I have a headful of chickens.  It's turning into an obsession.

I've wanted chickens for a while, but the cost of providing housing for them has been a prohibiting factor.  Up till now.  It's not that I've won the lottery, nor that the price of chicken housing has fallen.  I'm not sure the chicken Chancellor is fully on top of inflation in the chicken housing market, to be honest.   I think prices are running riot, and I blame Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (and probably placenta pate, too.)

Anyway.  Chickens.  Last week, a friend in Lincolnshire offered me six of hers, and a chicken house she no longer needs.  The only downside is the house didn't have an integral run and I don't particularly want to free range my chickens when I'm at work.  They all *tell* me the fox won't visit in daylight hours.  They all *tell* me my chooks will be safe in the garden whether I'm home or not.  Its just that, when I look out of my bedroom window and see the fox waving jauntily at me from the field on the other side of my garden hedge, I'm disinclined to believe them.

Well, by the time I'd looked into the cost of hiring a van, filling it with petrol, driving it to Lincolnshire, giving my friend £50 for her chickens, and buying a run, it came to roughly the same amount of money as buying a new house and run all for my very self.  Back to the inflated chicken housing market. 

But an interesting thing happened on the way to the forum, Flavia...

While I was researching the price of chicken runs, I came across lots of blogs about people building their own chicken sheds.   Building their own.  Chicken sheds.  People.  Just like me.  Building their own chicken sheds.  The seed of an idea has begun to germinate in my mind.  And we all know how dangerous that can be!

I have emailed another friend.  Her husband, confusingly, is called Mr Fox.  He's an expert on chickens.  He says I need an area 6' x 4' with a concrete base.  I have an area 15' x 8' available, so that would seem to be just the ticket.  He says if I have kicking boards and a roof on my run, it will keep the litter dry and so will make cleaning out easier.  He suggests I use 2" x 1" slate laths.  I'm not sure what slate laths are..... they sound like stone, to me.  (There's no reason *why* I shouldn't build my own chicken shed, right?)  I think I should probably use wood.  I email him to check.  (No reason.  Right?)  It's so much better to expose my ignorance, than simply to Google.

Anyway, I have pictures of other people's constructions.  I'm sure I can make a plan.  Sure I can.

I think I may be spending this weekend pouring concrete.  Now, in the unlikely event that it turns out I *can't* build a chicken shed after all, what alternative uses can I find for a 15' x 8' stretch of conrete???

As the little chicken says, I only hope I don't cluck up...

Comments

[jon]

In a way, I'm glad I don't live next door.

And in a way, I wish I did.

[Silver Lining]

I shan't have a cockerel. I don't need one - there is already the cock in my bush! (see top left...) So they'll be quiet. I doubt the neighbours will even know they're here. If they ever are. I reckon I can sell the eggs, too. If I sell 6 eggs a week at 1.50 for 6, then house will pay for itself in.... oooh..... several years.

[Ian]

And after a while you get used to the smell too.
Yuck! Nasty creatures.
Make sure they are not higher than any land you want to stay fertile and alive as water running through the pen and downward kills everything in it's path. Remember they also claw at the ground making any green area a dustbowl within the space of one summer. They like dustbaths so they will make sure you have dust. Oh and chicken poo does get everywhere. They will also eat every flower and green leaf in the area.
When I was 6 and spending summers on the farm my grandma taught me how to break their necks and pluck them.
That stops the smell and the overnight clucking and the eggs too I suppose, but you can always (except on pancake day) get eggs at the co-op and I prefer to have a bit of grass in my garden. Oh and don't forget you will need an outdoor heater for them in winter or you will get frozen chicken.
And good luck with the little hunting dog you own...lol, make sure you get training that to ignore chickens on video.
Not putting you off am I?

[Silver Lining]

No, you're not. They'll have a concrete based enclosure, 9' x 6' probably - plenty big enough for 4 of them. The house will be raised and I'll be able to sweep the contents straight into the wheelbarrow. It's excellent compost for the vegetable garden, and if you put the droppings into water, they make a lovely liquid manure for the flowers. They'll only free range under supervision! But the garden I mind most about is out at the front, and they won't get there.

I might get you to come and give me lessons on plucking and cleaning, though...

[Phoenix]

Yes. Mr Fox is describing the same principles as my own and his chicken houses. Our two chucks don't smell that much, then again, haven't had them in a hot month of July sunshine yet. However, they have NOT frozen yet either.
If you want an inexpert hand helping you build, then do let me know.

[Ian]

It was a mild winter Phoenix, mind they say we will be getting more of them.
Hey! why don't the two of you do Ostrich's?

[Trepid Explorer]

We'll help eachother out with splinters, how's that sound?

[Phoenix]

Ostrich's? Are you aware of the difference in size? Just cos I can fit a couple of chickens in my garden, doesn't mean there is space for ostriches. (Also I have seen that zoo park program, they did for children. It takes two to collect the eggs - not due to the size, but more down to the fact, they don't like you taking their eggs, and someone has to keep an eye on the birds and shout RUN! If i want that sort of exercise before breakfast, I'll just go for a jog thanks)

[Silver Lining]

I did have an uncle who kept ostriches.

[Ian]

was this in the days of the Raj?

[Silver Lining]

No!!! Although he did run a cocoa plantation in Borneo in the 70s and 80s. One of his workers got his hand cut off by pirates, and was sent over to the UK for a prosthetic, and stayed with Granny Helen for a while. That was quite exciting....

Anyway, by the time he kept ostriches he lived in St Keverne, in Cornwall. Kept monkeys there, too. He was a little eccentric, I guess.

[Ian]

Eccentric! surely not.
When I worked for property repair we traced a bad smell in one house to the house next door keeping a horse in the bedroom.