Be Ye Separate

Portable Housing

Blessings!

   I wanted to share our new "portable housing" that we finally finished.

   As you know we have chickens. Our chickens are, for the most part, free range. Well, they became free layers and we had to do something! It was getting old having to hunt for eggs every day. The chickens are much better about choosing a spot and sticking with it but now and then they will feel invaded and change places which would then send us on another hunt to find the new nest:P

   It was time for a house for them. Something that we could keep all of them in, that would protect from the elements (heat and cold, dry and wet) and something we could easily dismantle when it needed to be moved to another spot or when we move, one day. Brother Craig is so good at designing these things and this turned out terrific.

   There were several things to consider when building this. One was the floor. We have predators here that want to eat the chickens (we have already lost 3 chickens), so we needed a floor they couldn't dig through or under to get to the chickens, but we also needed a floor that wasn't going to be hard to move. We thought about a skid house but that would require extra dismantling and weight so we chose pavers.

The pavers are easy to pick up and move to another spot. They are too heavy for anything to pick them up to get under them, and they are easy to clean out. After removing bedding from the flooring, it can just be hosed out.

The walls are construced in panels. This makes it easier to take them apart in sections when and if the time comes to move it.

The bottom footer of the walls are done with pressure treated wood so it won't rot while sitting on the top of the pavers.

The roof is it's own panel that is notched at the edges of the crossbeams so that it doesn't slide away and is nailed with a small cleat to keep it from blowing off in a good wind which we tend to have here.

The siding and roofing that we have used was given to us by someone who was tearing down a large metal shop. The siding is heavy duty but lightweight so it doesn't had much to the weight of the walls.

   I don't have a finished picture of it yet so I'll send Miss Mary-Ann out to get it and I'll add it in later today. It has a door and two windows for the cross breeze during the hot days and can be closed when it's cold and windy.

   The chickens have been locked up inside it for the last 3 days so that they will forget where they were laying their eggs and that they were nesting in trees at night. Tomorrow we will release them and they will then return to the henhouse at night from now on:) Yep chickens do forget:P

   Being renters it's a little bit of a challenge to do things in a temporary yet sturdy way. One day we'll have to move from here and we want to be sure we leave it the way it was when we got here. We still need to live and we need to accomodate our farmsteading lifestyle, it's why we chose this place, but it doesn't belong to us and that's an added responsibility.

   This is a wonderful place on a river that has so much room and so much potential. Of course, we would do things a lot differently if we owned it but since we don't we will utilize what we have to it's best potential:) One day we will find something like this that we can purchase for our very own and then we'll be able to really make it wonderful and permanent:)

   Happy Homesteading!

God be with thee!

Sister Lori 

Untitled Comment

{ 10:28, Wednesday, April 2, 2008 } { Posted by haflinger }

Sisster Lori that looks great..Ray is home today and I showed him the pictures and he said you all did a good job. We want to do something different for our chickens in late spring after the snow melts. The snow has pushed over the fencing..
Blessings Sister Brenda

Untitled Comment

{ 11:56, Wednesday, April 2, 2008 } { Posted by Kitty }

Great job!!!! That looks like a place the hens will love to leave you their eggs. Lets us know when they take to it...........Kitty

Untitled Comment

{ 19:30, Wednesday, April 2, 2008 } { Posted by TammyLynn }

It's looking great!!!!

Blessings,
Tammy Lynn