Since we moved into the new house, my wife has been driving me nuts wanting chickens for eggs and meat.

There is a 24x16 building on the back of the property that had been used as a chicken coupe. It had a little door on the side to let the chickens in and out, but they just let the chickens have the whole building inside. Since I use the building for storing big truck parts, I needed to do something to break the inside up.

I took the 374,000 miles all original 4.6L/ auto 99 F150, I am working on for a friend, on a "test" drive. Went to my office, and loaded up all the scrap pieces of wood and some of the shelves I had torn down into the truck. Then I went to TSC, grabbed 3 ft by 50ft roll of chicken wire, some door hinges and latch, fence staples and some nails. Then went to Lowe's and grabbed a single 2x4x16 treated and automotive undercoating.


I used the under coating to fill holes in the roof. Sprayed it thick on both sides. I managed to fill some impressively large holes with it. Unfortunately, it started storming before all the undercoating had dried and it blew 2 of the 20 holes back out. I will have to pickup another can fill those 2 holes back in.



I framed out what I wanted and hung the door. I don't know what this lumber is that came out of the office. All I know, if someone is shooting at me I want some of this to hide behind. Some of it was so hard the nails would just roll up inside of it and come back out.




My wife had never hung fencing before, so she had no concept of how to keep tension on it while I nailed it in place. I let her put some of the fence staples in, and she began to understand how it worked. You can see her pregnant tummy in the edge.



After she had it figured out, We stretched the rest of the fencing out. I then used some bailing wire to lace the bottom 2 rows of chicken wire together. This pulled the slack out of it and made it all nice and tight. Doesn't look the prettiest, but this is for chickens after all.






The door is one of the four shelves. I mounted two more of the shelves to the wall.



I then dug a hole in the middle of the floor and filled in all the holes created from rain water washing the dirt out around the outside walls. Then dug up a good chunk of the floor and leveled it.



Tomorrow, I need to fix the 2 holes in the roof. At some point, I will get a 2x10x16 and nail it to the bottom of the fence wall so the chickens can't try to dig out or anything else dig in.

I also need to build a 10x10 or so fenced area for the chickens to run around in outside.




Now I need some chickens, and in a few months I will be getting my grub on, LOL. We might also pickup a duck or two for meat as well.

We did this a few years ago with a 10x10 dog pen that we stretched a tarp over the top. It worked, but was very crude. They could easily escape while trying to feed them.

 

Ours rarely try to escape from the dog kennel we use for a pen. IF they do get out they run around the outside of the pen trying to figure out how to get back in.

She got 6 more chicks yesterday so we should have lots more eggs soon. She is holding off a little while on getting meat chicks. The Cornish/rock crosses we had last year produced a ton of meat.

 

yours



I am sure there is much worse ways of doing it then a dog kennel. I couldn't get away with the open top with all the hawks here at the new house.

I would probably do the dog kennel route again if this building wasn't there. I think it turned out pretty good for how little it cost me.

 

Top isn't open on both sections. Only in the pen they are in during the day.

 

Way to steal my avatar picture idea... jerk.

I like the setup, looks really nice. Not only that, now there's one less thing on the list for the wife to be mad at you about.

 

HAHA, I don't know about yours, but mine is the actual one from my engine.

Thanks, and yes, always nice to have part of something knocked off the honey do list.



We are planning on getting some ducks for meat and possibly getting some chickens for meat as well, in addition to the egg layers. If this works out for us, I want to to convert the other side of the building for rabbits.


I need to get my buddy out here to start plowing my garden.

 

Mine is from the LS1 I'm building to put into mine. the block is still sitting on a pallet .

I had a buddy of mine till up some of my yard last year for my garden. I put a cheap little fence around it to keep critters out, and it did surprisingly well. I need to get out there and turn the soil in it so I can get the thing planted. Just haven't had the time.

 

We need to get our garden plowed up, but my buddy loaned his plow out to someone and hasn't got it back yet. Wife may have to settle for the little 10x10 raised bed again this year.

We were worried about the hawks till the chicks got big. They are too big for prey now from anything without 4 legs. I think this rooster could fight off a Condor he is a big feller.

 

6 egg layers, 2 meat chickens, 2 ducks for meat and maybe some eggs as well.

 

We have talked about getting a couple of ducks. We are getting turkeys in a couple of weeks. Have a good Thanksgiving this year.