New digs for the chicks

[NellaBean]

Just finished up a new playpen for the chickens. It is 8x8 and 4 feet tall. The posts are 5 feet (they were precut from another project).

Not bad considering it was mostly built with wood I had laying around from, uh....failed projects

I had to buy two 2x4's and the hardware cloth (actually bought a month ago but not used yet) and hardware for the gate....but that is it.

I built it next to the sooon to be chicken coop. It needs major repairs but that is the next project. For now, they come back in the brooder shed in the garage at night.

The real pen will be 16x24...and this pen will be the front corner of it......I may leave it separate so I can either put a breed in here....or maybe ducks! or something like that.

Here is the coop/shed before hand

It has a hole in the floor and the walls are a mess. I am planning on filling in that opening with a door and wall and then cutting a little chicken door into the side. That way I can enter from the outside of both the run and the house.

Not bad for a one person build. On a hill. On uneven ground. In 90 degree weather.

A few weeks ago I built a little mini playpen tractor for the two big chicks to get out of the brooder rubbermaid tub.

Nothing fancy, just 4x4 and 3 feet tall. But it is a nice little mini playpen/tractor for the big kids.


I also converted an old tack shed to a brooder for the in betweens.

Who even knew chickens required so much.....carpentry?

 

[Zahboo]

I couldn't build on a slope like that and it actually stand up. GOOD JOB

 

[montcapu]

Quote:
I second that

 

[GardeNerd]

Great job with the angles and the slope. I agree, I couldn't do that very well.

Nice set up.

 

[NellaBean]

Thanks! I admit I probably used every expletive known to mankind at some point in the project. And the slope was a pain to build the pen on but nearly impossible to build the gate into.......it took as long to make the gate as it did to make the rest of the pen......

I left the posts long as they were already that length and I plan to add a strand of electric to the top edge.....and also one at the bottom, maybe one in the middle? I have an electric fence already and the charger is right at the back corner of the garage. The chicken pen would get the first juice out of the charger. The fence runs about 8000 volts around the perimeter of the yard already so.....definitely would not want to hit it trying to bust into the chicken yard. It hurts.....Believe me, I know