Bee, I had posted photos of the building back when I was first thinking of getting chickens, but a few little things have changed.
This is the outside. you can see it began as a scrapped building to begin with. most of the windows match except the one cut down door. It has a steel roof but the outside is like an asphault shingle material. I have to do some repairs this summer. I noticed over the winter that there is some rot near one of the windows that needs to be fixed. I am also hoping to recover the outside and reinforce sections of the interior.
Before we purchased our first chickens we had a fire that burned the entire prairie right up to these buildings. Including all of the fencing that was here previously. This fence in front has not been repaired permanently, but hopefully within the next month. I have a large tree just to the right outside of this photo that was badly damaged in the fire. We are having it removed this week and then hope to repair the fencing here in front.
This is the storage area. I need to do a major clean up in here. I am storing some styrofoam that the husband wants to cut to fit in the ceiling slats and walls. As you can see, the fiberglass stuff on the back wall is needing to be covered up. I was going to use plywood to cover all of this. I think I have some half sheets laying around that could work here. There are a bunch of extra windows stored here too. I am hoping to use them for another coop. The trash bins are holding my grains for FF. The orange hook in front and the buckets are the ff. I've got my extra brood bins here because they need to be cleaned and put away. There is a big blue pool shell in the back too that I am considering unrolling to use as a brooder for the guineas that I have in the incubator. I forgot, the cats live here to keep the mice out of the feed.
This is the enterance to the first side of the coop. This side has electricty. I put up those roosts when we began with our first 5 hens. This year I want to expand them to run the whole length of that back wall. You can see, the one board is bent. I want to fix that too. Now that it is summer, the hanging feeder will come out. I am feeding the fermented feed again, and no one is really eating this mix any longer. The brood box is housed in here. My father helped me build it out of scraps leftover from when we built our deck and a sheet of plywood left over from one of my hubs construction jobs. the chicks in here were sold and paid for, but the lady never returned my calls when I called to tell her they were hatched. The far left is a door.
This shows the same area from near the roosts and both doors.
This photo is shows the backside of the door. This side of the coop I typically didn't use because we have never had enough birds, but I want to be able to use it as a grow out or breeding area.
The nest boxes on the bottom were salvaged from my grandpa's farm. They are so cool and have these lovely slats between the boxes, but the chickens hate the ones on the very bottom, and prefer the smaller, completely private boxes above. I need to better separate the boxes on the bottom unit and add a roost bar to the front to make entering a bit easier. The bottoms, I might close off and use for broodys if I ever get one. This side of the coop has no electric and the ceiling needs to be supported. There are a few boards starting to fall loose in this area. the tree branch is serving as a temporary roost. I had to split up a few birds who were acting a bit sick a few weeks ago. It doesn't seem serious, and seems to have improved so I will likely move everyone back together this week.
The same area looking out from the nesting boxes. This is a grow out pen I set up because I needed the brood box when the woman didn't pick up her chicks. The youngsters were too small to go in with the big girls at the time. They are 9 weeks old today so I will start integrating them with the rest of the flock this week. I plan to keep the hens to add to the laying flock but the boys will be dispatched soon. I would like to either set up more permanent pens here with individual access to outside, or add some extra roosting areas. at one time, I considered using this for duck housing, but I like that I can let the hens have run of the whole thing in winter when the snow is 50 inches deep and they refuse to go outside.
oh, one more. This is the beginning of my hoop shelter.The fowl have the run of this whole yard, but tend to stick to the front part that is a lot of plain dirt. I am trying to entice them to move outward into the fields. The two forward posts are in. I set an old tire at the base of each. I filled it with dirt and will plant some squash . I will just run a piece of chicken wire around the tire for a bit to keep the chickens from digging it up and hopefully it will grow up the sides of the panel a bit. I need to give them some cover out there so they feel more secure. The trees in this photo were also damaged by the fire and are mostly dead. I considered cutting out the dead stuff and using to make a sort of twig/log hoop cabin. If I can find the time, I would love to have a more permanent structure out here. If I can can make it work, I will likely add one more shelter to the left of those trees.
So, yup, pretty much it including my goals for the space.
This is the outside. you can see it began as a scrapped building to begin with. most of the windows match except the one cut down door. It has a steel roof but the outside is like an asphault shingle material. I have to do some repairs this summer. I noticed over the winter that there is some rot near one of the windows that needs to be fixed. I am also hoping to recover the outside and reinforce sections of the interior.
Before we purchased our first chickens we had a fire that burned the entire prairie right up to these buildings. Including all of the fencing that was here previously. This fence in front has not been repaired permanently, but hopefully within the next month. I have a large tree just to the right outside of this photo that was badly damaged in the fire. We are having it removed this week and then hope to repair the fencing here in front.
This is the storage area. I need to do a major clean up in here. I am storing some styrofoam that the husband wants to cut to fit in the ceiling slats and walls. As you can see, the fiberglass stuff on the back wall is needing to be covered up. I was going to use plywood to cover all of this. I think I have some half sheets laying around that could work here. There are a bunch of extra windows stored here too. I am hoping to use them for another coop. The trash bins are holding my grains for FF. The orange hook in front and the buckets are the ff. I've got my extra brood bins here because they need to be cleaned and put away. There is a big blue pool shell in the back too that I am considering unrolling to use as a brooder for the guineas that I have in the incubator. I forgot, the cats live here to keep the mice out of the feed.
This is the enterance to the first side of the coop. This side has electricty. I put up those roosts when we began with our first 5 hens. This year I want to expand them to run the whole length of that back wall. You can see, the one board is bent. I want to fix that too. Now that it is summer, the hanging feeder will come out. I am feeding the fermented feed again, and no one is really eating this mix any longer. The brood box is housed in here. My father helped me build it out of scraps leftover from when we built our deck and a sheet of plywood left over from one of my hubs construction jobs. the chicks in here were sold and paid for, but the lady never returned my calls when I called to tell her they were hatched. The far left is a door.
This shows the same area from near the roosts and both doors.
This photo is shows the backside of the door. This side of the coop I typically didn't use because we have never had enough birds, but I want to be able to use it as a grow out or breeding area.
The nest boxes on the bottom were salvaged from my grandpa's farm. They are so cool and have these lovely slats between the boxes, but the chickens hate the ones on the very bottom, and prefer the smaller, completely private boxes above. I need to better separate the boxes on the bottom unit and add a roost bar to the front to make entering a bit easier. The bottoms, I might close off and use for broodys if I ever get one. This side of the coop has no electric and the ceiling needs to be supported. There are a few boards starting to fall loose in this area. the tree branch is serving as a temporary roost. I had to split up a few birds who were acting a bit sick a few weeks ago. It doesn't seem serious, and seems to have improved so I will likely move everyone back together this week.
The same area looking out from the nesting boxes. This is a grow out pen I set up because I needed the brood box when the woman didn't pick up her chicks. The youngsters were too small to go in with the big girls at the time. They are 9 weeks old today so I will start integrating them with the rest of the flock this week. I plan to keep the hens to add to the laying flock but the boys will be dispatched soon. I would like to either set up more permanent pens here with individual access to outside, or add some extra roosting areas. at one time, I considered using this for duck housing, but I like that I can let the hens have run of the whole thing in winter when the snow is 50 inches deep and they refuse to go outside.
oh, one more. This is the beginning of my hoop shelter.The fowl have the run of this whole yard, but tend to stick to the front part that is a lot of plain dirt. I am trying to entice them to move outward into the fields. The two forward posts are in. I set an old tire at the base of each. I filled it with dirt and will plant some squash . I will just run a piece of chicken wire around the tire for a bit to keep the chickens from digging it up and hopefully it will grow up the sides of the panel a bit. I need to give them some cover out there so they feel more secure. The trees in this photo were also damaged by the fire and are mostly dead. I considered cutting out the dead stuff and using to make a sort of twig/log hoop cabin. If I can find the time, I would love to have a more permanent structure out here. If I can can make it work, I will likely add one more shelter to the left of those trees.
So, yup, pretty much it including my goals for the space.
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