The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: caz on July 28, 2015, 06:59:59 pm
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I've got 4 chickens who I let out to free range through the day but overnight I keep them in a secure pen with a small coop. Trouble is when it's raining on an evening but before bedtime they just stand in the pen getting soaked. I'm not sure if this is a bad thing? And I wondered if I could make an easy shelter they could hang out under ? Any ideas?
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I made mine a sort of felted coffee table where I last lived-worked really well and they used it-its a good idea to build a perch underneath too so they aren't standing in the wet, or put a pallet down for them.
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My coop has an overhang to keep the food dry and the coop is on stilts so they all congregate underit when its wet.
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When ours had a run I made a sort of tent thing the hens could get out of the wind, rain and mud. This area was henceforth known as Glastonbury!
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My OH made a 3 sided shelter with a slightly sloping roof - it was at the time when we didn't have quite so many hens. We have 20 now and they all cram in there like sardines - they love it. We call it The Clubhouse - it keeps them out of the wind and the rain and it only took a couple of hours to make. ;D
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Mine have a sheet of corrugated metal on it's side propped up. Cockerel loves it in particular. He also loves a large dustbin lid propped up with a stick. He is a bit special...
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I've got 4 chickens who I let out to free range through the day but overnight I keep them in a secure pen with a small coop. Trouble is when it's raining on an evening but before bedtime they just stand in the pen getting soaked. I'm not sure if this is a bad thing? And I wondered if I could make an easy shelter they could hang out under ? Any ideas?
Got a spare wheelie bin? lie it on its front with a slight slope towards the front so the water doesn't run it and prop the lid up.
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I have rainproof areas made from pallets, tarpaulins, galv., twinwall polycarbonate, old puppy panels, old fireguards and external ply, held together and in place with baler twine, rocks, bricks and the side of something bigger. Yes, I think I must have been a Master Builder in a shanty town in a former life. The chickens don't mind what it looks like and you can use them as an excuse to cancel the House & Garden photo shoot. Get creative!
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I also have an old, galvanised dustbin, laid dow with a pole underneath to stop it rolling. The chickens did love it but the ducks have adopted it now :)
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At one point we did a trial on table birds - 700 of them from day old to 13 weeks, free range. We had a huge barn for them at night, and the entrance to that was just as big with the big double doors open during the day for them to roam in half an acre. When they were about 10 weeks old a snowstorm came on suddenly followed by a freezing snap while we were in town getting groceries. By the time we came back they were all inside except 10 of them who were huddled against an east facing corner - would have been sheltered but for the direction. They were all stone cold dead! :'(
You may have to train them to use the shelter. :innocent:
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I use 2 pallets leant together with the top wired together and some hazel pegs at the base to stop them sliding out. Then cover with any old OSB or offcuts of ply. 1 sheet of OSB costs about £8 and will cover the whole thing.
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Hi,
Could you buy the feed in plastic bags (20-25kg) and put the bags over the pen.
Dave
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you can also buy clear tarps and cable tie them onto the pen-have done that before but am too exposed here :) saves ground getting bog like as well.
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My first shelter was a very pretty thing from a chicken website. Looked a bit like a posh mini bus stop with perches. They should hang out and drink dodgy cider there - that sort of thing. But chickens being as they are they ignored it the buggers, even when it was chucking it down and when I tried moving it around. My friend who was helping whilst I had an operation then built them a pagoda sort of thing out of spare bits of wood and they love it. Lesson learned. ????
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Thanks for the ideas. I'd like a roof over the full shelter but to be honest it's beyond my capabilities at the moment lol I think I'll try and make the pallet or table idea and maybe attach it or make two so I can have one on the front of the coop
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Just built one today for our new chickens. 4 fenceposts banged in the ground with some corrugated metal roofing that was lying around cut and screwed on as a roof. Going to use some more for a couple of sides but ran out of grinder disks to cut it so, for now, there's some old plywood as a wall.
(http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h139/Mr_magicfingers/Chickens/IMG_6802_zpsdnltviih.jpg)
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Ours have cast-off classroom tables so could get same effect with patio furniture, if secured against the wind! One pen also has a bizarre thing I salvaged from PE, looks like you lie back on it and do sit-ups?!
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we have 2 bad weather shelters. One is the felted-coffee-table type mentioned above. Its nice and solid and easy to knock up; the downside is that the chooks like to stand on top of it in good weather and they poop all over it.
The second is the Womble-Glastonbury-tent type. This is a bit of a theme here as we also use this type to offer the sheep some extra shade. Very easy and quick to erect and take down and surprisingly effective. the downside to these is that noise of the tarp flapping when its windy....not that our sheep or hens bother about the noise