Broody Coop/Chicken Tractor Build Part 1

This summer we could have really done with an extra broody coop. Chicks don't always hatch as plan and sometimes come along completely unexpected. 

We use the broody coop I built about 15 years ago all the time. It's the perfect safe place for a hen to hatch eggs and raise her young, also great as a sick pen. I know I've featured this old coop on here numerous times in the past, but it really is useful. 

Homestead Maths

I put this on twitter the other day so apologies if you've seen it already. 

This morning she was frustrated trying to figure out Greek gods from a poem and 16 pages of maths.

This afternoon building a chicken coop, marking up parallel lines, taking measurements &first time using the jigsaw on her own. Perfect apprentice.

I love how useful they've become and how they like to help. I can now set her to finish putting in screws or mark up timber to be cut. It's a lovely way to spend time together. Carpenters daughter. 

Folding Duck House

With the avian flu poultry lockdown my ducks proved tricky to keep happy in confined spaces. Used to having the whole smallholding I decided the kindest thing would be to house them in the polytunnel. This gives them plenty of space and with the old sheep footbath as their pond. 

But keeping them in there doesn't protect them at night. And a recent fox attack of a friends ducks hammers this home as he lost all but one of his ducks (which now lives with ours for the time being). 

So time to build them a coop. 

Pasture Pen Nest Box Upgrade

The bucket nest boxes I originally put in the Heras Panel Pasture Pens never really worked very well, They just weren;t quite big enough and could cause hens to break eggs. But because I used these pens more for grow outs it didn't matter too much and I changed the one I used for the layers into a bigger nest box like the one in this post. 

Currently I have all three of these pens with potential laying hens in. So it was time to upgrade the last two pens to have proper nest boxes, which can even stay in when raising meat birds in there as well. 

Chicken Tractor Refurb!

When you keep more than just a few chickens having some extra pens is essential. 

They have lots of uses but having somewhere to keep a poorly chicken away from the others is essential and a pen around this size also makes for a great broody coop for a hen to sit on some eggs and have the chicks have safe access to some grass outside. 

This chicken tractor/ark is one I built in 2008. The picture above is how it looked when I first built it, complete with cedar cladding in our very tidy garden at our first house!

The picture below is me putting our first ex-battery hens in the coop and my first chickens since leaving home.

Building A Free Chicken Coop!

My pasture chicken coops are working our great, fresh grass each day, helps to keep the chickens healthy.

My chicken plans change day by day though. At the moment I'm thinking that as well as having my two regular egg laying pens (for sales and for ourselves) and one mobile pen for meat birds (doing a few batches throughout the year to keep us supplied in meat) I also want to set up some breeding birds, so I can sell fertile eggs and point of lay pullets from a breed we'll pick as a family. 

My new coop built for free

For this I want to create some permanent pens, maybe a short row of them, each with a coop and a pair of runs off each that can be seeded and rotated. The idea being to keep a breeding trio or four in each pen, keep blood lines pure and chickens happy. 

I've already got one coop spare:

Spare coop - not the easiest to move! Houses a 10 birds though! 

And my mobile coop that I built a few years ago has been converted into my chick brooder now:

Chicken coop converted into a chick brooder - It might gain a extension yet as I'd like to do 30 bird batches rather than 20 (day old chicks are cheaper if you buy over 25 birds).

 I've learnt a lot from building lots of chicken coops over the years (I've built some at mum and dad's farm in the past as well as one for our old house that got covered in red mites - so I left it there). 

But one thing never changes - they're not cheap to build; wood, cladding and roofing material is always expensive and adds up quickly no matter how small it is. 

So the other day when dad offered me one of these pallet boxes for free I jumped at the chance. In fact he's offered me 20 as he will only burn them otherwise (If you're Herefordshire or Shropshire based drop me a line and I'm sure you can have one or two of them).

Some of what he orders comes in on them but the courier he uses makes it too expensive for him to use for shipping things on in them and many people collect anyway (he's a machinery dealer). 

They're 32" square and about 2ft high. Not a massive coop but ideal for around 3 or 4 birds. 

I took one home and started working on it. Got my eldest practicing her hammer skills one night, knocking nails over, she loved that!

First thing I did was to remove one side. 

It would have been easier to just cut a door way in and build a removable roof but I wanted it easier to clean and get into. Being able to sweep or scrape the droppings out is much easier than having to scoop it up and out. 

I then did what I consider essential for any chicken coop - I lifted it up off the ground. 

I lifted this up around 16 inches, this does two things: Removes anywhere for rats and mice to hide under the coop and give the chickens somewhere to shelter out of the rain without having to go in. 

The kids were helping, honest...

I then made the front removable. As I'm trying to keep cost to a minimum I used a french cleat type system, a piece of wood cut on 45 degrees means it slots nicely back into place.

This picture below shows the stop add at the bottom (one at the top as well) to make sure the front won't push in. 

The boy to show scale

The door was just a bit of scrap ply, I did use two old hinges there as well, a scrap of wood as a catch. 

  I then added the top of the pallet as a roof, adding in a 100mm (4inch) piece of timber to give it a bit of fall. The two open diagonal sides were then meshed to prevent predators entering the coop but maintaining good ventilation. 

 I had some old clear sheet material up the field a friend dropped off for me years ago, I added this on top of the wood on the roof as a waterproof layer. 

Not pretty but practical, much like myself...

 A perch at the back and a divide just in from the door, means a dark nest area. I'd like to make some roll away nest boxes in the future, that could work well in here.

French cleat in action  - saves on ironmongery! 

Nest area

This coop can be easily moved with a sack truck so at the moment it's down in the orchard, to be the cockerels new house - he's feeling a little down after being denied access to his ladies. 

A pin for Pinterest if you're into that type of thing...

Normally I hate when someone says something is built for free because of all the stuff they've got kicking around! But this time it's a waste material (the pallet box) and loads of bits I've got kicking around, I'm sure most could come up with some of these materials - maybe a bit of skip diving! 

I now need to treat the woodwork, but it should last a few years easily

The great thing is that with my eldest and youngest we built this coop within about an hour or so, it's well ventilated, big enough for 3 to 4 good sized chickens, is high enough off the ground from pests but also provides a bit of shelter under it, has a perch, nest area and can be locked up at night to keep foxes and badgers out. All it cost me a handful of screws! 

I have a feeling I'll be building a few more of these if my plans for creating some breeding pens for chickens takes shape, if not it's always handy to have spare pens for sick birds or if some need separating due to bullying or hatching out too many chicks, etc! 

What do you think to the coop? 

Would you use it or do you prefer something a little more pleasing to the eye?

Easy To Build Mobile Chicken Tractor For Under £120

I'm really pleased with my lately creation. 

I set myself a design brief on a good movable chicken coop, that's easy to construct and costs under £120 if you buy everything.

I'd been seeing a lot of chicken tractors in the states (on Justin Rhoydes YouTube channel) and I've always like the idea of having movable chicken tractors. The trouble is I end up leaving a pen in one place too long otherwise. 

One pen really caught my eye and that was one moved by a sack truck, why I'd never thought of moving them in this way before was beyond me. Suddenly I could move a much bigger coop easily and make it so it could fit a reasonable amount of birds in (the video that inspired me is here)

The trouble is they built it out of cattle panels, which are really popular in the states but not over here. 

That got me thinking about what we could use as an alternative, it was only when a friend came round and he suggested Heras panels, that the solution had been right in front of me the whole time (and was evening forming the pen for the chickens at the time!). 

Also they're cheap, strong(ish) and readily available. 

So I set about making the rest of the pen in the easiest way possible. 

Here are some key points:- 

• Easily houses ten birds.
• The roof is just a tarp (nowhere for red mites to hide) also easy and cheap to replace.
• Wheels on the back make it easy to move.
• Small access door on the front means you can get in if you need to.
• Food suspended with a spring feeder so no wasted food or grain left out overnight.
• Anti predator netting as a skirt around the outside so no need to shut the chickens in at night.
• no floor to the coop means no cleaning out and pastures are improved as it's moved along.
• Nest boxes easy to construct as they're made from builders buckets.  
• Perches are just cable tied to the heras, making adjustment easy if you need to. 
• Chickens are moved each day so the risk of picking up parasites is minimal, food consumption is reduced and pasture is improved. 
• Nest boxes are easily accessible from the back - my children now collect the eggs each day. 

I've been using this coop for over a month now and it's been great. You can see where it's been over that time and see the grass coming back at different rates, it's great that the hens are moved from their dropping each day. 

Moving it is easy (although I need to improve how it turns), so much so I've made up three of these coops, two for laying hens and a third for meat birds. 

Watch the video above to see it in action and let me know what you think. 

I'll draw up some plans and share them for free on here as well at a later date (when I get time) as well as doing a video on how I made it if people are interested. 

Row Cover Chicken Run

Sometimes you come up with an idea you're really proud of and this is one of them. 

As many of you know I've been altering my veg beds to all be the same size, all 30" wide by 10ft long. The width is what has been recommend by many experienced market gardener, Jean Martin Fortier, Curtis Stone and Ellot Coleman to name a few.

Having changed around about 40% of my beds over to this already I can really see the advantages, being modular it means that every bit of plastic/weed matting I cut for mulch can be used for any bed, the same applies to netting to cover crops. I don't have to search through to find one that fits. Also with this width bed it means I can weed or harvest the whole bed from one side. 

I was thinking that I should take it one step further and make up some frames that I could use as row covers. These frames could easily be moved over any crop that needed protection, without having to stake netting down or set up the hoops each time.

So I made this and my mind got working again. These frames could also be used for fleece or for clear plastic, making little poly tunnels to extend the growing season or grow more heat loving crops like tomatoes, peppers or chillies. 

This really increases my undercover growing area and should mean that I get crops earlier and later than I do now, or I can protect crops much easier. With some spring clamps I can hold up the side when I come to weed or to ventilate my mini poly tunnels in the summer.

The frames were made easily with some treated 3x2 timber, and five lengths of blue alkathene pipe (cut to suit the size of netting I have which is 6ft in width). I inserted dowel into the bottom of each pipe so it wasn't squished when I screw it up. Netting is held down by clipping over some screws and washers but I'll also get some spring clamps.

Cheap and built with materials that are easy to get hold of. The netting I use is scaffold debris netting as I find it stretches really well (I do have finer netting but I don;t tend to use it that much).

Then I took it one step further again and decided to build a chicken coop to fit inside. This little coop is to house just two birds that can peck their way through all the bugs and weed seeds in a bed as well as finishing off what was left of a crop.

The idea behind this coop is that it is suspended on the two hoops to keep it from the ground, preventing rodents from taking up residents under it. Also it increases the lifespan of the coop as if it's not in contact with the ground then it won't rot as fast.

I made the coop very lightweight, out of left over roofing batten and left over uPVC  fascia board that I used as cladding (I hate cladding in plastic but better than it going to the tip and it was a free!). I didn't fit a bottom to the coop meaning that their dropping fall straight to the ground, although half of the coop is taken up with a nest box (which they are already using). Hopefully the chickens won't mind this, but if the lack of a bottom affects them I can soon alter it. 

As for fox proof the fox won't be able to dig under it as all my beds are surrounded by slabs but he could bite through the netting, although I think this is unlikely as my veg beds are quite near the house. Time will tell on this one! 

I think I plan on making about four of these frames up to start with and I'll see how I get on with them. The chickens are already in the first one I made and really enjoying being put on a fresh bed and digging through it. I'm looking forward to getting some poly tunnel plastic and making my mini poly tunnels, should really increase what I can grow next year! 

Please watch the video and let me know what you think of my new idea! Who would want some of these in their garden?

Wasted Eggs And Cleaning Out Chicken Coops

I'd rather naughtily left my mobile chicken coop full of dirty bedding since the chickens moved out from it last year. 

There's been no chickens living in it for the last six months and I just hadn't got around to emptying it out, although I had left the pop hole open. 

 It turns out that when some of my hens were free ranging over the winter one of them was using this to store her eggs! What a waste, but I've only got myself to blame and in the future I'll make sure I'll clean them out as soon as they're empty and to shut the blinking door! 

On a plus note I did build this coop big enough for my largest helper to fit in to clean it out! 

Where's the weirdest place you've ever found a clutch of eggs?

Chicken Colditiz

Last week when I went on my days pruning the customer we were working for had a rather extreme chicken coop, he called it Guantanamo Bay but with all the wire it reminded me of a chicken colditiz castle.

Chicken Colditiz...

He resorted to these measures after the fox kept taking his chickens and then crapping on the roof of one of the coops, just to give him the finger as he left!

The pen is made out of Heras fencing, with chicken wire dug into the ground all the way round and then an added barrier at the top facing outwards to stop Mr Fox climbing in.

A pretty extreme chicken pen to erect, but I'm sure we all feel like building something like this when we have animals attacked by predators. Hopefully his will keep his birds safe but it does make me think I should increase the security on mine!

What's the most extreme pen you've ever built to keep predators at bay?

Joining Flocks Of Chickens

After the fox attack on Friday night I decided to join my two flocks of chickens in the "semi fox proof" pen. joining flocks of chickens isn't something to be undertaken lightly but it went smoothly with very little fighting. Mainly due to this chap I think:

A good cockerel does keep the ladies in order. Having double the number of hens he didn't know which way to turn when he was let out!

Thank you to everyone that commented on my last post. I know none of us like loosing our livestock to predators but we also know it's a part of keeping livestock. The old phrase "If you've got livestock, you've got dead stock" Springs to mind. 

Chicken Retirement Coop

As I need my movable coop for the new batch of ex battery hens I needed somewhere else for my three surviving ex battery hens from last year to live. This is what I've come up with:

Earlier in the year a customer gave me a coop with some wire panelling, so long as I took it all down and removed it for her. Seemed like a good deal as the panelling is really good quality and has already come in handy. The only down side was the fact I had to dig out the wire all round the pen that was nailed onto it, this took a bit of time but with a mattock it wasn't too bad of a job.

 The coop on the other hand was a bit pants.

The pen I took down

 The coop is an off the shelf mass produced thing, with the thinnest possible wood and far too many places for mites and other bugs to hide. The only reason it had lasted as long as it had was because it was under cover the whole time.

The coop - Cheap and poorly designed

 The first thing I did was to loose the nest box off the side. It was so weak and leaky I don't think it would have held the straw for bedding let alone a chicken. I then stripped off the roof which was two layers of timber nailed together - a perfect hiding place for red mites.

I then set about making it useful, but without spending a penny (except a few screws). I raised it up so rats and mice can't nest under it, using some wood from the floor we ripped out. Added a perch inside and sectioned off a small area for a nest box. The removable "easy clean" floor got fixed in place, because sliding it out made the whole thing want to fall apart. And finally I added some bitumen roofing and a side panel made out of scraps. I used toggles here to save having to buy any hinges

After I'd done a bit of work to it! Still looks rough but at least now it should work a little better.

In the end it's about right for three hens (possibly a couple more) and it now sits in the back garden. It was never my intention to have free ranging hens, or any in the garden, but these three hens seem to spend most of their time around the house so we decided why fight it!
Anyone else been making good with old chicken pens?

3 Old Birds

Last October I had my first "big" batch of excaged birds (well 11 of them - big for me). Over a year on and yesterday I picked up my second batch of 15 birds so I thought I'd show you what I've got left of the first lot.

Well two of them pictured, as one was on walkabout! Only three have survived to this point.

I lost two early on - the shock of coming out of the large sheds into the fresh air is too much for some of these girls. Then the other 9 lived happily through the Spring, Summer and Autumn, laying a surprising number of eggs everyday, until the incident with the dog walker that put us down to six. Then, as I couldn't find where the bodies of the chickens from the dog attack, I think a fox got a taste for them, so I lost three more over the next week or so, leaving me with my three scouts that I've got now.

They've got a great coop and large run but pretty much go where they like during the day, favourite spots include (but not limited to) under the old oak tree in the orchard, up by the patio at the back of the house and "teasing" the other chickens in the big pen who can't get out!

The best bit about these three is they still lay three eggs every other day. Productive for birds that are past their best out of a large factory hen house!

5 Young Birds

The five chickens we hatched out earlier this year are almost ready to go off to their new home.

I'm giving them to mum and dad to replace theirs who have stopped laying now due to old age. I dispatched these old ones on Friday - never a job I like but one that sometimes needs to be done.
These hens were hatched at the right time so they should lay through the winter. They've been housed in their ark but I've added some panels (tied with good old fashioned baler twine) to give them plenty of fresh grass. They're quite a feisty bunch and need the space. From the landing window the way I've set the panels up looks like a love heart - my wife thought I was being romantic! I didn't have the heart to tell her it's because I set it up in the dark!
Next year I'm going to work on having some spare coops to make sure when we hatch out more hens there's plenty of options on where to house them.
How does everyone else come up with temporary housing and pens for animals on a budget?

Broody Hen

Sorry no updates over the last week or so. I've been so busy with work and everything else that I haven't had time. I plan to have a good catch up on blogs sometime soon, so sorry for my lack of comments!

Clucking hen

 And as a follow on from my last post, no sooner had I moved the two silkies out of their arc, another hen went broody. She kept it up for a few days so I decided to separate her off from the others and put some eggs underneath her. The eggs are just from my chickens here, so no pure breeds, but it will be interesting what they turn out like!

Only seven eggs but she's only a small hen

Not a happy hen when I chuck her off her eggs for a drink and a feed for 5 mins a day!

Nearly two weeks in so hopefully my little girl will have some chicks to play with soon.

Chicken Weeder

I've been wanting to get my bantams out of their little ark for a while now. I want to have the ark in reserve in case I get a hen that goes broody, it also needs some maintenance and a new coat of wood stain. So I decided to build them another little coop.

My new "chicken weeder"

 I made most of it out of the old shed I housed my ex caged birds in over the winter so the cost were next to nothing. I had great ideas of making a "chicken weeder" that I could put between my rows of brassicas or fruit bushes and the two little chickens would weed them for me. Because of this I built the run and the coop separately so I could move them on my own easier.

Fenced off area for the bantams

In reality the outside run is too narrow for my liking and it would be awkward to get between plants, so instead I've fenced off a weedy area of the veg garden that I was leaving fallow this year for them to have a scratch about in. The coop is still an alright size for these little chickens (and there's a nest box area at the back) I think they'll be fairly happy in their new area and when the soft fruit is over they can go in there and keep the bugs down for me.
Not what I was thinking of doing originally but it seems to have worked out (like many best laid plans!)