# Building my first breeding pen



## LightSussexLady (May 28, 2021)

I've been wanting to breed for a while now, problem was I had a mixed flock, so had to get that sorted out, and build something to seperate the "breeders" that would also house the young ones with the parents. I am doing this on a small scale, with just one line at the moment, the second line is in the making, but still too young. 

The brreeding pen will look sort of like this, but I am making it bigger and adding a run.












So it will be more like a coop. I bought all the wood for one, before they hiked the prices, now a second one willl have to wait... Here in Germany we are shipping our wood to the US because you need it, but now we need it too, so price hikes everywhere...I can sit it out. So what do you think of the pens? I think they look pretty practical. Here is the youtube video, if you'd like to watch it, 

New Breeding Pens for 2015


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Very nice!


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Does it stay warm and calm enough to have an open side in the Winter time? Here in the states Winter in the north usually means four hard sides to keep the elements out. 

So is going to be Light Sussex? 

Someone is playing some sort of games with the lumber. I live where there are planted pines, the trucks with cut trees are steadily running. So, why do you have to send lumber to us and why are the prices so high in both countries. Like I said, someone is fiddling around with the lumber.


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## Overmountain1 (Jun 5, 2020)

The housing market/boom and renovations. Everyone is building what they can lately. Including the chicken boom- coops etc. everywhere.


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## LightSussexLady (May 28, 2021)

IDK why all of a sudden there is a wood shortage. Something like lots of forrest fires...and some how Canada isn't selling enough? Its messed up for sure. Yup, will be breeding my Light Sussex. I was not going with the hardwear cloth. I'm going to have the left side with a pop door to get to the run and the main door will have a window covered in hardware cloth and a shutter to close, if it gets too windy and cold. I think the guy is in Ireland, so probably just gets wet and not really cold.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

What will you put in the opening if you're not using hardware cloth? You want it to be strong enough that predators can't pull it out and small enough openings that small preds like snakes and weasels can't get in. 

Good idea on the shutter. Keeping out Winter winds helps prevent frostbite. 

So, are you itching to get started with this new project?


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## LightSussexLady (May 28, 2021)

The front will be wood on the left with the cut out for the pop door, and the door on the right. also wood, with a window. We don't get snakes here, maybe the odd grass snake, but I have never seen one. Wiesels are a problem but to get to the coop, they must get through the run, and that will be chain link fencing covered with hardware cloth. Example here on my run now. Bit OTT, but nothing has ever gotten in.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

The one weakness is around the door into the dog pen. I've had to deal with that myself. Something got into my chicken pen and killed a bunch of my quail. The only way it could get in was the opening around the door. I think I've got it fixed now but no way to know until another attempt is made.


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## LightSussexLady (May 28, 2021)

robin416 said:


> The one weakness is around the door into the dog pen. I've had to deal with that myself. Something got into my chicken pen and killed a bunch of my quail. The only way it could get in was the opening around the door. I think I've got it fixed now but no way to know until another attempt is made.


Yes, I had to deal with that too. Did manage to cover up most of it with hardware cloth, but you need to open it, so I have to live with a small gap. If anything did get in, it still would have to gain access to the coop, or sit and wait until the automatc door goes up...


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Same thing I did. I used a leash clip to clip the hardware cloth on the door to the hardware cloth on the side.


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## LightSussexLady (May 28, 2021)

The weather is better now, so I have started on the frame. I can cut the wood in the workshop, but it has to built outside, because it is too tall to work on indoors. Hight is 2 meters and 170 cm squared. Height of the coop alone, is 150 cm, so its 50 cm off the ground. I'm putting it on cement paving stones as soon as I get the bottom frame done.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Of course I had to look all those CM's and M's up to put in standard US measurements. 

But I'm confused, you have something being 2 M tall but then say something else is 150 CMs.


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## LightSussexLady (May 28, 2021)

If you look at the picture, you'll see how it's built. 50 cm are the legs. The lumber comes in 2 meters (thats all I can fit in my car) so the 150 is the height at the front of just the coop part, the back with a 20% slope for rain run off is 180 cm in total height and 130 at the back of coop itself. Sorry about the metric, I always have to work out the US ones too. This build was given by the guy in metric. My luck!!


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

OK, got it. It's the height of the entire unit, legs included.


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## Animals45 (May 11, 2021)

Really nice.


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