Backyard Poultry Forum

Hi all,

2 years after moving house I am almost ready to move the chooks out of their temporary accommodation... (Might be cramped, but still more space than commercial 'free range' hens get...) The neighbour made a not so subtle suggestion that it was time they were moved....



Edit: this coop is now free to anyone wanting to pickup from Canberra. (No feeders though). It has two halves for easy transport.

Anyway... To the build....

I learnt a lot of lessons in the first couple builds, seen some great ideas and lots of advice on BYP, and given I hope to stay in this house for a long time, wanted something that required minimal intervention and is almost set and forget:
- top up feeders 2/3 times a year/no wastage
- never need to water (rainwater)
- self composting
- easy access / walk in / 7 foot roof
- manure collection
- 'clean' and smell free
- 4 to 6 girls
- auto egg collection (whilst travelling)
- daytime run extension

I spent a fair bit of time with the tape measure and drawing potential designs. For those that remember my last build - I have a tendency to over-engineer (a lot) - and I don't mean to disappoint :/

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Cheers
Greg
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Greg's Current Chicken Adventure
Greg's First Chicken Adventure

Welcome back Greg I am looking forward to it!

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Erika

Hi red', good to see your still here!

The chicken run is to be part of a larger garden shed in the backyard, so we planned to do it all in one hit. The garages were 1.8m high, 40cm short of my desired height, so some additional walls would be required.

I bought the sheds online and made sure the floor plans were accurate.

Slab size is 3m wide by 8m long.

_________________
Cheers
Greg
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Greg's Current Chicken Adventure
Greg's First Chicken Adventure

Garden edging and 2 tonne of dirt later, dug out by hand and wheel barrowed out the front, we had the site cleared and ready for concreting. I bought a cement mixer a while back and thought this would be a great time to get value out of it (never again lol)...

_________________
Cheers
Greg
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Greg's Current Chicken Adventure
Greg's First Chicken Adventure

Then the walls....45cm high, 10cm thick...




We ended up putting some plastic sheet over it and using it as a swimming pool for the boys during summer!

A note to readers: the bracing for the wall formwork in these photos is NO WHERE NEAR ENOUGH!!

_________________
Cheers
Greg
___________________________________

Greg's Current Chicken Adventure
Greg's First Chicken Adventure

Then the sheds....

_________________
Cheers
Greg
___________________________________

Greg's Current Chicken Adventure
Greg's First Chicken Adventure

Gosh, very impressive. Great job with the concrete! There's your fallback career sorted

Does the floor have drain holes? Must do if it was a swimming pool but is no longer.

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Cheerio, Rach
Blue Swedish Ducks

Yup... If you look at the photos there is a white pipe disappearing into the concrete just in front of the entrance to the coop....It is a drain hole ... Will grab a photo

_________________
Cheers
Greg
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Greg's Current Chicken Adventure
Greg's First Chicken Adventure

Can I ask what the reason for the cement edges is? Do the chookies get out onto dirt/grass?

Good questions...Couple reasons...
- extra height (I'm 6'4") and wanted plenty of clearance to walk in. Mostly for the garden sheds, so did the run at same time
- the last couple tin sheds I've had have all rusted near the ground
- chooks kick a mess out ( walls at 20cm in my last setup, ground cover got kicked everywhere).

Concrete was cheaper than bricks or a special order shed at that height. Didn't like the look of sleepers.

Also plan a landscape in the backyard requiring a raised retaining wall. Will have a photo when I get to it.

Lastly, yes. I have an auto door setup I'm going to put in that will let them get out during the day

_________________
Cheers
Greg
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Greg's Current Chicken Adventure
Greg's First Chicken Adventure

After a few days of 35+ degrees the green sheds were unbearable to be inside. So next came insulation and a second roof. For a little extra I also insulated and covered the run and added a clear laser light cover to the open area. Should be pretty rain proof now - dry means no smell.

Added benefit rain water collection and keeping pine needles from rusting the sheds (I covered it with galvanised iron). Rear side over hangs the fence so no build up of debris behind the shed (no neighbour that side).

_________________
Cheers
Greg
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Greg's Current Chicken Adventure
Greg's First Chicken Adventure

Loving it. Would love to be able to start from scratch again (and with the advantage of hindsight)
I'm looking foward to planning a series of chick/grow out pens after many years of improvising. The list of criteria gets added to every day!
Question - what sort of ventilation/light does the shed have. Have you considered a 'Whirly Bird' for heat management?

Yup - having an opportunity to do everything properly from the beginning is great.

I needed to do the second roof anyway, so a little insulation became the cheaper option. In this case whirly birds would have not worked as the radiant heat from the roof was what made it hot.

_________________
Cheers
Greg
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Greg's Current Chicken Adventure
Greg's First Chicken Adventure

Next was feed hopper, waterers, nesting boxes and perches... White paint was all I had (better than nothing I guess)

Hopper takes 4 bags of feed. I've used the PVC feeders from my last build here




100 Ltr of water

Need to put some more concrete and a proper stand.
Rollaway nest boxes into a tray inside the garden shed


Perch with trays to collect clean manure ( I want to change these to branches when I find a tree late one night [emoji12]

Shell grit feeder

Drain hole if I need to wash/drain it

_________________
Cheers
Greg
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Greg's Current Chicken Adventure
Greg's First Chicken Adventure

Filled with rice hulls and straw ready for occupants....



Welcome home ladies!

The hulls and straw will drop to about 20cm after a couple weeks (currently 40cm) and should form a good base for the composting later. No smells!!

_________________
Cheers
Greg
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Greg's Current Chicken Adventure
Greg's First Chicken Adventure