Chicken coop (Any ideas)

[Pignut]

Well I am looking into keeping a couple of Hens in the garden..

I want to build my own coop as I can scavenge most of the materials.

Anyone got any plans or ideas?


Regards

Pignut

 

[Bernie Garland]

Just type in chichen coop on ebay and you'll see loads of different designs

Bernie

 

[Pignut]

It is the insides I am not sure about

 

[Bernie Garland]

It is the insides I am not sure about

Just make sure that they have a perch and head room to roost and a nest box for the eggs.
18inch square nestbox will do the trick

Bernie

 

[Pignut]

18inc box per bird?

 

[Bernie Garland]

18inc box per bird?

You don't need a nest box for every bird but have more perches.

bernie

 

[BorderReiver]

Make sure it's light enough to move regularly. Chickens are dab hands (or beaks I suppose) at clearing ground. A frequent move gives them access to fresh natural feed.

 

[Pignut]

Cool!

So if I have 2 nest boxes enough room for 5 birds to roost

Start off with 2 hens (I then have space for the inevetable extra bird

Regards

 

[Bernie Garland]

Cool!

So if I have 2 nest boxes enough room for 5 birds to roost

Start off with 2 hens (I then have space for the inevetable extra bird

Regards

That will do you as most hens all seem to lay in the same box,and like Mike say's keep moving it around,or let them out for a route round,


Bernie

 

[BorderReiver]

If you do chose to let them wander watch out for some of them laying under hedges. Always have a good look round their territory or you might find yourself overun with fluffy yellow chicks.

 

[Ogri the trog]

Pignut,
with the days shortening now, its not uncommon for hens to go "off lay", they rely on length of daylight to trigger the laying cycle. So if you want regular eggs during teh winter, might I suggest putting a light in the coop when you make it. There is a product available called a "Rooster Booster" which switches on and off automatically once it senses shortening days, but they can be expensive - do a search for one.
Depending on what you feed them, you might need to suppliment their diet with crushed oyster shells to maintain their body calcium - if you don't they can loose calcuim from their bones to make the shells of the eggs.
We've had our own birds for years and there's nothing like one of your own eggs, cooked from still warm after being laid.

Good luck with it.

Ogri the trog

 

[jungle_re]

i picked up a load of leaflets at the CLA this year for the coup thats i licked the look of as it should be really easy to copy the design. do a search on the tinternet and get them to send you the free catologs so you can then do the same. Oh and good luck IMHO theres not much that compares to keeping livestock.

Will

 

[deeps]

and don't be tempted to get a cockerel or you will be stoned out of your own house. My neighbours won one of the blighters in a raffle - nightmare - took the fox two months to do the decent thing !!

 

[Jared]

Scavenged a rabbit hutch together when was a kid.

Main structure of it was a box made out of 5 wooden pallets just nailed together.

 

[Rob]

We used a big rabbit hutch for our 3. Put some longer legs on it and foraged a nice branch from the woods toput inside as a perch. They use the darker section (without the mesh door for the nest box.

We decided to give them a 4m x 4m enclosure with a pond net as the roof.

They come out of the main enclosure in the afternoons for a quick garden de-slug and put themselves away again as it starts to get dark.

 

[Grebby]

Depending on what you feed them, you might need to suppliment their diet with crushed oyster shells to maintain their body calcium - if you don't they can loose calcuim from their bones to make the shells of the eggs.

It's also worth feeding them the eggshells once you have consumed the contents!

 

[Ogri the trog]

It's also worth feeding them the eggshells once you have consumed the contents!

Very true,
but crush them so small that they don't learn to recognise them as foodstuffs - they can develop an annoying habit of pecking into the eggs as soon as they are laid!

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[Mistwalker]

Cool!

So if I have 2 nest boxes enough room for 5 birds to roost

Start off with 2 hens (I then have space for the inevetable extra bird

Regards

I think with two hens that extra bird may not be inevetable...., won't you need a male also?

 

[Harmony]

Pignut,

I have a good sized place and a lot of chickens and guinea fowl.

If you are going to raise a few hens in your back yard, you need to build a chicken tractor.

Here is a web site that will give you all the information you will need to raise your chickens.

http://www.backyardchickens.com/

Harmony

 

[In Wood]

Hi Pignut

We have had hens for some time now, Black Rocks are a good breed to start with.
We recently got five more birds from the Battery Hen Welfare Trust. www.bhwt.org.uk

Basically these are birds that come from battery cages and would normally go to slaughter, but they are still good layers.
From six birds we get a stead 5 or 6 eggs per day, Sunday last we had 10 eggs.

Their web site has LOADS of information for you with links to other places, including plans for hen houses, size of plot etc. take a look and I highly recommend keeping hens to anyone who has thought of it, not only do you get great fresh eggs at a fraction of the price from shops, but they help around the garden with pest control, weeding and fertilizing the soil.

PS, if you haven’t seen it, watch the animated film Chicken Run, you will see where they got the idea from as soon as you get your girls.