Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: Porffor on May 17, 2008, 22:10
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Would you mind sharing pics? idea's?
Just to give my hubby food for thought! :lol:
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Would you mind sharing pics? idea's?
Just to give my hubby food for thought! :lol:
will try and post a couple of pics tomorrow .
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Thanks 8)
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When I was planning ours, I googled all the henhouse makers and pinched as many ideas as I could. They all have slightly different methods of ventilation and the perches sit differently and some have shiplap, some use corrugated roofing.
Have you got any timber or sheet materials lyign around you could use ?
The height of mine was decided by the lengths of 2x2 I'd got left over. The width was a quarter of the shiplap lengths at the timber yard. If you want to see a photo, the 'business' end is on the photo comp. But there are a few other pics posted on other threads. If you can go for a full height shed type then I would because cleaning and access to the birds is so much easier. Hopefully you'll get to see some from those that have them.
Rob
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Thanks :) might plan that then. :) just gathering idea's - the commericially produced ones i've seen are funny shapes, so are more complicated in design. lifting lids etc are fine, and the roofing too, just what's 'needed' inside - i.e. nesting boxes and perches i'm unsure of.
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there are loads of ideas on the Omlet site. They have an area just for that subect :D
They probably have one on here come to that :D
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I built mine based on ones I found on the internet.......you can see some pics here
http://www.ashton-online.com/HTML/Hens.htm
It depends what you want really mine was small to fit in my garden and only hold a few hens. I curently have two and it suits them fine although I will be building an extension soon just to give them some extra space.
Building your own is a lot cheaper though!
Good luck
Andy
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This was built from a large ply wood box that an engine part came in.
(http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a12/mummyhen/DAY319thApril005.jpg)
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:) Great looking house!!
Thanks :) What have you got inside? just roosting bars and a few nest boxes? and how many hens do you house in there?
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(http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x48/pgmonkey/P1020048.jpg)
(http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x48/pgmonkey/P1020042.jpg)
This is mine, made from 2 x 2 and marine ply. It has one perch and nesting area inside and the back opens up completely so i can get in and clean it out easily without having to bend over too much.
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Thanks everyone, some great idea's! :)
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don't think you can beat a good shed conversion. Plenty of head height - just the ticket.
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v509/snottie/IMGP1084.jpg)
cheap and cheerful made from one peice (8x4) of exterior chipboard and cheap paneling.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v509/snottie/IMGP1083.jpg)
all the roof sections just lift off :shock: easy for cleaning
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v509/snottie/IMGP1079.jpg) small broodyhouse or for incubator hatched chicks.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v509/snottie/IMGP1080.jpg)
showing current occupants there are 3 chicks under her :D
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v509/snottie/IMGP1078.jpg)
a bigger house that can be a permanent home for up 4 large birds.
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If you are building something big/expensive it's a good idea to pay the extra for treated timber. Otherwise just standing on bricks keeps the wood dry and increases the life. Covering with roofing felt willalso help preserve them. If you are incorporating wire into your design for a closed house run i would not use chicken wire.
1) if there are any foxes in your area when the fox comes they panic the hens so much they stick their heads out in their efforts to get away and the fox will take their heads off :(
2) If food is freely available all the local birds will quickly learn and you will be feeding them all - which will cost you a fortune - i once counted 20+ sparrows in my big house.
3) rats will easily help themselves at night - time.
Go for a smaller hole wire - the sort that you typically get on a rabbit hutch.
Hope this and the piccies are of some use.
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These are what hubby made for me!
This one
(http://[img]http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l33/grannieannie_2006/Chooks/chickenhouse02.jpg)[/IMG]
which turned into this one!
(http://[img]http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l33/grannieannie_2006/Chooks/extension3.jpg)[/IMG]
This is the small house
(http://[img]http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l33/grannieannie_2006/Chooks/smallchookhouse30nov06.jpg)[/IMG]
And this was my garden shed which my brian turned into a brooder house
then doubled the size of it.
(http://[img]http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l33/grannieannie_2006/Chooks/newbrooder6.jpg)[/IMG]
Okay, he's a carpenter, but its amazing what you can do for almost nothing!
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My word Grannie! my little pony could live in one section of your henhouse! :lol: He should go into business making animal houses... great call for cheap stables and field shelters! lol
Great pics all :) Thanks.
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LOL Porffor, actually, when we first moved here, our 2 goats lived in the original shed. Then when I went to work we re-homed them as I couldn't look after them properly, so afterwards we turned it into a chook house.
Brian extended it when we found ourselves with 300 hybrid chicks last year. The original building cost £300, (6x18) but the extension adding another 16ft and the other sheds were done very cheaply as we skip hunt for wood and I get old door and window frames from the local DG/conservatory factory and Brian cuts all the stuff up and makes the extension and other houses for me. He won't build them to sell though as its very expensive buying new wood these days, although I think people would like to buy houses made from re-cycled wood. They'd be doing their bit for the environment!!!!
But thanks for the compliment! I'll tell him tomorow. He doesn't get compliments very often!!!! :lol: :lol:
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Brian extended it when we found ourselves with 300 hybrid chicks last year.
So how exactly did that happen Grannie? Did you wake up one morning and find them in your garden? :?: :?:
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lol goats is another 'want to keep' thing of mine, that and miniture sheep! lol yes.. i need a smallholding but need to win the lottery first! :lol:
Your shed are amazing and you should give him credit! :) A lot of money/effort and wood has gone into them! lol
What a LOT of chicks, how on earth did you re-home them all? or were some for the table? dare i ask?
:?
Have spoken to our council (as we are tenants) and we can go ahead once pernission is given in writing but not usually a problem. :) Just got think about the early hours ;) We have kids so are up about 7am. :) And the dogs are up around then, but not sure i'd want a 5am start! lol
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Don't know about your little pony, I think I could happily live in a henhouse like that!! :lol: :lol:
LP :wink:
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:lol:
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LOL, the 300 is an old story now, but as you are newish.....
Last August we got 12 POL pullets. 6 were white ones that the lady called Amberlinks. I'd never heard of them, but we liked them and unusually they laid brown eggs. So Brian said I quite like those white birds, we'll have to get some more. so we thought that usually you see brown chooks wandering around people's gardens, perhaps they'd like a change? So I looked up mberlinks on the internet and found the nearest hatchery to us at Eye Green near Peterborough. Well, they only supply in 1,000's, but they have a surplus list. So they put us on the list, we turned my garden shed into a 7x5 brooder and decided we'd have enough room for £1.50p. Just thought we'd try it and see if we could sell them!
Then I get a cal from the hatchery on a Friday lunchtime, 500 day olds are going to be gassed as a chap from Scotland who had ordered 500 couldn't make it, how many did we want? So I said we had room for 150, Brian said we'll take 300! What on earth are we going to do with 300??? Well, they lived in the brooder for a week, then doubled in size, so we tried putting half of them in a greenhouse and trying to keep it to temperature, but you can't, it was too hot then too cold and they started pecking each other, so my other little garden shed was cleared out and the other half went in there. Then they still kept pecking each other, so I cleared out a bit of Brian's workshop, and put my cold frame in there and used that as a hospital for the pecked chicks, but that got too small as there wer loads of them! So I went upstairs and cleared out my spare wardrobe, tok the back off and tried to get it downstairs as Brian was out, but it was a double and i couldn't manage it on my own, so when Brian came home, there I was with awardrobe at the top of the stairs!!!
So he helped me take it into his workshop, where we laid it on its back, put a heat lamp in there and covered it with netting so the chicks couldnt escape and they went in there until they were big enough for the big henhouse after Brian had extended it!!!
It sounds really funny when you read about it now, but the whole story is on my chookblog if you'd like to read it.
Then we were worried about how on earth we were going to sell 300 POL's! especially with the price of feed going up and up. I would have to sell them for at least £5.50 to make a bit of profit, but the ones I'd bought the year before were only £3.95. Mind you, how she made any money on them I don't know. I don't think she reared them from day old, I think she used to get them from her friend and sell them on, as when she advertises, every week, her POL's are always 18 weeks old, whereas mine get older every week!!!! lol
So we tried an ad in the local paper, the idiotsput it in the Items For Sale columns, so no one phoned up. Then I put a What's for Sale page on my blog and John made it look better by giving me a contact form and lots of other nice things!!!! And I put an advert on preloved and a sign at the front gate.
The blog sold most of them, preloved sold a couple, I've sold quite a few to members on here and the sign sold quite a few, but since March when the last ones went, I'm still getting 2-5 calls a week from people finding my blog and phoning up. If I'd had the room, we cold have sold the whole 500!!!! So that's good. Lots of the people who had chooks from us are first timers, after watching Jamie and Hugh's TV progs, and they are really pleased with their chickens! So I am quite proud of myself, as I spent 25 years working as a PA/Sec in London, and I don't like poop!!!!!
But I do love my babies, shame they grow up and leave home!!!
But we got 65 meat chicks, and the first 16 went this weekend. We had one for sunday lunch which was lovely, and the other 2 Brian killed are in the freezer. They weren't really old enough to go, but a friend of a friend wanted 15 and she only comes up from Surrey a couple of times a year. But we will have some next week and I've got a list of people who want to test them!
Then we've got 125 Babcock's who are now 5 weeks old and in 3 weeks another 250 day old Amberlinks arriving!!!!! I'll be busy again then!!!
Still, I've bored you enough, so I'd better get on with some work! lol
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Not bored at all!! Think i'll show this to my hubby.. who moans sometimes at our animals! :lol:
Am amazed and relieved you got them all sold! :) maybe you have a sideline business there.. ;) if you can order by 500 ;) you could do it each year! lol As an ex-secretary (we are foster carers now) I can believe the change in 'career' for you last year! lol :) sounds lovely though. :)
We have just been to our local feed store, and had a natter with one of the horse owners there who i know. :) They have some sussex and wessex in (silver and black) and a type with a long name that escapes me now something about bronze, that normally have fluffy legs, but these haven't so she's doubting they are the true 'type'. They are all £15 each. They can get in silkies, bantams etc... so any advice on chook breeds is appreciated. :)
Hubby and I have got a rough plan for a henhouse, and run. :) and the space in the garden. :) having nipped into B&Q. He's planning the front and back to be sliplap fence panels - you know the short ones? And then build the sides etc. Also making the front so it comes down for cleaning out. :) and a nest box. I haven't told him but if he goes for the size he's talking I'll be able to get about 10 hens in there! in time ;) i'll do it gradually! lol ;) I'm not daft :lol: He reckons it'll cost about £120 for a run and coop :) so that's not too bad.
Would you definately put a 'top' onto a run though? we were just planning for it to be open, as the chooks'll be in bed come bedtime. :)
Hubby has said if we are going to keep them it'd be nice to have some that are different and nice to look at :) the ones they had in today were lovely but had to stop myself, we are away for a couple of days next month and we only have the hutch at hte moment - though it is larger than the pen they are in at the shop, it still wouldn't feel right. And I want to keep them secure away from the dogs till they get time to get used to them. :) and the kids for that matter! lol
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Still, I've bored you enough, so I'd better get on with some work! lol
Not bored at all Grannie - stunned yes, bored no!
Would you definately put a 'top' onto a run though? we were just planning for it to be open, as the chooks'll be in bed come bedtime. :)
A top for your run is useful:
- stops wild birds getting in and eating your expensive chook food
- stops your hens from flying out when you want to keep them in (even with their wings clipped mine can easily get up to the top of our run; and do...)
- gives you something to hang interesting things like cabbages or apple bird feeders from for the times you want to keep your hens in one place longer than they want you to
- if it's strong enough you can hang feeders/drinkers from it, which saves the idiot creatures standing in their food/water and filling the trays up with whatever they are scratching up that day
- makes it easier to throw over a tarpaulin or some netting to provide shade from the sun/shelter from the elements, if you don't have anything built in
- my girls like sunbathing on the roof of their run when they are supposed to be freeranging :lol:
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Thanks Peggy :) some useful tips :) birds would be a problem - we have jackdaws around here. Will get hubby to add a top into the plans then. :lol:
I'd have loved our henhouse to be from recycled materials, but I know my hubby only too well lol he won't be happy if it's not pretty. :roll:
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It's funny how you build it to look like the ones on the commercial websites and it all looks nice, then you realise something doesn't work quite how you wanted it to so you nail a bit of wood on here and drill a few holes in there, tack a bit of plastic across it and before you know it, it looks like everyone else's on here ! :lol:
Last thnig I did was drill some inch and a half holes front and back for extra ventilation and put mesh across them. Felt tacked onto the roof cos it leaked, etc, etc.
But it'll do the job beautifully. :D
Rob
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BTW our 6 amberlinks are laying nicely thanks to GrannieAnnie. :D
Rob
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:) how lovely to have some of Grannie's 'babies' :)
I've been pricing hens, and £15 a head is about the cheapest at the moment.
Also been showing hubby the designs on here, and other sites i've found, we are going back to B&Q tomorrow! lol
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Now in use
(http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x232/clutchingatstraws_photo/DSCF0062.jpg)
(http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x232/clutchingatstraws_photo/DSCF0063.jpg)
(http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x232/clutchingatstraws_photo/DSCF0066-1.jpg)
(http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x232/clutchingatstraws_photo/DSCF0001-2.jpg)
(http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x232/clutchingatstraws_photo/DSCF0016.jpg)
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I like the stripes. :)
Must look good from the road. How many you got Charlwood ?
Rob
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I was just thinking the same thing that it'd look great from the road! :)
Love the cosy nesting boxes with the smaller entrance into them too. ;)
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£15 sounds expensive to me :shock:
These girls were
£5 for the Blackrocks and £7 for the welsummers POL eight days ago 9 eggs so far so they do work :D :D :D .
(http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x232/clutchingatstraws_photo/DSCF0008-1.jpg)
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Sorry poultrygeist
6 in total June was hiding under the camera :D
(http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x232/clutchingatstraws_photo/DSCF0013.jpg)
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Looks like a lovely setting they're in. Must amuse them for hours watching the traffic go by. Ours just pine every time a bird flies in and feasts on their lawn !
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Looks like a lovely setting they're in. Must amuse them for hours watching the traffic go by
I stood on the road waiting for a mate to pick me up one day, from what I saw it was the que'd up motorists that were amused :) :) :)
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But we got 65 meat chicks, and the first 16 went this weekend. We had one for sunday lunch which was lovely, and the other 2 Brian killed are in the freezer.
Hi Ann did Brian pluck 16?
I did 3 more last night and did them while still warm but it was still taking 30 mins per bird and that was leaving them very much rough plucked plus the breast feather tracts seem to tear ever so easily when they are so fresh. Just wondering how quick i can hope to get if i keep practising.
Still scouring ebay and ads for plucking machines :lol:
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I was hoping for cheaper than £15 a head too. But will keep my ear to the ground. :)
The site that 'supply' the place 50 miles from me has these on their website:
Meadowsweet poultry (http://www.meadowsweetpoultry.co.uk/poultry.htm)
Not sure if they are unusual or normal, but as said the place i'd have to buy from is saying £15 a head.
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I was hoping for cheaper than £15 a head too. But will keep my ear to the ground. :)
The site that 'supply' the place 50 miles from me has these on their website:
Meadowsweet poultry (http://www.meadowsweetpoultry.co.uk/poultry.htm)
Not sure if they are unusual or normal, but as said the place i'd have to buy from is saying £15 a head.
If it's £15 per head I'd expect them to be pure breeds at POL. it would be pretty pricey for a hybrid or a younger bird :?
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Thanks Peggy, will bear that in mind.
now next question.. although i digress from the subject of the thread, is whether a sussex Silver, and black is a hybrid or purebred? That's what is for sale local to me. Though they can get a good range including bantums and silkies. :)
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Hi Pushrod, We did the whole 19!! But it took me about 30 mins too, as I've never done it before! Brian is faster, but a bit out of practice, he used to be able to pluck a 20lb turkey in about 10 minutes!!!
With those breast fat seams, Brian leaves them until last as its better when the bird has cooled a bit. He holds the seam of skin between his thumb and index finger and pulls those feathers out carefully. They do tear very easily though.
Plucking machines are not really cost effective if you are only doing a few at a time. the cheap ones are not that good, you'd have to spend over £2,000 to get a decent one!
Brian said the old fashioned methods are the best!!! When his friend don had the turkey farm, he used to do about 20,000 turkeys at Christmas ALL PLUCKED BY HAND!!!! his was one of the very few still doing it that way in this country!
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Thanks for the reply Ann - i suppose practice makes perfect and i am including the killing time so maybe i'm down to 25 mins plucking time - still too long. I read on wikipedia that with turkeys it is possible to skin them and take the feathers off with the skin without plucking. Do you know if this can be done with chickens?
(apologies to everyone for the thread deviation)
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it can yes, I did that in a survival weekend - was veggie at the time but there you go. lol
Warm chicken, 'gutted' it by laying it out and cutting soft area, scooped with hand, then wiped hands on feathers.
Then just peeled the skin off (strongly) with featers in tact. ready for the pot.
Not sure if this is the proper method, as said it was an operation raleigh weekend our only meal and we were shown 1 then left to it. :oops: it was many many years ago too!
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What part of SW Wales are you from
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We live just outside Llanelli (Pembrey side of it). :) fantastic sea views at the front and fields to the back :) We're originally from SW England though. but love it here. We moved last August. :) Where are you?
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http://www.yell.com/ucs/UcsSearchAction.do?M=0&keywords=poultry&location=Mid+Wales&clarifyIndex=6&searchType=expandedlocation&ssm=0&cam=intToolbar
Phone some of these if they are nearer
I live in Bolton, Lancs but my mother lives near Tenby.
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Thanks :) Rang a couple but they are dealers in dead poultry. :(
1 more to try but can't get through.
Have been busy bee's on the house front, so just need to get a run sorted and we'll be ready. :) will get them local if can't find them cheaper. :)