# Chickens

After COVID-19 panic buying caused shortages of some everyday items 
such as eggs and bread, I decided that maybe it was time to revisit 
the idea of keeping chickens. I had raised the idea previously, but 
it was received without much enthusiasm. When the shortages began 
however, it seemed to make sense...

Rather than purchasing point of lay pullets at around 20-25 GBP each,
I discovered that I could re-home ex commercial laying hens which,
at 18 months old, had reached their commercial end-of-life and would
otherwise have been slaughtered. For a donation of 5 GBP per hen,
this seemed like a win for everyone.

## The coop

I built the coop from a steel garage that we had laying around which
had never assembled. Basically a quarter of the garage was made into 
a square box with the uprights shortened to one panel high. Half of 
the roof was then assembled on top with the open front of the apex 
roof blocked up with a piece of steel cut from what would have been 
one of the doors. A guilotine style door was created using some of 
the U shaped strengthening uprights and wood from an old pallet. 
The floor and raised nesting area was also created from pallet wood. 
It's far from perfect, but it keeps the worst of the weather and 
predators out.

## The run

This was created using a commercial non-electrified chicken fence 
produced by VOSS. A 25M fence was more than enough to section off a 
corner of the garden. We added a drinker and waterer, purchased off 
Ebay, a tyre filled with sand and a perch made from old branches.