My friend Bob is a jack of all trades, and most irritatingly, a master of most. His building skills are very useful here in the country and since he is always building something, here – or there – he has lots of left over materials. He used those leftover materials, lumber, metal roofing, door and windows, to make his hen house. I was most fascinated by his use of a shower door to make a large frosted window on this side of the hen house.  Note that the chicken ramp folds up at night to close the chickens in.

Like young Emma, Bob wants to be able to move his hen house from place to place over the course of the season. He didn’t have wheels, so he built on skids.  His hen house is about 12 x 6 feet, similar in size to Emma’s and a size that would accommodate most backyard flocks of layers. Note that Bob has also made it possible to collect the eggs from the outside.  I keep my feed, bale of shavings and extra equipment in my hen house, but Bob has a separate shed for his various activities including storing what he needs for his hens.

I have three or four more hen house designs to show, an indication of how many ways there are of meeting the requirements of a small flock of chickens and one’s own desires with limited resources.

Don’t forget to leave a comment on yesterday’s post for a chance to win the Perennial Gardener’s Design Primer.