Securing chickens at night

[ChickNandfamily]

In about an hour I was able to construct a "nursery" for a hen and chicks. Make a rectangle out of boards (I did 4 feet long and 2 feet deep). Run board vertically from each corner (I did 3 feet high), then make another rectangle at the top. You now have a rectangular prism. Close in the sides with either plywood or hardware cloth. Framing out a little door is very easy to do. This thing is solid, predator proof, and even rat proof. The main con is it's a huge pain to clean, but good for a temporary solution.

Were I to build it again, I'd put one whole wall of plywood on a hinge for easy opening.

That sounds very nice! If you don’t mind and have a picture of the box I’d like to see it

 

[Anon112]

Here's what it looks like:

This is the second one I built, so it's a bit fancier. I used two boards for each corner in an L shape. This let me put a small piece of wood in each bottom corner about 3 inches up so that when I put the floor in (a 4 x 2 piece of plywood), it was elevated from the ground. The back is 4x2 plywood, with the rest covered in hardware cloth for ventilation. The side walls are 2 x 2 plywood, again with hardware cloth at the top. The front is obviously mostly hardware cloth. I had a square-ish piece of wood, so I dropped a board across the front at that width, then another little board across at the right height, then secured the square piece with hinges. Because I was mostly protecting them from rats, I just secured the door by propping a big brick against it each night. But on the first one I designed. I screwed a little piece of wood on the right side next to the door that could swivel, so when it swivels one way it holds the door shut.

While it was meant to be temporary, the chickens seem to really like it. It's a quick place to shelter from rain or wind, and they like standing on top of the roof. (Note that the roof is flat in this picture which was a huge mistake, as I learned the first time it rained. Turns out roofs are pitched for a reason! I later added more plywood at an angle to deflect rain. As it seems like this will be more permanent, I'm looking into roofing options because obviously the plywood will eventually rot through).

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Maybe the door they could get their paw through, as ours is metal bars, but that's only one end and the chickens would be at the other.

This is what I was thinking—the metal door. The chickens might start out at one end of the kennel but in my experience they will sleep where there is good air flow so they might sleep by the door. Even if they don’t a raccoon pawing at the kennel could easily startle them which could create enough panic for one or more of them to get near the door and lose a head.