Well, I know some of you are going to be VERY jealous, but here are some pictures of my new chicken house I am finally getting built. In the pictures is also my brooder and banty house that I started with my husband that needs finishing off very soon. Then there is the brooder I built this last week and will copy and make at least two others identical to it and put them in the brooder house when it is ready.
The brooder house is 10X12 (as big as I could make it without running permits and such for a building). I plan to have two pens in there and will have the brooder(s) below in there as well. I made the brooder high enough for the chickens to go under inside the building. This was a design I came up with in hopes that we can come up with some kind of passive solar water system to keep the water thawed, and to keep the building warm enough to brood chicks in winter. There will be two windows on the south side that have not been installed yet. I have it insulated with R13 bat insulation, then there is thermax fiberglass board insulation on the bottom of the floor (unless my chickens have pecked it all off by now
(they love going under and dusting themselves and some peck the foil backing off). I will have a yard fenced off separate for this building.
The big house is 12X36. I plan to divide it into 4-foot wide pens and have the equal size outdoor runs for each of them. I figure with the indoor and outdoor space together, I can have 8 or 9 birds per pen. Good so far? The front openings are going to be open year-around with only the 1/2 inch hardware cloth over them. I saw the Woods design the night before the materials were delivered and tried to incorporate the principles used in that design as much as I could for this building. As you can see, the south slope of the roof has 4 clear polycarbonate sections to allow more light inside the building. And if this doesn't work out for winter, I can always make some kind of solid window in there, but I am going to try this and see how it works out. I will have to figure out some way of keep 9 waterers from freezing over the winter months, but where there is a will there is a way.
I will also have a chicken pasture of about an acre or so that I will let the layers range on and hopefully be able to rotate the pens for range time in a separate section of it.
I promise to post more pictures as progress continues, but I am so excited that I am finally going to have a house my chickens deserve.
The brooder house is 10X12 (as big as I could make it without running permits and such for a building). I plan to have two pens in there and will have the brooder(s) below in there as well. I made the brooder high enough for the chickens to go under inside the building. This was a design I came up with in hopes that we can come up with some kind of passive solar water system to keep the water thawed, and to keep the building warm enough to brood chicks in winter. There will be two windows on the south side that have not been installed yet. I have it insulated with R13 bat insulation, then there is thermax fiberglass board insulation on the bottom of the floor (unless my chickens have pecked it all off by now
The big house is 12X36. I plan to divide it into 4-foot wide pens and have the equal size outdoor runs for each of them. I figure with the indoor and outdoor space together, I can have 8 or 9 birds per pen. Good so far? The front openings are going to be open year-around with only the 1/2 inch hardware cloth over them. I saw the Woods design the night before the materials were delivered and tried to incorporate the principles used in that design as much as I could for this building. As you can see, the south slope of the roof has 4 clear polycarbonate sections to allow more light inside the building. And if this doesn't work out for winter, I can always make some kind of solid window in there, but I am going to try this and see how it works out. I will have to figure out some way of keep 9 waterers from freezing over the winter months, but where there is a will there is a way.
I will also have a chicken pasture of about an acre or so that I will let the layers range on and hopefully be able to rotate the pens for range time in a separate section of it.
I promise to post more pictures as progress continues, but I am so excited that I am finally going to have a house my chickens deserve.
