"Terryc" wrote in message
...
0tterbot wrote:

i really think you should be able to put together a good chicken set up
for far less than $700!!! we have 16 chooks atm, 3 chook houses which i
made, and a great deal of fencing & it can't have cost more than $200
(which is a generous guess indeed).

I want to do something other than pokie small. We have two sheds,which I
want to fit it between with a central hutch so I can control access to
either sides.

i'm not sure what you mean here, but my point was that chicken wire is
relatively cheap, and chicken houses you build yourself even more so. the
chooks can have a tiny house, that you don't go into (but organise access
via lifting roof or wall). they enjoy lots of room for strolling about, but
that's where wire is cheap, so no problems there. with a bigger shed, they
can use it as extra living space, but they really like the sun on all but
the absolute hottest days, so they mightn't use it much except at night &
during bad weather.

It also has to be strong enough to withstand the occassional small gum
limb. so the price was based on having to buy 2" pipe and mesh.

hmm, our yards are under some old gums ( i wasn't really thinking things
through when deciding the location!) several small gum limbs have fallen. we
have nylon fruit-tree mesh over the top (supported by fencing wire going
across) & the chooks are fine - no falling limb has ever done any damage so
far. the other thing is that chooks will nervously hang around their home
spot (shed, house or whatnot) in windy weather, so provided the roof of
their housing is all right, they should be fine even if a limb does come
down on them & reach ground level. the roofs of our chook houses are made of
old tin with star pickets for the legs, arranged over each house for
shelter.

anyway, your decision entirely of course, but it's really not expensive to
organise chooks & their living quarters, as a general rule. if you want to,
you can go as expensive as you like, but there are always cheaper ways to do
things - which includes allowing for the possibility all the chooks will be
killed by a falling limb (or that a limb will knock over the fence you
laboriously put up!! which would be kind of worse, as chickens are actually
pretty cheap to buy. well, that sounds awful, but you understand my point,
i'm sure.)
kylie