Feather Acres
Specializing in Rare Breed Poultry Preservation
In April 2005, we started FINALLY building my bird barn! I bought plans from Backyardcity.com (see my links page). It is 12ft. X 24ft.
It was supposed to have 6 ft. sidewalls, but for some reason, I can't now remember, my husband and the carpenter we hired to build it got together and decided it should have 8 ft. sidewalls. Something about wasting lumber. Who knows! Anyway, it worked out well. I knew I wanted the ventilation at the top. I guess it's better to have 6 feet of solid wall instead of 4 to keep it predator proof. The ventilation strip is 2 feet, and is covered with nylon mesh to keep owls and other birds out. The roof is a heavy fiberglass material, with 4 sections of clear to let in light. That has been helpful. It is surprisingly cool in there. Apparently the ventilation is working! We can get up to 110 degrees on our very hottest days in the summer, so that was essential.
Here are the beginnings of pens. I needed the room so much, I've already got birds moved in before they're even done! The pens on the left are only 2 ft. tall so I can step over them, and 4ft. X 4ft. inside. They are for my silkies, so that's tall enough. I used nylon mesh instead of wire. I love it. It stretches nicer, you can cut it with scissors, it is very strong and never rusts! You can get it at Lowe's or Home Depot. The pens on the right will be 4 ft. tall for birds that can fly up like my Faverolles and Polish. I will have two 4ft. square pens and two 4ft. x 8ft. pens. I will eventually have pop doors leading into outside pens from all the inside ones. I have installed an automatic cup watering system. I'll have to get pics of that soon.
Here you can see the nylon mesh, and 2 escapee Salmon Favs cockerels.
Here are my super fancy custom made nest boxes! Hey, who said cats were
worthless! I have two 12 year old inside cats, so I have plenty of these. I just
cut the lid with a utility knife, and duct tape it back on so they can't pop it
off coming and going. They love them! Plus, they are so light! If I have one
trying to go broody, or can't reach the egg in the back of one, I can just pick
the whole thing up! Super handy! I think I might patent it! LOL!
Well there you have it. I'll try to update as we go along. Stay tuned!
10/23/05-
Well, my outside pens are FINALLY almost done! I've got almost all the birds moved over to their new pens. I am so tired of digging post holes, and pounding T-Posts, I could scream! I just want it all to be DONE, so I can enjoy it!
2/25/07
Here are some pics of the inside with the pop doors. I have them so I can close and secure them 2 at a time at night. You can also see the green auto watering system lines and the little orange watering cups. I kind of wish I had gone with the bigger Little Giant bowl type waterers. You need to run pipes for that though. In the summer I don't want them to have to work so hard for water during our 110 degree days. They have to hit the little yellow trigger for the water to come out. This is also a learned skill that sometimes takes them a bit to get used to.
Outside Pens
