Curious as I like seeing people’s handiwork. I’m moving house in a few weeks so will need to re-home our 6 Isa Browns. The place we’re in atm already had a coop and run for them but the new place doesn’t, so I need to make use of the new cordless drill I’ve just treated myself to.

Foxes aren’t a problem here. Maybe the odd cat, needs to have some shade as it does get hot. Can’t let them roam the garden.

What ya got?

Our cats just watch the chickens, we even managed to lock one in the coop overnight and nothing happened, other than an annoyed cat.

Deep freeze?

Our chickens live in the tackroom attached to our stable, with an attached chicken wire run enclosing part of our orchard. (Not as posh as it sounds.)

At our old house, we just used some low fence panels to separate off part of the garden, as there was less of a fox issue.

I keep them very cold, then very hot with some garlic for company.

I mage a hen house and a run for ours. Cost about £15 all in, as I had some bits lying about.

More here…

http://anacreinhampshire.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/ready-for-hens.html

I managed to delete all pics of our coop build, you can roughly see it here to left of shed:

[/url]IMAG1242 by martinddd, on Flickr[/img]

[/url]IMAG2193 by martinddd, on Flickr[/img]

[/url]IMAG0116 by martinddd, on Flickr[/img]

[/url]IMAG0119 by martinddd, on Flickr[/img]

[/url]IMAG1236 by martinddd, on Flickr[/img]

[/url]Chicken in a flap by martinddd, on Flickr[/img]

[/url]Cosy by martinddd, on Flickr[/img]

[/url]Rabbit in the coop. by martinddd, on Flickr[/img]

[/url]Egg slide! WOO HOO!!! by martinddd, on Flickr[/img]

It has a stained glass chicken above the door!

You spoil those chickens. Or is it some sort of marinade?

Now I want an egg slide.

I’ve just realised – your chickens have a shaving mirror 😯

Found this photo of their run/house. They don’t have access to the full stable, just the lower area to the left of the photo. Their run is fully enclosed, to keep Mr Fox out – we lost three hens to a fox while they were in the orchard in the middle of the day, so we only let them out of the run when we’re around now.

We’re down to three hens (two ex-battery and a rescued banty) now, and they’re barely laying, but we’re going to restock in the spring.

Qwerty – egg slide looks ace, consider that idea stolen!

Hen in the bath – wtf? Do I need to do that?

siwhite – offcut of worktop, slope cut on neighbours bandsaw & routered on top for eggs to sit on ot and not fall off

The mirror was an experiment, they still cut themselves shaving.

The bath was a Google attempt to nurse a dying chicken

Foxes aren’t a problem here.

They soon will be! Prepare for foxes just in case.

He might live on the Isle of Man – no foxes there.

This was the old one, a bit overkill really:

We also moved, so they have been ‘temporairily’ living in this for about a year now, they just use it for roosting and have the run of the garden. When we get round to landscaping they will have a proper run built.

The best photo I can find of our actual one:

He might live on the Isle of Man – no foxes there.

Reading this again I now suspect not in the UK at all!

needs to have some shade as it does get hot

Yeah, Australia so needs to be shady and respite from the harsh summer sun. It’s mid 30s in the shade and a lot more in the direct sun right now.

helped my bro in law build this out of bits of scrap wood and pallets

My DIY skills are so bad, the wife decided she didn’t want the garden looking like we lived ‘on a coucil estate’ so she bought the egloo cube and gave them the run of the garden as the egloo’s run is a bit small..

We currently have five housed and are registered for another 4 from the local rescue group due at the end of February.

Given that they have the run of the garden, it now looks much worse than many of the very tidy and well kept gardens on the, (yes, you guessed) local council estate. Except we dont have a mattress or a fridge in it.

What a great thread with fab pics! siwhite’s blog will be read a bit later so looking forward to that.

[/url]Chooks by martinddd, on Flickr[/img]

Thanks peeps. Really need to up my game as the last time I did any kind of woodwork was 20 years ago at school. Got access to a stack of pallets so might see what I can do with those. ‘preciate all the pics.

Depends how long you want your roost to last. If you build with pallets in WA the white ants (termites) will literally walk off with them and then you will have white ants in your garden.

I have actually been pondering the same problem this afternoon.

We’ve got 6 in a fully enclosed run with a coop inside with remote
door. It’s an ‘L’ shaped run and they seem to like it as they all pretty much lay every day.

I’d love chickens, but there are so many foxes nearby, it’s not gonna happen.

We have multiple daily fox visits including the mum who’s recently been showing her cub around the neighbourhood & we haven’t lost a chicken yet (famous last words) due to having an electric fence. It’s powered by a leisure battery but could also be mains powered, we just make sure it gets recharged roughly once a fortnight.

Get some 100% recycled plastic in their lives:

http://www.solwayrecycling.co.uk/recycled-shop/pig-poultry/hen-houses

Far easier to clean etc.

We’re getting another half dozen at the end of the month, when the local free range farmer restocks one of his ‘sheds’. He’s got 7500 hens to get rid of and only wants £1.50 a hen – they’re 70 weeks old and supposed to be good layer, just not commercially viable. (The rest become dog food.)