... Well almost built. It will be housing our 4 chickens

It's a bit ricketty but it will keep foxy out and should last a couple of years until I can afford to build a more sturdy structure.

Just need to put the roof on the shed. Very undecided about how to do it though. I bought a sheet of corogated bituminous (onduline) roofing but it isnt wide enough. So I think I'll use board and felt. Does anyone know if I can use MDF instead of OSB?

Looks great! Well done
Ive always wanted to keep chickens! Think I have enough pets now with getting a Siamese fighter and 2 dwarf hamsters
Cant help you with the building side of things though!

Very smart - a chicken des res

MDF will expand and warp all over the shop if it gets wet, OSB or marine grade ply would be the way to go.

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Do the Siamese and the Hamsters get on OK together? Do you have somewhere where the hamsters can get out onto dry land as they don't particularly like to stay in the water all the time, they do like to sun themselves on a little beach occasionally. The Siamese should be fine as long as he has somewhere to hide from the Hammies.

Nice Coop Flappi, MDF may be a little iffy when wet, even if covered in felt. I would go for Marine-ply and felt, little more expensive but more resistant to moisture, rain and sun effects.

Nice build there FA.

Not wishing to rain on your parade mate but as a chicken keeper myself can I just point out foxes dig and climb ...

They will dig under any gate or fence on soft ground to get to your chucks and the desperate ones will climb trees and fences up to 6ft. They are also known for knocking over chicken coops (point this out as you say it's a bit rickety) and lifting lids on the kind with an outdoor nesting box (the ones with lids to get the eggs without bothering the .. nearly put fish then haha .. chucks lol).


The solution is to give your chucks somewhere to 'escape' to that Mr n Mrs Foxy can't get into.

Prevention better than cure mate so hope you don't think I'm being negative for the sake of it. Lost all my Silkies in April when I was on holiday. Started again with good old Warrens (rescued ex battery hens) & Welsummers but they got one of my hens last night grrrrrrrrr feathers everywhere this morning :0((

They're sly and cunning and not to be underestimated!!!!!

Sorry if I've missed previous thread on this but what chucks you got?

Char x

Cheers guys

I havnt got the hens yet, they're coming when the run and coop are finished. We were originally going to get ex-bats but think we have decided to go for point of lay's first and see how we get on. Really hope to get some ex-bats in the future, we have plenty of room (I understand it can be tricky introducing new ones to the group).

The run has got netting on the top aswell, Ickl and I will be laying a burried fence all the way round. The coop is the shed in the middle, the little one. It will have a little hinged door through to the run. I say the run is ricketty because it's not 100% ridgid, ive seen some photos of coops whilst I was researching that look very chunky indeed. There is no chance a fox could tip it over (unless it is a mutant mega-fox, you do get them), I can't lift it myself.

Sorry to hear your hens got killed by the fox Ickl
At least I know who to come to for advice now

I'm really excited!

Loving those tri-coloured little step ladders Flaps lol Nice to see a man in touch with his female side

In the V household we use the 5 rung aluminium kind from B&Q, but I like your multi coloured ones! What....? A childs picnic table...? Are you sure now?

P.s. Wish I had room for chickens My deeds say I can't "render fat" either in the back yard. Pah, what a shame, I love rendering fat in my free time....

That is indeed a childs picnic table. Hiddeous isnt it?

Render fat? I don't even know what that means. Does it mean keep livestock in the back garden? I havn't checked my deeds. I am just going to exercise my right to do whatever the hell I like as long as it isnt upsetting anyone.

House is dated 1905, having googled 'rendering fat' but more importantly 'why ?' when we moved in, on the internet. Seems to be related to melting down animal fat usually for candle making or soap - nice. Those Edwardians knew how to enjoy themselves you know

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I would check your deeds if I were you. Quite a few have a covenant about keeping chickens.