My chicken coop/aviary/shed featured on Cheap Sheds Website

[Mark]

Last year I entered my converted Absco aviary chicken coop shed in a competition at Cheap Sheds for the chance to win another shed. Unfortunately, the comp rules and conditions favoured entrants with lots of Facebook friends and not necessarily the "best shed," if you know what I mean, so I didn't get near the amount of Facebook votes required to win.

Anyhoo, no sour grapes...much So I was checking their website out and saw the shed I got being advertised and wouldn't you know it they're using my actual photo of my own aviary shed I converted into a chook house! Nice of them to ask

When I started looking for a proper chicken coop I came across all sorts of elaborate designs and many were quite small, complicated, and expensive. My vision was a chicken coop able to fit at least 15-25 birds for roosting and nesting which was really simple to set up, easy to access, easy to clean out, and in a good price range.

I could not find anything that suited and that's why I stared thinking "sheds" but the problem with a shed in my hot environment was the lack of air circulation. Therefore, I started looking at aviaries but most were too small to keep chickens then finally I stumbled on this large Absco aviary from Cheap Sheds.

I should disclose I am now an affiliate with Cheap Sheds (as of today) but I do rate them as a good small business for their service and obviously products - I would never personally recommend something I don't rate highly or use myself. Check out this shed/aviary on their website here.

I've had to make several modifications to the shed. For a start, the door was only about 150 cm high which meant I had to bend over constantly getting in and out - it drove me nuts! I ended up cutting the top panel out and making a top door out of marine ply which opened separately to the existing door.

I also boarded up (marine ply again) one of the side mesh panels to make it less drafty for the hens and to stop rain from blowing through. Naturally, on the inside I needed to add roosts and nesting boxes.

I'll post some more images and info about my Absco chicken coop shed conversion and how I went about building it soon.

 

[stevo]

I assume one of the comp rules was they could use your photos for promotional purposes, but still would be good to have some communication about it.

Ahh yeah I see what you mean about the standard door, probably helps stop birds escaping? Is the tredle feeder any good?

 

[Mark]

I assume one of the comp rules was they could use your photos for promotional purposes, but still would be good to have some communication about it.

Ahh yeah I see what you mean about the standard door, probably helps stop birds escaping? Is the tredle feeder any good?

You're probably right - the short door must be an aviary safeguard but I found it a PITA

The treadle feeder is good. It takes a few days to train the girls in how to use it but it holds 18 kgs of feed, is water proof, rodent proof, and doesn't rust. You do still get some grain spillage on the ground from the hens picking through and to help prevent this you can install a floating grid which sits on top of the feed to stop the hens "raking" through the grain. However, I have found it's more trouble than it's worth due to the grid getting stuck etc.