suggestions and pics: dog kennel coop

[olderoo]

Ive gotten a chain link dog kennel and am interested in idea to "coopify" the enclosure.
If youve done this, Id love to see pics.
If youve seen it, I'd love to hear about what you saw!

Thanks!

 

[jetdog]

Not the best picture but I connected my coop with a tunnel into the 10x10 dog kennel, still wrapped for winter in this picture, corrigated roofing on top works great at keeping everything dry and snow free.

 

[shodack]

When we moved into our new house in February there was an existing 15x20' chain link dog pen. We tore down the existing dilapidated dog house and built a raised 4x4' coop. We also lined lower 36" of the chain link with hardware cloth (well most, I need to go back for more), including leaving overlaps for the doorway. We experimentally put one chicken in there before we moved them all in, and watched as she walked right through the gap! There are cats in our neighborhood, so that can't happen.
The ground in the pen is a thick layer of gravel with years of hemlock needles adding some organic matter, so I'm using the deep litter method so the girls have some compost to forage in. So far they don't really get that part, but they will eventually! Deep litter will take me a while in such a large enclosure, but it's worth it. Right now I have brought in 8 or so wheel barrows full of materials, but they only cover maybe 25% of the floor.

I'll try to get a couple more pictures today if they would help. This picture is pre-move in.

 

[enola]

How much ventilation does your coop have?

 

[shodack]

There is a few inch gap under the entire roof. The whole back panel is a separate piece. Lots of ventilation.
We live in upstate NY where below freezing is at least 4 months of the year. Ventilation is important, but so is keeping draft to a minimum. My husband used the Purina design. Very solid design.

 

[microchick]

Our entire run is made from a combination of two dog kennels. No pics at the moment but the size is approximately 18X20 feet and 6 feet tall. We attached the panels to our coop which sets in the corner, inside our barn. Half the run is outside, the other half inside the barn to give the birds protection from sun and weather. We wrapped the panels in bird netting to keep out as many wild birds as we could and it is topped with bird netting to protect from birds of prey. The entire coop and run is hot wired against predators and to keep our own way too enthusiastic dogs at bay.

Any body who wonders if hot wiring works, one of our youngest dogs, a Border Collie/Jack Russel mix who is very prey oriented stuck her nose on it right away and now will not approach the barn or the chickens. I'm sure she thinks those 'things with feathers' are evil concatenate at this point.

The kennel panels makes a good solid run for birds although if you do not have hot wire capabilities, I would recommend you use hardware cloth around the bottom of it and create a 'dig guard' around the outside parameter. I am using foot wide metal siding scraps on the ground around ours. It is tough and also keeps the weeds down around the run. Also cover the top with protection of your choice to prevent air born predators from making a raid from the air.

There was a small hawk circling our run looking over what I'm sure it thought was a potentially great buffet table the other day. My husband chased it off with an RC plane he was flying. I'm glad it didn't try its luck as I didn't want to have to free it from the netting.

 

[shodack]

from outside the pen

 

[olderoo]

Thank you to all for respondong.
I now know there are numerous threads on this subject, so I appreciate.

My aim is to make a moveable pen, something not often seen with the dog paddocks. Thats actually the easy part.

Most people use the dog kennel as a chicken run and living area combined.
But I intend to do this differently.

The birds will have a large shrubby "nature area" that I'm enclosing with an electric ribbon. Its really just a scruffy section of the yard, with no real pedigree. It is un-level, has several large boulders and weeds thrive there. There is also a couple of small garden beds I carved out last season. I'm going to add plants that thrive on heat and abuse to the spot:
Pigeon Peas.
Vining beans
More bramble berries
Sweet gum as sedge plants
Annuals: okra, eggplant, late season winter squash
The dog pen will move around the perimeter of this area on skids and just be an extension of that. Its not a tractor, per se, in that I don't move it often. But once it gets enough mulch, clippings, straw, etc, on the floor, I'll slide it over and use the vacated plot as garden space.
Ive done this in the past and it has worked very well.

What I'll have to figure out is how to attach the coop to the side panels, so it can move with the kennel pen. Its my hope someone has done this or can offer construction ideas?

 

[olderoo]

bumps