Plastic Play House as a Coop?

[sfaithj]

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Thanks! I was thinking just now that I could try and find two of these plastic playhouses and then use chicken wire around both doors (having both doors face each other) so the hens could walk back and forth between the houses.

Connecting two houses could definitely work, you would essentially double your space and then be able to double the amount of chickens your coop could hold!

I would use hardware cloth when securing the open spots on your coop though, not just chicken wire. Hardware cloth is more durable and secure. I know we have some nocturnal predators, namely raccoons and opossums here in Oakland that would make quick work of regular gauged chicken wire so we decided going with a stronger hardware cloth for our coop was the best idea.

Jeremy, I didn't realize you were local! I joined all of the Bay Area chicken yahoo groups/google groups I could find however they don't seem very active. I feel like I read somewhere about a regular chicken farming meet up in Montclair. Is that true?

Hardware cloth-thanks for the tip!!

 

[azmotogirl]

We (mostly my dear husband) built a "Playhouse Duplex" for our ladies and it is working great..... he built two matching platforms and placed them side by side and we have a roost running through both houses and they can go back and forth as much as they want. Here are a few pictures.....

I included a few construction pix just in case you wanted to see how he put things together. Hope this helps and just let us know if you need any additional information.

Happy building!!

 

[elmo]

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You would naturally think that something named "chicken wire" is meant to be used to keep chickens safe from predators, right?

Unfortunately, nothing could be more incorrect. Chicken wire will keep your chickens in, but won't keep predators out. If I had a dollar for every chicken lost from a predator breaking through chicken wire, I could retire a millionaire.

Welded wire (sometimes called hardware cloth) is the thing to use, in my opinion. If you use welded wire with small openings between the wire (1/2" by 1/2") then you won't have to deal with "reach through" predation, where a predator like a raccoon reaches through the opening and pulls bits of an unfortunate chicken out through the wire, piece by piece. Awful.

 

[wpalmisano]

I don't see any reason you wouldn't be able to use it. You'd have to coyote and fox proof it though. It would be super easy to clean. You might have to weigh it down because of wind too.

 

[wannabchick]

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That's awesome..

My geisha..How many coops do u have? I dub u the official coop godess

 

[sfaithj]

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oh i love this! well done!

 

[sfaithj]

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weight it down because of wind- good point! thanks!

 

[sfaithj]

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You would naturally think that something named "chicken wire" is meant to be used to keep chickens safe from predators, right?

Unfortunately, nothing could be more incorrect. Chicken wire will keep your chickens in, but won't keep predators out. If I had a dollar for every chicken lost from a predator breaking through chicken wire, I could retire a millionaire.

Welded wire (sometimes called hardware cloth) is the thing to use, in my opinion. If you use welded wire with small openings between the wire (1/2" by 1/2") then you won't have to deal with "reach through" predation, where a predator like a raccoon reaches through the opening and pulls bits of an unfortunate chicken out through the wire, piece by piece. Awful.

thanks! i'll look for welded wire. and poor chickens :-(

 

[azmotogirl]

As for the wind..... the base we built was pretty heavy so we attached the playhouse to it with "L" brackets and have not has any issues with wind. It is very sturdy!

 

[calgal98]

I love those!! If they were a bit bigger they would work for my little goats! They would love those!