The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: ellied on July 01, 2011, 05:33:35 pm
-
I have finally cleared an area of my garden that seems ideal for a chicken shed - I have electric poultry netting in the garage, and when I went to pay a straw bill I found a notice for POL pullets in 4 breeds I happen to think I'd like very much, only a few miles away and someone I know :) They have a wee netting run they'll give me for bits of the orchard "weeding" that needs a bit of DIY but I'm just missing a shed for overnight protection/shelter..
I've commented before on the unbelievable cost of custom chicken coops, and been told/shown a few cases where an ordinary garden shed can be converted well enough, but I just wondered if anyone had thoughts on where to get one cheaply that isn't going to be impractical, dangerous, too hard for me to convert, or just fall over for being shoddily made? My alternative is to clear the garage for them to roost in, but it's already my feed room, vet stuff storage, rug store, garden shed, woodstore, freezer home and various other workshop type activities go on there, so not something easily given up ::)
I don't suppose anyone has something they don't want or use, like a coop, an eglu, a garden shed... ?
Also, what size to buy? 6x4 is the standard size, but would 8x4 be more practical? How many full size hens (ie not bantams) would be comfortbale in a 6x4? The ones available are BlackRock, Wyandotte, Sussex I think, can't remember now! But all that size..
I'm quite excited - enough to go online to B&Q or something but if anyone knows of where there are special offers on.. please? ;)
-
I've just done something similar as a turkey shed. I looked in B&Q etc, and was absolutely appauled at the quality on offer (even on the display models the doors didn't shut properly, would be far too flimsy to deter a fox, and just weren't going to last more than a few years).
In the end, I bought an old one off E-bay (lots also available on gumtree etc). OK, so I replaced the roofing felt and floor, and re-painted it, but it's a proper tongue and groove construction, and has been re-built to last, for less than half the price of the B&Q cheapo model. I also mounted it on long skids (old fenceposts), so I can tow it around behind the Landy if I need to.
As for the number of birds, the key thing is perching space. Yes, they do seem to all huddle up together, but IIRC, the guidelines say 10"-12" per bird. We currently have 16 hens roosting in a 7"x5" shed very happily. It has two full width perches installed, so that's 14' in total, and actually not too different from the guideline figure as it happens. You could fit the same amount of perch space in a 6x4 shed with a bit of care, so say 15 hens in a 6x4 perhaps?
I'm also going to install more ventilation grilles this weekend as it can get quite stuffy in there during a warm night. I only mention this, as it would be perhaps easier to build in right from day one.
HTH!
-
OUrs was second hand and is 6x8 and very good quality for £100 delivered in a horse box, the owners had put it in a barn so it had not even been outside. THe new sheds are very poorly made so a good used one is fantastic but harder to come buy and also often you need to be able to dismatle and transport very quickly as they sell fast!!! I covered our floor with corrigated plyable plastic sheets, they are not brittle so can be easily walked on and taken out, great for keeping it clean!!
-
Well, my cheap and cheerful Focus shed for £90 delivered hasn't fallen down yet! That's about 3 and a half years now. It is 6 x 4, has vinyl on the floor, bigger than the base so it turns up at the sides and catches most of the muck, round dowels wedged into the corners for perches, a shelf right along one side. And where do they sleep? On the floor or in the nesting box, which is an old drawer. However, their grass run is long since no more, and this weekend my son and I will finish laying a second ton of gravel over terram. Holes have been drileld in the wee dyke for drainage so hopefully we have at last found a solution to the messy, muddy hell hole! ;) ;D ;D
-
I bought a wickes shed and it is pretty poor to be honest, managed to strengthen it by buying extra timber.
-
freecycle...
-
we were looking at sheds in b@q 2day and they are all broken or warped or smashed up. we got budget shiplap ones from argos and no complaints after a year.
-
I actually lucked out and got another 6x4 from a friend who wanted rid. It's a really old one, with plenty of rot. However, it must also be at least 25 years old, and has a window made of real glass. The real contrast is that this one has a planked floor (not cheap OSB), tongue & groove walls (not overlap), 2" framing inside (not 0.75" as on the cheap ones), and proper sarking for the roof (again, not OSB). The whole thing is also more than twice the weight of the cheap B&Q efforts.
The result? Once I've repaired the rotten bits and re-felted it, it's going to be utterly bombproof! I'm sorry, but they really don't make things like they used to! ::)
-
I seem to remember that some where like China used to supply (excuse me if I am wrong) wood for fence and sheds etc but then the price went sky high so all fence panels and sheds, garden furniture etc, were being made witht he cheaper wood to keep prices down, I shall have to look! I bought 2 focus garden benches and around 2 years later bought another and its much poorer quality but looks the same!!! The do not make stuff like they used to as its now too expensive for us to buy things that are good quality!!!
-
I bought a couple of the cheapies from Wickes like NorthEssex..... Loads of creosote and a little strengthening and they are ok. I've cut popholes in them, added some ventilation and raised them about 18 inches off the floor so my little Jack Russell can get under and deter Ratty from making his home there. I think with an annual coat of creosote and a bit of maintainance they'll last a few years.
-
Took a photo today of ours, when/if the hens go then we will use it!!
-
pop them in it at night sandy and they'll know it's their home by the morning
-
THey do go in at night, we don't shut the door as fingers crossed, the garden is walled!!!!!! Mr Fox may not like the idea of getting stuck on the job!!!! I just meant, if we get rid of the chickens and move etc, we will take the shed as its very strong!!!!!
-
Well the stress was too much so I went and bought one online :o and given prices and build quality were probably similar, I went for a chicken coop which will be delivered in a couple of days all being well, then I will get a friend to see if we can put it together and erect the electric poultry netting, see if I can hook it up to the mains along the fenceline, and then it's shopping time for bits, bobs, bags and birds ;D
Expect many photos, questions, worry sharing, jubilation at any egg or sign of doing it right, tantrums tears etc when I inevitably get it wrong, and hopefully eventually I'll settle down to it all being normal to have home baked meringues, home made mayo, cakes in the freezer and "girls" doing my weeding for me ;D :chook: :chook: :chook: :chook: :chook: :chook: :chook: :chook:
-
well done, Ellie :wave: :&>
-
If I got rid of the chickens the garden would be full of weeds, where they are is weed free and my freezer full of cake!!!! Nice pets too!
Enjoy!!
-
I've got chickens AND a garden full of weeds :( lol
-
same here ;D :&>
-
i got lots of chickens
a garden that is looking not to bad...
and 4 sides of a shed needing a new home.. no floor.. roof is there.. but in need of some work.
-
dizzypig, you need a shed raising party!!!!!!
My chickens are kept in the top of the garden and they clear everything except some shrubs and roses!!!
-
i got lots of chickens
a garden that is looking not to bad...
and 4 sides of a shed needing a new home.. no floor.. roof is there.. but in need of some work.
so what you done to your shed then?
and your garden looking good cos James did all the work...........lol4
-
If I got rid of the chickens the garden would be full of weeds, where they are is weed free and my freezer full of cake!!!! Nice pets too!
Enjoy!!
I've got weeds, a freezer full of chickens, and no cake. Wonder what I'm doing wrong! ???
;D
-
Womble, you're welcome to swap some dead bird from your freezer for a few boxes of eggs - I'm the other extreme ;D ;D ;D :&>
-
Swap shop!!!! mind you, I lied as most of the cake is in mine and my hubby's tum!!!!! :-[
-
i got lots of chickens
a garden that is looking not to bad...
and 4 sides of a shed needing a new home.. no floor.. roof is there.. but in need of some work.
so what you done to your shed then?
and your garden looking good cos James did all the work...........lol4
At last some one that appreciates all the work I did for Nicky, thanks Laura :) ;) :wave:
-
great to hear you are well and about, James! And to read a post of yours on here ;D ;D
If you ever get bored, I can always do with help ;D ;D of course you would be fed well ;D ;D :wave: :&>
-
No no, I've got plenty of eggs (when I can find them at least). It's just cake I'm short of. Now, if only I coud think of a way to turn eggs into cake, I'd be laughing! :dunce:
-
Well 2 boxes were delivered yesterday afternoon and are in the garage awaiting help to put them together - of course today it's pouring with rain and I'm guessing I have to wait ::)
I have so many weedy areas I can't keep up with especially when I'm pulling 2-3 barrows of ragwort from the furthest paddock every day and that's flooring me so a few willing helpers would have been welcome even without the promise of eggs ;) I'll have to work on my baking skills and learn to make mayonnaise and meringue or there'll be too many eggs for me but I'm willing to try the kitchen thing :)
Next question - assuming the house is too unwieldy to move once built, and the run is elec netting so can be rearranged around the house for a while, but I then want other areas weeded, would chickens be happy "commuting to work" if I carried them from the house to a more distant netted area? I'm not sure they can free range completely given the main road, the cats, and the veg garden and neighbours garden, would a cat box be feasible transportation 2 at a time? Or will I need a chicken corridor to get them from A to B and back again? :o
-
They'll have no problem commuting. Just get them into the habit of coming to you when you shake a tub of grain (do this right from the start, and they'll get the idea). Then, when you let them out in the morning, just lead them over to their place of work, drop a handful or two of grain to keep them occupied, and then close the run up behind them. They will need fresh water at all times in their run, and a small sheltered area would be a good idea too, even if it's just a piece of plywood raised off the ground a bit on legs. You'll just need to make sure you reverse the process before evening, as otherwise they'll get very agitated if they can't get home once their tiny brains start signalling bedtime!
The disadvantage with having the run totally separate from the house is that when they then come to lay mid morning, they won't have access to the house and nest boxes. Assuming true free range is out of the question, it might be worth considering a permanent run around the hen house, and then a smaller moveable run that you can put them into for a few hours at a time in the afternoon / evening for weeding duties. You could use your electric fencing for this, or I once also made a floorless wood/netting run that worked very well. It was basically a 2m x 2m box just taller than a hen, with netting walls and a roof, and could easily be dragged around by one person.
To be honest, if you're planning on starting them in a fixed location around their house, then that will be fine to begin with. By the time you want them to work on other bits, they'll be settled in fine, and you'll be well used to having them around and handling them too.
Hope that helps!
-
No no, I've got plenty of eggs (when I can find them at least). It's just cake I'm short of. Now, if only I coud think of a way to turn eggs into cake, I'd be laughing! :dunce:
hey womble, cake making workshops can be arranged ;)
-
OK I'm having a bit of a panic now :o
The boxes are opened and all the pieces in the garage, smelling very odd new treated wood smell.. I have spent a couple of hours disentangling what I thought was a securely rolled roll of elec poultry netting and rearranging it around the end of the house where I thought the hen house would go..
1. Cats aren't keen on change and are most put out/fascinated by the new stuff - one tried to hang itself, even after I decided to move it yet again to give them their preferred route to the paddock ::)
2. Cats and POL pullets - my felines are great hunters and will no doubt be fascinated and have a go at hunting chooks - will said chooks be tough enough to fight back when young and already stressed with the new surroundings as the cats are free range and will get in the run at some point even if I get it fully electrified it's only 3'6 high at best..
3. Elec netting doesn't stand stretched, it sags and clearly isn't meant as a permanent standalone run from what I can make out - when I had it for veg it was cornered with metal or wood posts but that would short the current and make it less predator and cat proof..
4. Areas I thought ideal for chook weeding are clearly not ideal for the netting - it's a jungle without a visible edge and I've no idea how to tackle it without free ranging the chooks at some stage or poultry netting the entire 10 acres :o
5. The mains connected elec fence line that is along the top of most of my 10 acre boundary, doesn't come within 6' of where the netting will reach to around where the house was meant to be ::) Aargh, I could pop them in the orchard and net around most of the area trees are in and not the veg beds but that's very close to my elderly neighbours and they would prefer them at my end of the property I'm sure - as would I while they settle and in winter when I don't want to trek further than necessary ::)
I am thinking I have invested £150 on a box that appears way too small tho I bought the size that said up to 12 birds (presumably 8 full size or 12 bantams?) and I'd thought of nothing in the way of practicalities til I actually started to pull recalcitrant and bl**dy minded netting about the place :(
Gah, it'd be easy if I put them in the paddock but I can't spare grazing from the ponies, don't want them so far from the house, and want my garden to be their home ???
How would you introduce vicious hunting cats to innocent young birdies? ???
-
ellie, we have cats, as do our neighbour and tbh, the cats seem to leave the hens alone. not sure if this is unusual, but certainly none of the cats aorund us go anywhere near the hens.
if oyu are worried, can you build them some sort of run so it is enclosed at the top, like a box but with no bottom on it?
other than that, not sure what to suggest....
sure someone else will have suggestions...
-
We have cats and the hens have no problems with them. In fact the biggest problem is sometimes that some of the hens are downright vicious to the cats AND the jack russell. Not quite sure what to suggest about the run as I have never used electric fencing for chooks. Our have a permanent run built around the shed with fence posts and chicken netting (up to 6 foot high) and they just get let out for a wander 3/4 days a week.
Beth
-
Well the house is made, but it's in the garage due to the weather yesterday, no way was I standing out in that :o
So other than sliding in the base which is removable for cleaning, I think it's ready but it's too big for the ordinary back door so I can't get it out til I clear a load of branches I put in at the front where the up and over door is, to dry and make kindling so guess I need to do that and then find someone to help me lift it out and find a suitable place.. and maybe recheck the screws are all tight enough.
At least it being smaller than I thought means it can be lifted by 2 people so at a push I could move it around the garden every time I get a visitor ;)
-
Well, if the house is moveable (even periodically), why don't you set it up in the middle of an area you want cleared, and then erect the electric netting around it? You could strim round the route of the netting to stop it from shorting out, or I did hear of folks laying down lengths of damp-course (DPM) plastic underneath electric fencing for this purpose too.
If the electric fence isn't close enough to the netting to connect to, then isn't that just a matter of buying a longer length of lead-out cable so you can join the two?
As for cats, ours somehow seem to know not to stalk hens or chicks, but rather bizarrely will quite happily hunt pheasants. Then again, they have been around poultry since they were kittens, so that might make all the difference!
-
Hope you manage to lift it without it falling apart, mine keeps comming loose but I hardly use it at the moment. they are in the shed. I would try to fence off a courner for them if you can, when they are young they seem to be fixed on escape but after a while they are fine. We only have dogs but there are cats that love sitting watching our chickens and never touch them!!!!!! You better get that camera ready for us all to inspect your work ;) When I put ours in the garden it was terrential rain and midges...I looked like a drowned rat then got bitten to bits when the rain cleared...the runs still going strong even though a lot of men who stay here laughed at it!!!
-
Ellie, I wish I could come over and have a look, but I've got my mum here. Actually she's been my rock with burying my duck, coping with a flat tyre today, a night and half day without electricity as lightning struck a power line right here!!! and a whammy of a migraine....you're probably all done when I can come next week all well and bursting with energy ::)! :wave: :&>
-
NFD I'm unlikely to be sorted anytime soon so let me know if you find yourself free and energy filled cos I'm having pre-purchase nerves and practical problems still ::)
I tried to shift the house a wee bit in the garage and one of the roof sections came away so I had to screw it back on and work around it - I have finally broken up all the branches into kindling so the front of the garage is openable to lift it out but it definitely needs two lifting from underneath so I can't do anything til I have a passing pair of hands, whoever that might be! I also reinforced the netting with a few polypoles and 3 cats promptly went in the enclosure so I shouted and the older one jumped out, the 1yo leapt at and luckily scrambled through the mesh, but the youngest 8 months got in a right state and couldn't get out nor would she let me get her for ages as she thought I was chasing her ::) Lifted her out in the end and have left it up overnight so hopefully they'l satisfy their curiosity and not bother that they have to walk around rather than through that bit for a while ::) Cat 4 has yet to bother about it at all ;)
Still to see if the local farm still has pullets but at least I'm ready if opportunity arises I suppose.. I'm also worrying tho about the times I'm away working which can be a day, a weekend or a week - my cat feeder isn't that confident with ponies so just counts heads and I worry if something goes wrong there what she'd do, but she does work for a vet so it's potentially unnecessary expense but hopefully nothing bad would happen. I'm just wondering how she'll feel about letting hens into the run and locking them up aswell - will have to check she isn't scared of birds or something.. I can't afford to never leave the place for more than a day..
-
Another vote here for cats not being a problem with hens.
We have three cats and they've never been a risk to the hens. Fascinated at first but soon loose interest.
Back onto sheds, we recenty needed something to house our two goats. My first thought was a shed but the ones in B&Q were very flimsy. In the end I bought a quantity of sarking and sawn timber and built it from scratch. Probably the dearest component was the felt for the roof, and the total build cost was about half that of a similar-size ready made shed.
-
Cats!
We no longer have a cat and as a result we are in the midst of a horrific rat war. (another story for another time)
Our cat was the meanest guy in the valley when he wanted to be. But when it came to the chickens they ruled! Not only would he leave them all alone, they would chase him off of his food! We were always amazed.
Good luck with your project.
-
mine's scared of both ducks and chickens. She knows who not to mess with! :&>
-
My Rio isn't scared - tbh I'm not sure if he is scared of anything - but he just isn't interested in them - not at all.
Re rats - Rio catches and devours all sorts so I am wary of rat poison. I have had a go at the homemade stuff - oats, sugar, baking powder, and a slurp of rosehip syrup, in 2 ltre bottles with tops cut off and wedged beside their hole between a small wall and a very large boulder. I'll check tomorrow to see if any has been eaten. Hopefully my chickens won't find it. ::) Don't fancy cleaning up exploded hens ;) ;D
-
Cats!
We no longer have a cat and as a result we are in the midst of a horrific rat war. (another story for another time)
Our cat was the meanest guy in the valley when he wanted to be. But when it came to the chickens they ruled! Not only would he leave them all alone, they would chase him off of his food! We were always amazed.
Good luck with your project.
I echo every word of this. All my cats have been respectful if not scared of full-grown (from POL onwards) choox. They've taken a baby chick when there was no broody to care for it, they've taken pheasant, partridge, pigeon, even a rook ... but never a hen. And I have seen the hens take a fresh mouse off the cat my friends used to call Scary Cat.
-
where are you ellied? North Fife ? If so check out my website re seeing to animals when you are away.
But on a non-business note, if I'm near enough & can find time would be glad to be an extra pair of hands for lifting etc. I know how frustrating it can be trying to do things on your own!