Need Ideas to make box more liveable for chickens.

[Chick Li]

Well were at it again. I have this box in the backyard my DH brought home from work. They were getting rid of it.










We have used the box before. I put a tarp in it about 9 month ago and put about 10-12 inches of sand on top of that for about 10 broilers. I worked for a pinch. Dear hubby put the locks and handles and chicken wire on it for me.

Well we have 2 Broad breasted turkeys in the brooder They will come out this week. In April we'll get 2 heritage breed turkeys for my DD for fair. She is also doing the market turkeys. Then in May we will get about 10 broiler and my DS will show two of those for the fair. I would like to put a better floor in the box so it can be used all year long. Last year I put a large Rubbermaid bin with a cut out door in and food trough and water. They liked it and cover it partially at night. I think though with the blue tarp on the bottom the sand did not breath well.

I will have a need very soon for a place for poults or broilers to go.
Any and all ideas are welcome. We are enjoying having chickens. They make us laugh. I think we have found our calling. Now if only I could find property at a decent price in California. Yes, I still dream.

 

[JoeyOsborne]

first of all i would put some kind of protection on the roof to stop any water/rain getting in, i would cut a hole in the side to let them out and in again if your letting them have a run that is! clean it out with special poultry disenfectant and put in a nice bedding for them make sure there regularly fed, watered and healthy and everything should be fine hope this helps

 

[aart]

Cool Beans...I mean Cool Box!

So are you going to use this as a brooder only?
Get all that crap out of there, line the whole thing (or at least the bottom) in hardware cloth for predator protection. Maybe add some ventilation holes, covered in hardware cloth with covers for draft protection.

Can't wait to see it in action!

 

[nellynelly]

how many birds do you want keep? seems small.

i would tip it up, have roosted bars go up. also, put nesting boxes on outside would make for easy egg collection. you should put a roof on it.

 

[Chick Li]

Thank you all, I will keep you posted. I loved this box when I saw it. It sat in the backyard for about 5 months before we were kind of forced to use it. We had 13 full grown broilers in there lasttime. The broilers poop way to much and the grass and wood chips can't take it. They were in a tractor then. We had 13 full grown broilers in there lasttime. I know I will need to put sand or something in there for the bottom, but how to keep it in. We will clean it out and keep the baseboards. We want to add some kind of floor right now on top of the baseboard

then add other things.

 

[Chick Li]

Here is what we have done so far.


We, I mean DH laid down hardwire cloth. He took out some of the planks, they are now in the burn barrel. Little turkeys in the background.



He is adding a lid to half of the top and the other side has hardwire cloth. He is finishing the top as we I type.
He is also going to cut a door that will also act as the ramp for the chickens, poultry to get out, and put a lock on it.
It will probably be in the middle of the box. I want to put sand or loose gravel in the box for easy clean up.
I am thinking of putting in several layers of black gardening liner and lay it all across the bottom. Then add several bags of sand/gravel to it.
We used sandbox sand lasttime and it didn't drain well. Should I use construction sand or coarse paver base sand. So what do you think let me know?