The chicken house
Last year’s July 4th weekend project with my son was the building the pheasant fly pen, a 45 x 25 net enclosed space for the pheasants to grow out from 6 weeks to about 18 weeks. It is covered with netting and has about 6 – 7 feet of head room
Along the east, long side, I’ve added a 8 foot wide lean-to pen for the ducks. And now, at the south end, I’ve place the chicken coop and soon, the chickens will hate their own pen along the south edge as well.
So once again, North Lumber delivered wood and I laid it out on the deck. a 16 x 48 deck really makes a nice open-air work shop. I ordered coop plans online from Jenny Robson, and after looking them over and mentally building this in my head, began putting it all together.
I assembled each of the walls and “dry fit” everything to see how it went together. 
Then, I took it apart and re assembled it in place, and finished the sheating, and the interior roosts, nesting box, and feed box. The chickens moved in last Sunday and seemed pleased with the space. Since they are about 5 -6 weeks old, the cool night air and the open front design was causing them to pile in the corner the first night, so I ran a 250 watt brooder lamp for nights for them. They find a comfort zone near or far from the lamp, depending on the temperature.
I used cedar shakes for the false roof. One of the unique features of this design is it is a 6 sided cube/rectangle, with chicken wire under the floor and ceiling for added predator protection. The “roof” can either be pitched or shed, and I opted for shed roof with shakes, and I’m about 7 shakes short of finishing.
The young chickens are experimenting with the roosts and the lip of the nesting box as a perch. I have two bared rocks that *appear* to be pullets, we will see. A black sex link, two buff orpingtons, and an Amerucana.
Testing the roosts
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