Chook Shed

[Webby]

A friend of mine would like me to build her a small Chook shed and I have had a look on the net for FREE plans but have had no luck .So if anybody has some plans or a link that would be helpful.

[Sturdee]

When I was building our chook shed about 15 years ago I found that the local library had a lot of books on chook keeping ( it is very popular ). Most books had various designs from small moveable types to fixed buildings.

Peter.

[bitingmidge]

Try these:

Virginia Polytechnic (http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/poultry/factsheets/10.html) : Read the stuff then follow the links: their version of "small" may not quite fit the aussie backyard ideal though, but there is some good info.

Urban Chicken Coop (http://www.cityfarmer.org/chickenhut.html) No plans but pretty clear pictures.

Or my favourite:
BackyardChickens.com (http://www.backyardchickens.com/coopdesigns.html) Plenty of options here, and a few scribbled plans as well.

If you do try a library, I would think that any book on self sufficiency will do.

Hope this helps,

P

[bob w]

When we moved here some years ago we decided to keep some chooks and needed to house them. Fortunately we had an area we could fence into which I put a small metal garden shed I had.
Once the roosting rails were installed the chooks were as happy as a pig in s---. Also as it was metal we had no trouble with lice.
Regards
Bob :cool:

[silkwood]

Try searching under "Chicken Coop", you'l get plenty of links and info, probably more information than you might want. You thought people got into woodwork too much?

http://world.std.com/~kcl/newcoop3sm.jpg

Cheers,

[Robert WA]

Silkwood.

If that picture is of your chookhouse then the place you live in must be pretty good.

[silkwood]

I'm wierd, but not that wierd. This pic is from a US site.

Cheers,

[wombat47]

In a previous life, I was the co-owner of chooks, ducks and turkeys - the other owners were foxes, feral cats and chicken hawks. Something to consider if your friend lives in a rural environment.

If she just wants to have a few hens in a suburban backyard (if council regulations allow it), then she has the choice of a small shed for roosting/laying and a fenced off area for daytime, or a larger shed where the chooks live all the time - a deep layer of litter on the floor keeps them amused. This last option requires plenty of daylight (at least one wall of wire or translucent material) because the laying season is determined by hours of daylight. This isn't a bad option - the chooks can safely be left for a day or two and the old litter makes great garden mulch.

While you are looking at chook shed plans, remember that some of the American self-sufficiency books allows for extremely hard winters and the sheds are built to prevent the chooks from freezing to death.

Hints -
Put your roosting rails on one level (stops the chooks from squawking through the night because one chook is higher than another).
Chooks like laying in dark places so face the nesting boxes away from a light source.
Have the shed high enough to be able to walk into without bending.
A concrete floor a bit above ground level will stay dry during rainy periods - wet chooks smell! Wet chook sh.. smells even worse!!
Use bird wire, rather than chicken wire - no sense in feeding the sparrows. Better still, 1 cm square mesh.

[journeyman Mick]

Webby,
Depending on where you are use snake mesh (10mm square wire) rather than the bird or chicken mesh, at least for the nighthouse as it's not much fun getting up in the morning to find that instead of 6 chooks you have a python with a six chook stomache.:D To prevent snake, dog, fox etc problems you'll need to bury (or concrete) the bottom of the mesh well into the ground. You will find that as soon as you have chooks that every predator from miles around will be attracted to your back yard. This is not from direct experience (haven't had any chooks yet) but from building chookhouses and runs, removing snakes and goannas etc. Make sure your friend supplies you with some fresh eggs for all your troubles, they taste much better than the supermarket ones.:)

Mick

[davo453]

We have kept chooks on and off for nearly 20 years, even in suburbia where they are not really allowed, you can (as long as you don't have roosters) keep bantams, just call them cage birds and you can dodge the laws. At least that’s what we did when the ranger called to see if we had a problem with the neighbours dog barking at all hours and noticed the chooks !!!

Aesthetics is always a problem with chook sheds, they will be happy in anything as long as you don't move it around (they hate that). Make sure it has nice high perches (around waste hight is sufficient) and that they are all on the same level, they squabble if there is a perch higher than theirs, after all no one like to be pooped on in the night do they.

We now live in a very rocky rural area, burying the bottom of the wire is preferable but we coped by using large diameter bird wire with an additional lower section formed in to an L shape so it lays against the fence and on the ground, the theory (and practice) being that the dog or fox tries to dig at the base of the fence but hits the wire.

Cheers

Dave

[Barry_White]

Here is one that Better Homes & Gardens did just recently.

http://www.bhg.com.au/home_improvement.nsf/Content/bhg_article_july01_sendinplans

[himzol]

Webby,

I went through this process last year,

Firstly check council requirements as far as chook sheds are concerned, if nothing else they do have a space per bird requirement.

Next what Mik suggests about the snake mesh, couldn't recomend this any higher. It's a far better deterent against predetors than normal bird or chicken wire.

Then have a look at this site, I used a lot of ideas from this. The main difference was that I used Galv and sheetmetal instead of wood and also made the run full hieght so that I can walk in and clean it.
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/ainsworth71.html

hope this helps,

Himzo.

[Iain]

We used to live in suburbia and foxes were a problem, could see them at any time early am, city is the same, in fact I reckon that there are less foxes where we are now than when we lived in Melbournes outer east.
Bear this in mind when putting fox proof wire in the run.

[Potterage]

Hi all
Thought you may be interested in the chook shed that I have just built.
Colourbond roof (seconds), made from R/Pine coated with a couple of coats of paint (Primed), was to expensive for treated pine, have six blocks of treated pine which touch the ground, which should prevent rotting, 10 X 20 mm wire comes down the sides and then protudes out about 800mm under ground and around cage to prevent fox's digging under sides of cage.
Raised hen house with door for easy access and cleaning, slightly angled nest for egg laying so eggs run to rear of nest for easy access and hinged lid.
Though it may not be clear from photo I mounted two axles on one end of cage so that wheels may be attached for moving of cage if ground gets messy (old golf buggy).
Suspended feeder and water dispenser as chickens scratching the ground fills them up with dirt if left at ground level.
This is only a brief description, if anybody wishes more info drop me an email.
At the moment we are housing 4 chickens.
Paul

[Zed]

ask silentc he's up on poultry...

[himzol]

Potterage,

Nice work, the only drawback is that anything that wants to dig it's way under (say a fox) would have no trouble. If you live in suburbia and think that there are no foxes near by, then think again.

Himzo.

[Barry_White]

Foxes can be a problem. We had 10 chickens once and a fox was getting in, dug his way under the sides of the chicken shed. He was taking a couple at a time. We ended up with one chicken so I set a dozen rabbit traps in the pen and the next morning he had set of 10 of the traps and still got the last chicken but I didn't get the fox.

The best way is to run either chicken wire or rabbit wire under the bottom and nail it on. The chickens can still peck away at the ground.

[echnidna]

I had a fox taking geese so I set rabbit traps and got the fox.
Such a little animal has huge teeth.
I despatched it to fox heaven very fast.

[LineLefty]

I've considered putting a chook shed in. When I was a kid, there was nothing as funs as catching loose chooks in the backyard.

We've got 5 acres of bush next to use and we get heaps of bobtails in the backyard, I imagine they would try and get any unsecured eggs while snakes get the chooks! I never realised security was such a big concern.

[echnidna]

Fit a layer of wire netting to cover the ground. The chooks and their predators cant dig holes through it.

[Sturdee]

Foxes can't dig into my chook run or shed as it is on top of a concrete floor. However they managed to tear a whole in the 25mm square chicken wire and get in. Had to put steel wire mesh around the bottom of the run.


Peter.

[himzol]

Since building our chateau de chook, we have had several foxes (or the same fox several times) visiting.

At first the chooks went balistic sitting on the perch and carrying on like the sky was falling :rolleyes:.
However since they have realized that their little fortress is inpregnable I have seen them litterally peck at the foxes nose through the wire snake mesh. Have you ever seen a confused fox? :D :D I haven't seen one for a while , that's not to say they don't come around.
Mind you my friends have nicknamed our three hens velociraptors due to their ravenous and fearless behaviour (some would call it stupid, I do), like attacking magpies and blue tounge lizards.

Himzo.

[gemi_babe]

I've considered putting a chook shed in. When I was a kid, there was nothing as funs as catching loose chooks in the backyard.

We've got 5 acres of bush next to use and we get heaps of bobtails in the backyard, I imagine they would try and get any unsecured eggs while snakes get the chooks! I never realised security was such a big concern.

Have heard that if you have bobtails, you don't have snakes. Snakes don't like them and the bobtails eat baby snakes.....yay go the bobtails :D

[jackiew]

whitehorse council will let someone on a normal sized block keep up to 6 chickens but they have fairly tight regs on keeping them and I reckon if your neighbours didn't want you to have them they'd probably find you had infringed one or another. Talk to the local laws department of your local council first. You don't want to lay out on a hen house only to be dobbed in by a neighbour and have to pull it down.

I've seen foxes in my road (and its fairly built up round here) jumping into neighbours gardens. A fox will clear 6ft if it wants to. there are a few living on the railway embankments. If you go cycling first thing you can have a close encounter with one ... we've taken pictures of one from only a few metres away ... it was totally unconcerned by our presence.

It would be good if the foxes ignored the chickens and did away with a few of the neighbouring cats. Anyone who isn't keen on their neighbours cats should check out the letters page of the latest Australian Geographic. There is a letter there that me smile very broadly indeed :D

[Barry_White]

It would be good if the foxes ignored the chickens and did away with a few of the neighbouring cats. Anyone who isn't keen on their neighbours cats should check out the letters page of the latest Australian Geographic. There is a letter there that me smile very broadly indeed :D
If you saw some of the feral cats we get up here a fox wouldn't stand a chance in a fight with one of them. They are real survivors those feral cats.

My brother-in-law put out 75 1080 fox baits last year and 50 odd this year and every one of them were taken so there still is an odd fox about.

[Potterage]

Hi Himzol
If you look at the photo of the chook shed magnified you may see that the chicken wire runs down past the bottom of the pen and is buried in the ground! And read the post. Had the chooks for a week and so far no trouble.
Paul

[himzol]

Potterage,

Happy to stand corrected, Be bloody hard yakka burying the wire each time you move it though. Maybe Barrys idea is better, that is have the wire run under the floor.

Still think it's nice work though.

Himzo.

[Potterage]

Himzo,
I suppose it would be but so far I intend to leave it where it is, the chooks love to dig up the ground where they find all sort of goodies, if you had the wire across the floor they would not be able to dig. We usually let them out for quite a few hours each day, bang a dish with some scraps and they come running back inside the cage so they wont miss out, (dumb chooks). The wire is just layed across the ground and some mulch shovelled on top and eventually the grass should grow up through, if we get some RAIN.
Paul

[vsquizz]

Friends of ours are on a grain property at the northern extreme of the WA wheatbelt. Mrs friend always had chooks because it was a 200 k round trip to the nearest shopping centre. She kept losing chooks to foxes and tried all sorts of wiring and prevention. She was getting really annoyed with the foxes because they would come in and kill the chooks but hardly eat anything.

She came home from town oneday and heard a commotion in the chook pen and found a fox inside. The fox had torn the chook wire to get in but couldn't get out. Mrs friend was so wild to see all the dead chooks she grabbed a spade, went in the chookhouse, cornered the fox and bludgeoned it to death. We always thought she was such a mild person. You have to have guts to go tackle a cornered fox.... She said later she was in such a rage she didn't even think about the danger to herself, or going to the house to get the shotgun.

An angry man is one thing, but an angry woman with a spade:eek: . Mr Friend always used to introduce/describe her as "My lovely wife doesn't have a coarse fibre in her body, just don't mess with her chooks"

Cheers

[Peter H]

Great house!...I'm building something very similar. What material do you use for the perches and do you have them mounted by cord or chain from the roof? Also, do you have a walkway from the ground to the nesting area entrance?