House hunters ó for the birds

So, the parakeets have a new house.Now, what about the chickens?First, the ëkeets:í Anyone who has had parakeets knows that for such small birds, they can make big messes: throwing seed everywhere, feathers flying everywhere.And by everywhere, I mean mostly the floor. We tried several approaches to prevent that mess, including a “skirt” around the cage, but nothing seemed to work. Then my wife ó with the help of Google ó came upon the idea of containing the cage inside an armoire; thus, containing the mess inside the armoire.Google it yourself and you’ll find lots of ideas: “Turn a china cabinet into a deluxe bird cage;î “DIY aviary from an old TV cabinet;î ìDIY, from armoire to aviary.”We didn’t go as far as converting a piece of furniture into the actual bird enclosure (at least not yet), but we did get an armoire to place the cage inside. That required Margaret finding an old armoire on Craigslist to buy ó and then, when our existing cage didn’t fit into the armoire, also getting a slightly smaller, used cage that would fit. We also got a fun green background for behind the cage, which we might sub out with other color schemes or images at times.We still have work to do. We, for example, want to cut holes in the sides of the armoire and put in screen “windows” for more ventilation as well as replacing one of the armoire doors with screen. But the system IS working to contain the mess. And with the cage inside the armoire instead of the armoire serving as the cage, it provides more security for the birds in a household with cats.Now, the chickens: The current setup is this ó we have two coops, Coop A and Coop B; our newest chickens, mostly a family group, live in Coop B. There are enclosures around both coops to protect them at night; in addition, there is fencing around the area where they are allowed to roam freely during the day. All this is set up in a distant corner of what I would call our side yard. We can also open a gate so they can come up right to the side door if they want.The system works OK, but there are drawbacks. Neither of the coops are a walk-in model, so cleaning them out isn’t easy. There’s no electricity, so we have to snake electric cords across the yard for their heated water bowls in the winter. And they’re close enough to the house that we figure they’re partly to blame for our fly problem inside the house each summer.We have an empty stall in the barn and have thought of converting it into chicken quarters. There is electricity to the barn, so no need for 100-foot extension cords. We could check on and feed chickens at the same time we tend to the horses and goats. We could construct the enclosure so we can just sweep it out. And the setup might ease our inside fly problem.On the other hand, it would definitely add to the fly problem in the barn in the summer. And we wouldn’t be able to look out and be amused by the chickens like we can now.We’ve also thought of getting a shed or mini-barn and replacing the two coops with the one structure. That way, cleaning would be easier; and, with all the chickens housed together, we could reduce the extension cords to one.We’ve had “shed fever” off and on, and a couple of months ago almost spent $2,000 on a used shed, 10 feet by 12 feet; it would have been plenty big enough to house the chickens, their feed and other stuff as well. The problem was that it was a little too big ó or at least too tall. The shed was in a backyard in Colorado Springs, and we couldn’t find anyone who would move it because of its 13-foot height, which would have been an issue as far as traffic lights and such. We also looked at smaller sheds but were turned off by the cost; there were ones that seemed affordable, but they still needed flooring, roofing, etc., so those costs would have ballooned as well.We’ve made a list of pros and cons of each approach and keep going back and forth. I thought we had settled on just keeping our current arrangement but upgrading it a bit, tearing down some raggedy tarps, etc. But then Margaret started a conversation the other day with, “So I was looking at some sheds. Ö”So the debate continues.(Do you have an unusual setup for your chickens? Say, a high-tech, modern coop with remote-controlled doors and Bluetooth music? Or an old Airstream trailer converted into a coop? If so, I’ve love to hear about it. Email me at billradford3@gmail.com.)