I wanted to make a thread to chronicle my return to poultry, it's been over 5 years since I had any significant number of birds or have been breeding. I have a few old grow out pens and brooders that will be used, but I want to focus on two main projects in this thread. The first is constructing new breeding pens. My primary interest is in large fowl and I have decided on three rare breeds, which I am looking to expand into over the next couple years in no particular order (adding one breed every 6-12 months until I have all three. Those breeds are Chanteclers, Langshans, and White Faced Black Spanish. Since all three are so rare, and good bloodlines scare I wasn't sure what type of breeding program I wanted to follow, then I read the Homesteading Heritage Fowl thread here and combined with some off site research decided on rotational breeding with four pens. This means for each breed I need 4 equal size breeding pens (I decided on 8' x 6') per each breed, plus grow out and since I will be showing as well, living quarters for the show birds.
This is well the first bank of breeding pens will go. I want to try and keep them in this pre-fenced area of my property for now, the fence was originally put up to separate geese into breeding pens. The piles in the background are the old nesting shelters after I reclaimed this area from the blackberries. The land is fairly flat but perfectly flat doesn't matter since I will be attaching hardware cloth to the underside of the pens to stop predators from digging in, deep shavings will be used on top of the wire to protect the birds' feet. The lean-to in the background is the focus of the second subject of this thread which I'll talk about in next post.
Framing of the bottom of the pens has begun. I am going with a lean-to design because I am no great carpenter but have used similar designs with great success in this climate before. The wooden posts in the center background of this shot show where my second bank of breeding pens will go later this year. The entire structure will measure 8' x 24', divided into four 6' pens.
I put the hardware cloth on with wide head screws every 8" and then with the help of the neighbor flipped the entire thing over. The pens are positioned 6' from the fence on the back and 4' on the far side. I will come back later and attach fencing to the pens and a netting over the top and that area will serve as a shared run for the breeding pens. as well as free ranging within the fenced area under supervision due to many predators in the area. I had originally planned to use the wood posts and fence frame as part of the run but there would have been too much waste material which would have driven up costs and made project slow and painful.
This is the stopping point for day one of construction. This week after work I will attach the front posts and the runners for the roof. The back of the pens will be sheeted in plywood with 2' of hardware cloth (6' posts), the two sides will also have a sheet of plywood, with wire covering the gap between that and the roof.
This is well the first bank of breeding pens will go. I want to try and keep them in this pre-fenced area of my property for now, the fence was originally put up to separate geese into breeding pens. The piles in the background are the old nesting shelters after I reclaimed this area from the blackberries. The land is fairly flat but perfectly flat doesn't matter since I will be attaching hardware cloth to the underside of the pens to stop predators from digging in, deep shavings will be used on top of the wire to protect the birds' feet. The lean-to in the background is the focus of the second subject of this thread which I'll talk about in next post.
Framing of the bottom of the pens has begun. I am going with a lean-to design because I am no great carpenter but have used similar designs with great success in this climate before. The wooden posts in the center background of this shot show where my second bank of breeding pens will go later this year. The entire structure will measure 8' x 24', divided into four 6' pens.
I put the hardware cloth on with wide head screws every 8" and then with the help of the neighbor flipped the entire thing over. The pens are positioned 6' from the fence on the back and 4' on the far side. I will come back later and attach fencing to the pens and a netting over the top and that area will serve as a shared run for the breeding pens. as well as free ranging within the fenced area under supervision due to many predators in the area. I had originally planned to use the wood posts and fence frame as part of the run but there would have been too much waste material which would have driven up costs and made project slow and painful.
This is the stopping point for day one of construction. This week after work I will attach the front posts and the runners for the roof. The back of the pens will be sheeted in plywood with 2' of hardware cloth (6' posts), the two sides will also have a sheet of plywood, with wire covering the gap between that and the roof.
