# Help!!!!



## jwhitty (Jul 25, 2013)

I'm turning my sons swing set into a coop... I'm using diamond aluminum siding.... I need cheap ideas cause I'm on a tight budget... Especially with cheap nesting boxes etc... Help!!!


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## Bee (Jun 20, 2013)

Can you post a pic of the swing set? Nest boxes are easy...anything a hen will fit in and is deep enough to hold nesting material is pretty much adequate.


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## MamaHen (Apr 15, 2013)

Hit up your local good will? Sometimes Te ones here have these large plastic cartons for a couple bucks.


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## etc (Nov 15, 2012)

*Re: Help!*

I'm a fan of making chicken coops with used materials. You already get extra points in my book for using the swing set as your framework and used siding. Your swing set frame will hold hanging feeders and waterers well. You will want a roosting pole or two. It can be a wooden clothes rod, or a 2x4 with the 2" (actually 1.5") side horizontal. It is nice if you sand off the 90 degree angles. It is easier on their feet. By teaching them to go to the roost to sleep at night, clean up will be easier and they won't be tempted to sleep in the nesting boxes, keeping them cleaner for your eggs. You will want to make sure that you have good ventilation for the coop, so it doesn't trap all the hot air in the summer or hold in ammonia fumes which are especially harmful for your birds. Nesting boxes can be very simple if you'll just be collecting eggs to eat. If you are hoping to have a hen hatch her own eggs, she will need an area separate from the main group where she and the chicks will be safe from other birds, who may step on or peck youngsters or compete for food and water. The box itself should protect from the elements, (rain, wind, sleet, snow, scorching sun). You may have as few as one box per three hens, or various boxes in different areas to see what works best for the hens and for you to retrieve the eggs. Without nesting boxes, the hens will still lay, they just won't lay in places that are practical for you to get to or where they may be stepped on or get muddy, dirty,... My nesting boxes are actually one very long box - 16 feet long, 2 feet high, 2 feet wide, 3 feet up off the ground, with one interior door for the hens and 8 small doors on the outside where I can reach in to get eggs. In addition to the 8 little doors, the entire outside wall of the "box" is hinged and lifts up for me to do any maintenance I need to do. I just close the "in" door for the hens and open up the back and it is a breeze to clean or make repairs. I intended to put small stall type dividers/cubicles to separate the hens inside, but they started using it before I could get it done and the open design seems to work for them. Each end of the "box" has changeable windows - a screen and shade for summer and a solid wood one for winter warmth. I have a ramp going up to the "in" door for the hens, though most could fly up. It is easier for them when more than one is coming or going at the same time and I think they appreciate the walk up while they're working on getting that egg "delivered", (especially the new layers). My girls do like to fly and have roosts at various heights. They use them all. Some are stationary, while others hang like swings. Some prefer the ones that don't sway, while lighter girls seem to like to swing. Snakes, mice and rats can get through the holes in 1" chicken wire. Snakes will eat the eggs and young birds. Rats have been known to chew on chickens feet while they sleep and will leave their droppings in the food and water and they will be very happy to eat the chicken feed as well. Raccoons and coyotes will kill even adult chickens and their sharp claws can rip right through chicken wire. The pros use hardware cloth to enclose the run. Rapters, such as hawks, owls, turkey vultures will be very happy to dine on chicken as well and will appreciate it if you leave a wide opening from above so they can swoop down, grab a bird and take off again. Bird netting, camo, even visible fishing line across the top of the run area, are of some help. I use shade cloth completely covering the top of my run which keeps the run 10 to 20 degrees cooler in the summer and offers some camo. from above, but a raccoon could easily climb the outside and rip right through the top if we had any that were determined. I've seen people use dog houses, children's small plastic play houses, buckets turned on their side and attached to a bench, baskets, crates, and boxes of every kind used for nesting boxes. Use your imagination to make your coup, nesting boxes, run, all your own. I've found hardware cloth, chicken wire, scrap wood, dog houses, hardware, tons of stuff I was able to use on freecycle and Craig's List's "free" section. I've gone to pick up free scrap wood at a couple of places and when people heard I was building a chicken coup and run, they dug out more things they were no longer using that they thought I might be able to use. Fun! Just remember that chickens are intelligent birds, who need the basic things that birds need, plus the things that make life easier for you to maintain their area, plus they appreciate things that enrich their area. You are raising a bird, yet restricting their mobility and their ability to find food, water, and shelter on their own, for your benefit, so you need to make sure those basic needs are met. When they are free-ranging, a bird at the bottom of the pecking order can run into bushes, around trees, can fly up to the branches, scratch for food all out of range of the birds at the top of the pecking order, so you need to have enough room for them to stay out of the immediate personal space of another bird if she needs to, and offer more than one place to get food and water, as the other birds may hog it. Likewise, they'll need more than one little shady corner. Even if all the birds will fit in that corner, they may not all be welcome to share that spot. You know, the same basic stuff all animals need. LOL Can't wait to see how your swing set chicken coop turns out. It sounds cool!


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## jwhitty (Jul 25, 2013)

Thanks for all the info! I'm thinking of using deer fencing & landscape timbers for the yard fence... My backyard is closed in on 3 sides except for the driveway side where you pull around tithe back... The very back of the property is a brick wall with wooden fence on the sides... I shouldn't need more than a 100 ft of deer fencing to close it in & tie into the existing fences.... Thoughts & comments on using deer fencing would be appreciated... I plan on using the siding I have left over in 2 ft X6 ft sections & screwing into the bottom of the timbers when the fence is done.. Ill let it overlap the ground & cover it up with rock from my yard....


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## jwhitty (Jul 25, 2013)

My back yard is rock mostly but ire moved a big section of the rock to put in top soil & I'm going to plant something they can scratch like chickweed or some other type of year round clover.... When I get the coop done ill dig a trench around it & bury it a little in the ground & heap the rock up next to the coop to keep out night creepers... I purposefully left the sheet medal hang down lower than the swing set frame ski can bury it in the rock... Thoughts & comments...;-)????


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## MamaHen (Apr 15, 2013)

jwhitty said:


> Thanks for all the info! I'm thinking of using deer fencing & landscape timbers for the yard fence... My backyard is closed in on 3 sides except for the driveway side where you pull around tithe back... The very back of the property is a brick wall with wooden fence on the sides... I shouldn't need more than a 100 ft of deer fencing to close it in & tie into the existing fences.... Thoughts & comments on using deer fencing would be appreciated... I plan on using the siding I have left over in 2 ft X6 ft sections & screwing into the bottom of the timbers when the fence is done.. Ill let it overlap the ground & cover it up with rock from my yard....


Maybe you'll have better luck with deer fencing than me, but I know others use it just fine. My personal use with it was a waste of time and money (maybe I'm too picky  ) it's nice that it is so cheap, but be careful when handling it, it's flimsy.

I would love to see pictures of what you're doing! I love recycling and repurposing anything and everything and I'm also a frugal person. My coop & run is made mostly of recycled material.


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## etc (Nov 15, 2012)

I'm not familiar with deer fence, but I know there's a plastic kind and a steel kind, so don't know which you might mean. Plastic deer fence will not keep a neighborhood dog from coming in and having a little chicken dinner, or a coyote, raccoon, opossum, which all can climb and all have claws. If the chickens will be put inside a secure coop at night, you may be able to risk using deer fence to keep the chickens in during the day. Or, you can run an electric wire around the outside if you have problems.


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## sbon2727 (Aug 17, 2013)

we partially converted our cedar clubhouse/swim set to a coop this summer and love it. still a little cosmetic stuff to do, but it works great! most people don't even realize its a chicken coop


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