My goodness,
we've had numerous chicken coops and pens over the years and most I didn't
apparently take pictures of. Originally our main doe barn (10x20) was a chicken
breeding shed. We had bantams in cages in there but within a year we'd sold all
the chickens and left the barn vacant. At the time we only had a couple goats so
it wasn't 'needed' yet. That changed quickly and then we revamped it and turned
it into a goat barn. Today it sits empty. It may change again either as a hay
storage shed or possibly into chicken or goat pens again. Who knows.
Below are photos of our more recent pens. One thing
I've learned over the years is that, no matter what things are like now, they're
bound to be different in 6 months to a year. Pens get built, rebuilt, tore down,
remodeled and moved. The pens we have set up right now are more temporary. I
plan to revamp/remodel them and make them nicer in due time. Right now so much
is going on it'll have to wait.
Current Coops
Here the chicken coop is as of
today October 22, 2015. We have had a few different groups of chickens in it
over the years and I recently kicked out the last group. That was the most
horrible violent little cusses in there before. The 2 red hens were great, but
the 3 barred rock and black hens were mean, crazy and WILD. The new chickens are
Production Reds (RIR x New Hampshire Reds) from Ideal and are so incredibly
mellow and laid back. Very easy to handle. I love these girls! They will be
laying in late November to mid December.
The photos above show the 24' x 12' run
attached to the 6' x 8' coop. These are our Production Reds in the coop and run.
Ordered 25, never lost one so we will be selling the one rooster and probably
four hens to bring us down to 20 laying hens. Anyway, the run is made up of our
6x12x6 dog kennel, a 16' cattle panel and a 7' cattle panel overlapped, as well
as 1 of our 4x6 dog kennel pieces turned sideways to fill the gap beside the
coop. Works great! Roof is chicken wire and field fence to prevent hawks from
getting the chickens. That is why I can't free range the hens.
This is when the coop was started in 2012 and
progress of it being enclosed and a metal roof put on.
Old Coops
(Left) Shows the backside of the top barn. On
the left we have the Red Stars run and coop and on the right is the
Ameraucana/Easter Egger pen. (Middle & Right) Another angle of the Red Star pen
and an inside view of the run. All these pens have been removed since then. They
made excellent chicken pens and may be turned back into chicken pens again once
the goats are moved down to the doe barn.
This was in 2010. This pen was the junior buck
pen. We had another pen off the panel into the overgrown garden area the year
before with chickens in that.
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