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Hi,
Sorrym if this has been covered before, but my search was rather fruitless.
I need to construct a house for my 7 black rocks when they're big enough to go outside. Does anyone have a good plan for a house to accomodate this number, or one up to 10 birds?
I have seen the book 'Poultry House Construction' advertised, is that any good?
Sorry, impoverished new chook owner that can't afford £300+ for someone else to have the fun making one

Not heard of that book - we've been making our own... plans are in David's head but it's looking good so far.

I've never made a chicken house - but want to have a go at making my own... with or without David's help :D (there is a reason for this requirement... our current house has been on the go since last YEAR!!!! and I would love to make one myself before he gets it finished just to prove that I can)

I have a feeling that plans have been posted before so maybe a search on ish might come up trumps.

Somebody I know got himself an old caravan for £25 - it works perfectly ok for the hens. I think they have about 10 of them. Just a few boxes with straw as nests, and a kind of catflap in the door.

I think that's the book I have and found very good - can't check at the moment as it's out on loan!

Is the 'Golden cockeral' seriesof books by Michael Roberts? if that is the one you're on about I found it a bit confusing and had to redraw all the diagrams and work out the measurements for myself as I didnt find them very clear, no cutting list at the beginning of each project either that is very annoying- if its not the one than who's it by as I'd be interested myself!

Kind thoughts
Deb

Yes, it is the Golden Cockerel one. I've not yet had a chance to look at any books really, and am quite adept at building anything from wood, but really just wanted a general idea of where best to locate the perch, along the back wall with the nest boxes off to one side?
Unfortunately I've not seen any internal pictures of houses as that's what I'm really after. External is not really an issue as a small modified shed type construction seems the popular choice and is straightforward enough.

Therefore, has anyone got any good internal pictures at all, or even just a rough sketch of how the bars are fitted in relation to everything else?

Many thanks

Hi LordAzrael, The perches are about 600mm up and about 300mm out from the wall. They are on the opposite wall to the nesting boxes. If you are having more than one level of perch, they should not allow the top birds to poop on the ones below.

There is also a perch about 100mm out from the boxes, but at the same height as the lip of the box. They are also about 600mm off the floor. The perch rails should be out of 40 -50mm wide material and rounded over on the edges. There should be enough perching space so that each bird gets about 250-300mm each.

The front of the nesting boxes can be flush with the inside of the house, ( they should also have their edges rounded over) so that the boxes stick out of the house, with the lid giving easy access to the eggs and cleaning out. I have double lined my chook house so that there are no draughts. A trapdoor on one wall is also handy. It can be operated from the outside so that it can be closed at night.

Space for the amount of birds:( each in sq feet).
Layers- 2.0-2.5
Chicks- 0 - 10 weeks .8-1.0
10 weeks to maturity 1.5-2.0


Robin

http://home.centurytel.net/thecitychicken/tractors.html

Just in case, here are a whole lot of ideas for chook tractors!

Nev

Hi Nev. That site was a real good one for ideas. It's a good job we don't have racoons here. The people we are getting some chicks off said that there were six to start with and now there are five. A hawk got one of them. So I will have to look at putting some netting over the run until they get bigger.

Robin

Thanks again for the replies. I'll hopefully get started on the house shortly. The chicks seem to be growing quite fast already!

ina wrote:Somebody I know got himself an old caravan for £25 - it works perfectly ok for the hens. I think they have about 10 of them. Just a few boxes with straw as nests, and a kind of catflap in the door.

That sounds so French Ina! Though usually old caravans are used for sheep and old Citroen 2CVs for chooks, or for chook plucking as we saw at one place for sale that we viewed.

Shirlz wrote:.... I would love to make one myself before he gets it finished just to prove that I can)

Just wanted to say - you go Shirlz! lol

A noobie related question - do chooks use the coups just to sleep and lay?

We'll have tons of room so that's not an issue. So I want to give them plenty of room for their happiness.
But I've seen tiny housing and huge housing. I was wondering if it was the run that was more important.

Sleeping, laying AND sheltering from inclement weather.

If a house is too big for the number of birds they could get too cold in the winter months, if it's too small then they won't all fit in and that's not good either.

Hi
I posted on this a couple of months ago and got some good replies. We ended up making a henhouse out of spare old timber that we had around the place (the DH is very inventive when he has to be! ). We put a concrete base on the floor and that has been handy - it makes cleaning quite easy (collecting up the straw and poop, then hosing it down). We gave them a perch and laying boxes... but maybe because they were used to another arrangement in their previous home, they all sleep on the [cold] floor at night and have fights over only one of the nesting boxes, goodness knows why

Thanks Shirlz.

Good stuff burek. Have you gots pics?

I've been looking at dozens of pics online. I also thought that a concrete floor seemed the most practical.

http://www.pekinbantams.com/housing.asp lots of plans.. Pallet broody house is what I adapted for quails