I seeing those chickens as a bunch of extra 'hens' all telling Ric what to do
"move that!
That looks better here
Are you sure you should do that?"
boy hart- the price of those Egloos--! very martha stewartish way to have chickens
Here Chickie, Chickie
LOL Very Martha Stewartish. Not to mention it's nothing but an igloo doghouse with a few additions.
We used a plan for an A-frame henhouse for my main chicken house. There's plenty of room in there for 10 chickens. It's 4x8 feet, on tall legs so I can reach inside easily. The bottom halves of both sides hinge open but one has chicken wire inside and it's just for ventilation. They enjoy the shade under it on a hot day, which is denser than the shade from nearby trees. They have a little door/chicken steps that lowers from the bottom and a roost that goes the entire length of the coop. It's just 2x4s and plywood and there's a v-shaped metal strip across the peak at the top and silicone to keep it dry inside when it rains.
Holly, the girls look really pretty and LOL Sally on the henpecking on Ric.
Sally, The senior hen was out for the day with a girl friend. As for the other hens, I can listen to them and say "Yes Dear", and do as I please, and get away with it! :-) LOL Ric
My hen house is very "green" Jamie built it using a wood packing crate from the salvage yard at work and left over shingles from our barn. I think I said earlier that my chicken yard was 6 square feet but that wasn't what I meant. It is 6ft long and 6ft wide, the coop is 2ft long and 2 ft wide and sits outside of the yard. Sally & Ric LOL
Chuckling...
hart I think I could build that just based on your description. Simple straightforward!
It's easy. Just build your frame, cut the two long pieces of plywood in half. Attach the floor and the two top halves of the sides with screws. Attach the bottom halves with hinges - you'll need at least three pretty hefty hinges per side. I use hooks and eyes to hold the sides up. Oh, cut a door out of the bottom before you attach it and then attach that will hinges. We have two eye hooks inside and clothesline, the clothesline comes out the side of the coop and is attached to the chicken door with another eye hook. I pull the clothesline from the side of the coop to close the chicken door and have, shoot, one of those things you wrap rope around on boats to secure the clothesline.
The roost is just a wooden closet pole. I have closet pole holders on each side, put in the pole and then screwed in screws through the sides of the coop into the pole ends to make sure it won't spin.
The frame is made with 8 foot 2x4s, the two on each side that form the triangle left full length so the coop is up off the ground by around 4 feet. That makes it much easier to clean the coop, gather eggs and so forth.
You could make it half this length, 4x4, and have room for about 6 chickens. I highly recommend the Brahmas, Barred Rocks and Americaunas. They're pretty cold hardy, lay reliably and the Brahmas and Barred Rocks especially are very sweet, friendly chickens. The Americaunas lay blue/green eggs. Everybody gets a big kick out of those eggs and they're the biggest eggs I get by far.
You don't need a rooster and actually are better off without one. I only kept one because they sent free roosters with my hen chicks to help keep them warm for the mailing. The rest are at Larlienda's Home for Wayward Roosters.
I'll have to copy that for my Dreams file.
LOL Larlienda's Home must be noisy...and they're probably always trying to mess up her laundry ....
Well, she has geese, ducks, chickens, guineas, goats, dogs, cats, a chinchilla. I think I remembered everything. And in her spare time, she has three beautiful children.
I think I'm going to call her. I haven't heard from her in ages and I hope she's just busy. I can't imagine why, though. LOL
Oh, in a pinch, for just a few chickens you can use a doghouse. I would think a wooden one would be better than the igloo kind but I'm not sure. They do need some protection from the cold.