Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
OPTIONS
The number of chicks, your housing situation, and how much coin you want to turn over
will all factor in. If you rent a brownstone in Memphis with a fenced backyard, you
could get away with nothing fancier than a converted doghouse you scored off Free-
cycle. If you own a half acre of suburbia, you could buy building plans to perfectly suit
your birds' needs or order a prefab chicken spa complete with built-in nesting boxes and
watering stations. Don't limit your options—get creative!
How creative are we talking here? Plenty of small structures make for perfect chicken
coops even if that wasn't their original intention. I've seen old VW buses gutted and
turned into chicken coops. I've seen theme coops based on outhouses, post offces, and
summer cottages. (My all-time favorite had an old movie-house sign reading “now play-
ing”—with the p removed—on the coop door.) I once used an old metal barrel and two
apple crates with a shoddy tin roof to make a home for some Silkie bantams. It wasn't
as cool as the Volkswagen, but it did the job—and if the tenants had any aesthetic com-
plaints, they kindly kept them to themselves.
BUILD OR BUY?
If you're comfortable around a circular saw and want to call out your inner artist,
you can literally build a future for your girls. But even if you lack carpentry skills,
don't think you need to spend a grand on those 4%&%6 coops you see advertised in
magazines. Chances are an old shed or a dog run—or even a used coop—is just waiting
for you to purchase for cheap in your local paper, Pennysaver, or the Craigslist farm and
garden pages. Borrow a friend's pickup or rent a U-Haul for the day, and go get it.
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