Temporary pen

[ameliadanielle]

My wonderful husband took my vague instructions and a badly drawn stick figure like diagram as I'm also not an artist, and we put this together tonight after work.

It's 4 X 4 X 4. We didn't want to have to saw anything, so we just bought everything in 4' length. It's not the most sturdy thing in the world, and we're going to work on it more than it sits currently. But since it's finally dry and the weather was in the 80s today and it's warm, the baby chickens are OUT of my bathroom and into the backyard with the dog and the pig.

We plan on figuring out a way to add roosts. We are also going to add some more support to the gate. It's completely light weight enough to move around the yard. We ended up not screening in the entire top. I don't think an owl or hawk would have enough room to dive in there, grab a chicken, and then take back off through a 2' gap. Besides, it's temporary until we collect enough pallets to construct the big coop that can house all of our chickens. This one will remain just in case they want to use it or if we need it for something else.

 

[ameliadanielle]

 

[ameliadanielle]

Well, I am NOT an architect. The warm weather brought with it a rain storm yesterday when it was supposed to be sunny and warm. So we ended up blow drying the chickens last night and they are once again living in the spare bathroom in their now too small cage.

So tonight, the roof is becoming the floor. The middle support is becoming the support at the gate, the new roof will have at least 1 foot of overhang on the back and sides. Hopefully that will work better at keeping them dry. Because they are going to need a cool place with plenty of shade and breeze to hang out under in the summer, so I'm reluctant to completely wall in the sides.

If anyone has suggestions for keeping chickens dry in the rain while also having open screened sides, let me know. In the summer, even in the rain, it would be like putting them into an oven to shut them into an enclosed coop that has been in the sun all day. We also still have to build the big coop for them. We got a few more pallets today and we also were given a slanted tin roof that we have to figure out how to transport home. I definitely don't want to end up making any mistakes on the big one. It will be more work and more difficult to fix if we do screw it up.

 

[aart]

My wonderful husband took my vague instructions and a badly drawn stick figure like diagram as I'm also not an artist, and we put this together tonight after work.

It's 4 X 4 X 4. We didn't want to have to saw anything, so we just bought everything in 4' length. It's not the most sturdy thing in the world, and we're going to work on it more than it sits currently. But since it's finally dry and the weather was in the 80s today and it's warm, the baby chickens are OUT of my bathroom and into the backyard with the dog and the pig.

We plan on figuring out a way to add roosts. We are also going to add some more support to the gate. It's completely light weight enough to move around the yard. We ended up not screening in the entire top. I don't think an owl or hawk would have enough room to dive in there, grab a chicken, and then take back off through a 2' gap. Besides, it's temporary until we collect enough pallets to construct the big coop that can house all of our chickens. This one will remain just in case they want to use it or if we need it for something else.

Maybe not a hawk, but a raccoon would make quick work of getting into that enclosure.......
........I hope your dog is outside 24/7, doesn't like chicken and will keep all predators away.

 

[aart]

Well, I am NOT an architect. The warm weather brought with it a rain storm yesterday when it was supposed to be sunny and warm. So we ended up blow drying the chickens last night and they are once again living in the spare bathroom in their now too small cage.

So tonight, the roof is becoming the floor. The middle support is becoming the support at the gate, the new roof will have at least 1 foot of overhang on the back and sides. Hopefully that will work better at keeping them dry. Because they are going to need a cool place with plenty of shade and breeze to hang out under in the summer, so I'm reluctant to completely wall in the sides.

If anyone has suggestions for keeping chickens dry in the rain while also having open screened sides, let me know. In the summer, even in the rain, it would be like putting them into an oven to shut them into an enclosed coop that has been in the sun all day. We also still have to build the big coop for them. We got a few more pallets today and we also were given a slanted tin roof that we have to figure out how to transport home. I definitely don't want to end up making any mistakes on the big one. It will be more work and more difficult to fix if we do screw it up.

Big roof overhangs will help....and maybe cover just part of the sides and the back near the roost to keep blowing rain out.