Grow Your Own Magazine

We're about to sign up on the waiting list for some ex-bats, which will be our very first venture into keeping hens, so we're reading anything and everything we can get our hands on.

So far the plan is to dig out about half a ton of earth at the bottom of the garden, and create a large 6ft by 6 ft fox-proof run, tall enough for me to stand up in, and inside that put a coop on legs so that we don't get rats underneath it (the garden backs on to fields) and so that they can make a dust bath under it. Hubby's an ex-builder, so no problems building the fox-proof run - or so we think.......

We need to buy a coop to sit inside it. Any recommendations on what to buy and where from very gratefully received. We're a bit skint, so have looked at e-bay, but they all seem to be collosal things and cost hundreds of pounds, unless we go for something that sounds far too small even if it's only night-time housing (two foot square!). When you don't really know what you need, it's a bit of a minefield.

Any advice very gratefully received

Hi, check you local Freecycle site get a 2nd hand 6ft x 4ft shed in reasonable condition and adapt it, dont forget to use a bird friendly wood preserver on bare timber....alan

I'd go with the shed idea - esp if hubby is a builder! You get far more chicken and human headroom for far less money and the conversion is SO simple...add pop hole, roost, nest boxes and locks on the door.
If you want a photo of our wendy/chicken house let me know!

Third that idea!!Our coop is a converted shed(well actually1&1/2!)I've looked on Ebay & a few chook sites & even secondhand the proper coops are quite pricey!You can often pick up an old shed in the freead section of the local paper.

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the fates lead him who will;him who won't they drag.

Happiness is not having what you want,but wanting what you have.xx

Mine is a shed with a pop hole cut in it! Depending on how many chooks you want dictates the size of the shed! Mines about 6 foot square and I have 10 chooks......it could probably take a few more if need be!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Thanks everyone. Funnily enough we'd been offered an old shed (if we dismantle it and take it away, so a bit of a mission) but I'd turned it down because I thought that the hen house needed to be off the ground to stop rats nesting underneath it? It's not too late to change our minds on it though.

Yes please to the photos, Vicky, especially of the inside. Also how do you ventillate it? I thought maybe take the window out and replace it with chicken wire?

Thank you all for your advice, it's very much appreciated

I've pm'ed you some photos, Hashette.
Ventilation is exactly as you say, chicken wire over the window, seems to work fine as the space is large it's nice and airy in there.
It's also on a concrete base to stop any rats coming through that way.
There is also an overhang of the (onduline) roof which is really handy as it stops the area immediatly outside the house getting too muddy.

Thanks a million Vicky, got the photos and it's really given us an idea of what to aim for inside.

Right - today's the day we start. Half a ton of earth to shift at the bottom of the garden, then we can start laying the base. The bloke who owned the house before us spent 36 years chucking his grass clippings and other rubbish in that corner. We had a bit on an excavate when we first moved in, and found a load of asbestos and some gas cannisters that according to hubby could have gone boom at any time when they froze in winter, so if I don't come back on here again, you'll know my spade hit something it shouldn't!

I'm not actually sure where we're going to put all the earth we dig out of there - some helpful twit at work suggested digging a hole and burying the soil in that.....

Hi Hashette,
Good luck with the start on your house project!

I hope you have better progress than us! It's been a project for my hubb the past 4wks and still not ready! He's building from scratch with shiplap, ply and onduline. We too have signed up to get our first chooks and we're waiting for ex-batts. Here there's a rescue in Aug, unsure when and how far down the list we are.

Bytheway, don't think you are too far from us? Have you been to Thornes Garden Nursery & Poultry Cetre in Letchworth? They have many rare breeds there as well as hen houses and chicken supplies. The hen house are beautiful - but pricey. I have found other places that have chickens for sale/supplies. Let me know if you need a point in right direction!

Hi Lemon

Yep, not far away from you at all and I work in Letchworth so I have looked at Thornes and run away screaming from the prices. But then again we can't afford the going rate on e-bay so we're hoping for a miracle. Have been offered a free shed, but there's the hassle of dismantiling it....

Anyway, we made a start yesterday on the bottom corner of the garden which is going to form Southchook Ranch.

Just a little bit of work to do yet before it's ready

Chickens are not fussy. If you can nail timbers together, a few sheets of exterior grade plywood (or Sterling Board) some 2x2 timbers, and something waterproof for the roof (Onduline is good, but a board roof [the same as you made the walls from] covered in plastic sheet will do in the short term) is quite satisfactory from their POV. Try to make the nestbox pretty dark, and the perches higher than the box.

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Flowers come in too many colours to see the world in black-and-white.

Hi Hashette

I have got a lttle chook house sitting in my run doing nothing that you can have if you are close enough to me to come and get it.
Its one of these:Poultry Housing by Forsham Cottage Arks

Got it off freecycle, and the roof had rotted away, so its presently covered with black plastic (the roof, not the whole house), not pretty, but waterproof. Has nestboxes and perches.
It will need some new wood preserver and some felt for the roof (something I have been meaning to do). Its got short legs, so you may need to raise them if you want it higher.

A couple of the girls use it to lay in, but none of them sleep in it. PM me if you think it may be suitable. (pic of actual house on blog)

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I'd rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion.

http://hollandsroadparadise.blogspot.com
updated 14 May 2008

www.bradleyroundtwo.blogspot.com

You're kidding!!!! Yes please Kirsty that would be absolutely wonderful, although I'd insist on giving you something for it. Got to run to a meeting will PM you later

THANK YOU!!!!

Forsham Cottage Arks were running a scheme where if you buy one of their houses/arks and tell them you are getting your ex-bats via the Battery Hen Welfare Trust, Forsham will donate (I think it's) 10% of the cost of which ever unit you are buying to the BHWT.

I know, because it was one of the things I set up when I worked in sales at Forsham. Jane at the BHWT was very keen to have us on board.

[quote=kirsty b;268916]Hi Hashette

and the roof had rotted away, so its presently covered with black plastic (the roof, not the whole house), not pretty, but waterproof. Has nestboxes and perches.
It will need some new wood preserver and some felt for the roof (something I have been meaning to do).

...just a quick note - Forsham will do replacement roof timbers for their houses (fully tanilised), and a proper wood sealer called Retreat that you apply six monthly, give them a call for the prices.

Don't be tempted to use roofing felt, as it is a perfect breeding ground for red mite and you'll never get rid of them. The Lenham is a super house and you can whip it apart for thorough cleaning - I'll be buying one myself very soon.

Pumpkin Becki you have just saved us from a very very big mistake, thank you!

Massive thank you too to the lovely Kirsty B for giving us her chook house, and for showing us around her plot which has answered loads of questions and given us several tips for how to make our girls more at home when they finally reach us from whatever hell hole they're living in at the moment.

You and your ladies are very welcome - hope they enjoy their new home

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'Resist compromise and hold on to the integrity of the original concept' Kevin McCloud

Your'e more than welcome Hashette. I'm just glad to see it go to a home to be used properly.

(PS, the chocs lasted about 5 minutes once I got them home and my lot clocked them!!)

__________________
I'd rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion.

http://hollandsroadparadise.blogspot.com
updated 14 May 2008

www.bradleyroundtwo.blogspot.com

It will be, although if my ex-batts think they're getting toblerone, they've got another think coming