The Chicken Pavillion

Confession: Our chicken yard has no chicken inhabitants. YET. But they're coming. Nonnie let us know all the chickens, hers included, are coming across the pasture in 1.5 weeks. Her (correct) thinking is that the July babies will be cramped in the rabbit hutch by then and need to move into their transition housing.  

That's right; we have a junior high level house that gives our adolescent chickens some space while also keeping them safe from predators. One day, I'll write about the transition house, but that's not what I woke up excited about building today. 

With only a week left before the chickens arrive (and I go back to school), the pressure is on to make our chicken yard as safe as possible.  We still have about 50 foot of fence to hang to make the perimeter 5ft all around and one more gate to hang to keep the chickens in the yard. 

My biggest concern is keeping predatory birds OUT of the yard. Short of hanging netting over roughly 1/5th of an acre, which Hubs assures me is NOT possible, we have a wide open space right in the middle of a pasture just right for hawks and other birds. 

My long-term solution is strategic landscaping. We already have a few chinaberry and other assorted trees in half of the space. There's some room for chickens to hide and stay in the shade along two sides. I planted two black crepe myrtles, a couple of jasmine and an esperanza.  Those will be great camouflage when they fill in, but even then, there'll be wide open access.  

So, I decided we needed to break-up the wide open space with something that chickens could run under when a threat is sensed.  We had some left over round fence posts, and a few odds and ends leftover from the chicken coop, so I ran my rough design by Papa who nodded approval. 

My plan was to halve two fence posts and dig post holes a foot down. My plan was also to physically do none of those things myself. I somehow got Chris to do both of those tasks before he had any breakfast, which is its own 2020 miracle. 

We spaced the posts 7 ft apart, a foot deep, leaving a 3 ft post height. We framed the roof with penetreated 8ft. 2x4s (no cutting required), with two stacked in the middle to create a slight pitch. Everyone got a turn with the drill.  

The corrugated metal roof panels were the large expense here; four 8ft panels cost around $60. We screwed those bad boys down and we were done.  We wanted it open on all four sides so they could easily access it from any direction and never be trapped or cornered.  I could place the waterer under there which would keep it cooler and encourage them to take shelter under there. 

After we were done, Chris said we could probably build another one more central in the yard. Another 2020 miracle. My only fear is that it's a bit too tall, and a hawk could still attack under there. He says I don't know anything about hawks then.  True enough.