My 4 New Arrivals came with a coop of their own that is bigger than my Little Monitor Coop (and an indoor brooder/playpen), plus other equipment.
Because it had started to rain when I got home with everything I scrambled to turn the broody breaker into a mini-open-air coop so they could have food and water while we waited for both dry weather and the 15yo to get home to help with the lifting.
Thinking about all this and about the fact that I'm getting chicks from Ideal's May 19th hatch and Welp's June 2nd hatch and don't have the new coop finished yet I started wondering if I could use the broody-breaker and the playpen as an integration mini-coop-and-run (inside my electric netting), and use the 4x8 as a brooder to handle both batches of chicks I'm expecting. But it would be a lot more convenient (not to mention safer), if I could put it next to the house where the electric is instead of having to buy another 100-foot cord to run the heat lamp.
So, here are some photos, both mine and the ones my friend sent me. I know that chicken wire and tarp aren't proof against anything but other chickens. I'll list what I have that I might be able to use after you see the photos. Getting another electric net kit isn't an option at the moment because we need to buy the roofing for the Chicken Palace.
And the brooder/playpen:
I have that chunk of 2x4 scrap fencing, some unknown quantity of scrap hardware cloth, some random pieces of metal siding in odd shapes, and this dog pen with it's 1" hardware cloth:
And this junky, scrap metal roofing:
I can buy more tarp for wind and weather-proofing.
This is the proposed site to set it up as a brooder:
I also have quite a few concrete blocks, some pallets that I can't readily take apart, some assorted salvaged boards of various sizes, and *maybe* some damaged plywood.
Thoughts?
Because it had started to rain when I got home with everything I scrambled to turn the broody breaker into a mini-open-air coop so they could have food and water while we waited for both dry weather and the 15yo to get home to help with the lifting.
Thinking about all this and about the fact that I'm getting chicks from Ideal's May 19th hatch and Welp's June 2nd hatch and don't have the new coop finished yet I started wondering if I could use the broody-breaker and the playpen as an integration mini-coop-and-run (inside my electric netting), and use the 4x8 as a brooder to handle both batches of chicks I'm expecting. But it would be a lot more convenient (not to mention safer), if I could put it next to the house where the electric is instead of having to buy another 100-foot cord to run the heat lamp.
So, here are some photos, both mine and the ones my friend sent me. I know that chicken wire and tarp aren't proof against anything but other chickens. I'll list what I have that I might be able to use after you see the photos. Getting another electric net kit isn't an option at the moment because we need to buy the roofing for the Chicken Palace.
And the brooder/playpen:
I have that chunk of 2x4 scrap fencing, some unknown quantity of scrap hardware cloth, some random pieces of metal siding in odd shapes, and this dog pen with it's 1" hardware cloth:
And this junky, scrap metal roofing:
I can buy more tarp for wind and weather-proofing.
This is the proposed site to set it up as a brooder:
I also have quite a few concrete blocks, some pallets that I can't readily take apart, some assorted salvaged boards of various sizes, and *maybe* some damaged plywood.
Thoughts?