Chicken Barn Finale

The chicken barn....oh what a project it has been. It started out as a simple clean-out job. Ben and I decided it was something we could tackle. The half of the barn that had originally been for several hundred chickens, then hogs had largely been ignored for years. We thought it was time to clean it out. 

This photo was taken after we'd done considerable work to cut out hog stalls and Ben ripped down the old chicken wire and straw "ceiling". What a mess!

 This is how it looks now - a safe and secure chicken house.

The outside of this decades (if not a century) old building had been ignored for far too long. Calves that used to live in part of the barn had done a lot of damage to the windows and siding.

Here it is now:

We got our nesting boxes from my great-uncles farm:

 And a couple Friday's ago Ben and I (pretty much Ben) built the roost for our chickens. We hope it works as well in reality as we think it should. When the chicken poop has piled up sufficiently underneath the roost, we can pull the whole thing away from the wall to scoop it all out. Only time will tell if our plans work out.

 Before: 

After:

The only part that is not complete is the west side. The supplies are now on-hand, soon the face lift will be complete!