Tag: shed

Brooder Set-up Ideas to Simplify Raising Chicks

Raising chicks in a box somewhere in the house is not a very pleasant experience, at least after the first two weeks. Chicks are messy, and smelly if not constantly cleaned up after. This is difficult without a proper setup. Without the right tools for any job means working twice as hard, and raising chicks is no exception.
Caring for and housing chicks shouldn’t feel like a chore. The planning, building, and improving your set-up is half the fun. Just like anything else, once a hobby becomes a job it’s just not fun anymore.
After years of looking for an easier way to raise chicks on a budget, this is what I came up with.
I had an 8×10 bare bones shed built with one window, two airflow vents, and a double door. Then the finishing was up to me, it took probably close to two years to afford everything.
Today it has painted walls, a tile floor, electricity, and a custom-made brooder to accommodate 50 chicks comfortably. All my supplies are handy, and any mess sweeps right out the door. I actually enjoy spending time in my brooder shed. My cute chicks, a window fan, soft music, and a cup of coffee. That my friends is how to enjoy your birds!

Brooder Shed
Brooder
Brooder and Chicks
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Chicken Coop Shed

There are a million ideas for chicken coops, but I like to think out of the box a little and be creative. Not a fan of store-bought chicken coops, they are often cheaply made and usually a little a lot short on space. I like roomy, definitely not something I have to crawl around on my knees to clean!
It’s nice to not worry about the chickens when it’s pouring rain or inclement weather. Not to mention the after-the-storm clean-up… so here’s a great solution!

Chicken Coop Shed Conversion…

Just a suggestion, I would use hardware cloth instead of chicken wire. Sparrows can fit through chicken wire, and there’s no good reason (in my opinion) to feed expensive chicken feed to wild birds!

shed-chicken-coop-2
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More Amazing Chicken Coops

This chicken coop below gave me the idea of simply modifying an outbuilding. Mine doesn’t need to be this big, but Tuff Shed or comparable shed builders offer buildings in all different sizes. I priced a 6X8 shed with a window, built and painted for less than $1,000

These nest boxes affixed to the interior would be very nice to have, however, a shelf affixed to the wall with free-standing next boxes will work fine.

This roost is perfect, the flat board will make scrapping the droppings a snap, and I like the shelf below to aid in quick clean-ups.
Neither the nest boxes nor roost would be difficult to attach to the interior walls of a shed, whether they are finished or not.  I like the drywall in these pictures, but it’s merely a luxury…  and, an added expense.
It looks like the feeders have been hung below the shelf, another great idea to help minimize feed waste.

I like this chicken run, it looks like an easy build. Predator proof, but the wire mesh is not going to keep the wild birds from entering and consuming expensive chicken feed.

Tip: A better choice of wire is hardware cloth.

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