The Poultry Cottage
I wanted to build a new coop out in the woods - out of sight and well shaded - for the poultry we get for just the summer months. This means Cornish Rock cross meat chickens and turkeys. These birds free range over our fenced in 1/2 acre all day and are closed in securely against the weather and predators at night. Their food and water are inside out of the rain. This way they get to live active, healthy chicken-y (or turkey-y) lives and are much healthier and more nutritious. Meanwhile, the rest of the flock is in a large enclosed run with less access to greens - this is because otherwise they get into the veggie garden and dig up and eat all my veggies...grrrr....
I built all by myself over just a few weeks this spring. The height is about 4' - Kieran can walk around inside easily. As you can see, my dogs come over to visit often - scrounging for chicken poops...dogs are truly gross creatures.
The cottage is not winterized - it is well ventilated to make it well suited to summer residency. The whole thing cost around $100 - most of that was for the metal screening to prevent predators getting in through the sides or digging in. All the walls but one are made of pallets.
The final wall is made of a wooden door from the county dump.
Most of this was found and repurposed material. It is a sort-of U shape, and a total of about 90 square feet plus a wooden walkway made of pallets leading up to it.
Some of the outside walls are plywood over pallets and others are metal screening over pallets for ventilation.
Inside I have a waterer with nipples (which I am still trying to fix a leak on) - made with ABS pipe scrounged from my in-laws construction dumpster when they built their house (much of the roof is from there too).
I also built a feeder I can fill from outside with a few bags of feed at a time. The chicks like to get right in there the greedy piggies.
My Orlopp Bronze turkeys
are very cute and getting so tall!
I built all by myself over just a few weeks this spring. The height is about 4' - Kieran can walk around inside easily. As you can see, my dogs come over to visit often - scrounging for chicken poops...dogs are truly gross creatures.
The cottage is not winterized - it is well ventilated to make it well suited to summer residency. The whole thing cost around $100 - most of that was for the metal screening to prevent predators getting in through the sides or digging in. All the walls but one are made of pallets.
The final wall is made of a wooden door from the county dump.
Most of this was found and repurposed material. It is a sort-of U shape, and a total of about 90 square feet plus a wooden walkway made of pallets leading up to it.
Some of the outside walls are plywood over pallets and others are metal screening over pallets for ventilation. Inside I have a waterer with nipples (which I am still trying to fix a leak on) - made with ABS pipe scrounged from my in-laws construction dumpster when they built their house (much of the roof is from there too).
I also built a feeder I can fill from outside with a few bags of feed at a time. The chicks like to get right in there the greedy piggies.
are very cute and getting so tall!
Comments
Post a Comment