down):
I've still got some prettying up to do on the building (I have an adorable Penn. Dutch hex sign for it, and I want to move the bell from the old house), but the girls have moved in and after some intial consternation (we all know how chickens feel about NEW STUFF!), they have settled in nicely. They have SO much vertical space, and can go right up near the ceiling if they want, via the roosting ladder. The heat lamp is close to the top roosts, so they can choose to be near it or not. Just having the water inside has prevented it from freezing even when it's been below 32F. And cleaning it is a BREEZE! I "scoop poop" every a.m. with a stall cleaning fork and put it in the little trashcan for my gardener SIL (whose Christmas gift this year is horse and chicken poop -- on her request!).
Anyway, that's it! I'll post more pix later after the prettying-up!
It has a front door, too, and is 8 feet long x 4 feet wide by 12 feet tall! The guy used it to hunt out of (putting his gun out those little windows
I finally completed my reno of it. My original henhouse, for my 2 pet chickens, was this:
Very cute, and we worked hard on it, but being so small, it was impossible to heat, a complete PITA to clean, and I had to leave the water out in the run, where it froze, etc. Just wasn't working.
Here's the new one (old coop hasn't yet been removed). You can't really see this in the pix, but I dropped the plexi window covers down and securely stapled on hardware cloth, so in the summer they can be open for ventilation, and in the winter, closed to keep in the heat.
The nest box (it's really a litterbox--I liked the round cosy shape of it) will eventually be up on a little shelf:
The run is a 10X10 dog run, which I got on C's list and (1) covered; (2) put a hardware cloth apron around (shown here prior to staking-down):
I've still got some prettying up to do on the building (I have an adorable Penn. Dutch hex sign for it, and I want to move the bell from the old house), but the girls have moved in and after some intial consternation (we all know how chickens feel about NEW STUFF!), they have settled in nicely. They have SO much vertical space, and can go right up near the ceiling if they want, via the roosting ladder. The heat lamp is close to the top roosts, so they can choose to be near it or not. Just having the water inside has prevented it from freezing even when it's been below 32F. And cleaning it is a BREEZE! I "scoop poop" every a.m. with a stall cleaning fork and put it in the little trashcan for my gardener SIL (whose Christmas gift this year is horse and chicken poop -- on her request!).
Anyway, that's it! I'll post more pix later after the prettying-up!
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