I am REALLY excited right now! My keets are three and a half weeks old and I will be trading a few for some two week old chicks (some sort of mix between bantam, silkie, and/or buff orpington as that is what the neighbor free ranges) and I have been wracking my head over how I am going to come up with an affordable housing solution for everyone. After typing in "lumber" on craigslist today, I found this for $250:
The shed part is 6x6 and the deck adds another 2 1/2 feet. It's 6' tall at the peak and elevated about 4'. It certainly needs a few repairs and modifications but its built very sturdy and I know I can do what I need to with it.
Here is the pen that I will use for my run:
My intention is to put the playhouse on the north side of the pen, which is the side nearest the garage. I was thinking of unhooking one side of the chain link and attaching it to one side of the playhouse and then enclosing the rest of the space underneath the "coop" to add that space as more run area. The birds will be in the run during the day while we are gone and then free range when we are home in the evenings and on the weekends. I hope to have my guineas locked in the coop each night along with the chickens and my lone goose (who free ranges all day) but we'll see how that works out!
I have 2 windows in my attic that I have not measured yet but look to be about 2'x3' so I'd like to put those on it as well as build and attach some external nest boxes to save floor space. I am also considering extending the coop square footage out onto the deck portion. I'd like to make the bigger (deck side) door taller, as right now it is a little under 4' tall. I have some sheet vinyl in my attic that I will put down on the floor, and the roof needs repairing but we have shingles that I might be able to use. If not I'm sure I can find something free or cheap. I am about to change out some of the air return registers in my house so those will come in handy, plus I have my old 10x10 and 10x16 return registers up in my attic I may be able to use. Being a little bit of a pack rat pays off sometimes lol. I really like to being able to reuse and re-purpose stuff!
The shed part is 6x6 and the deck adds another 2 1/2 feet. It's 6' tall at the peak and elevated about 4'. It certainly needs a few repairs and modifications but its built very sturdy and I know I can do what I need to with it.
Here is the pen that I will use for my run:
My intention is to put the playhouse on the north side of the pen, which is the side nearest the garage. I was thinking of unhooking one side of the chain link and attaching it to one side of the playhouse and then enclosing the rest of the space underneath the "coop" to add that space as more run area. The birds will be in the run during the day while we are gone and then free range when we are home in the evenings and on the weekends. I hope to have my guineas locked in the coop each night along with the chickens and my lone goose (who free ranges all day) but we'll see how that works out!
I have 2 windows in my attic that I have not measured yet but look to be about 2'x3' so I'd like to put those on it as well as build and attach some external nest boxes to save floor space. I am also considering extending the coop square footage out onto the deck portion. I'd like to make the bigger (deck side) door taller, as right now it is a little under 4' tall. I have some sheet vinyl in my attic that I will put down on the floor, and the roof needs repairing but we have shingles that I might be able to use. If not I'm sure I can find something free or cheap. I am about to change out some of the air return registers in my house so those will come in handy, plus I have my old 10x10 and 10x16 return registers up in my attic I may be able to use. Being a little bit of a pack rat pays off sometimes lol. I really like to being able to reuse and re-purpose stuff!
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