What goes into building a Hen House you ask?

We are taking great care with this Hen House, as we have built a few. Every predator loves chicken and chickens are pretty spendy now a days, so it is worth it to make sure they are safe as possible.

In the above photo, I had DH staple heavy duty 12/" by 1/2" hardware cloth over the windows. The window screen and window still works. But nothing can chew through this stuff, so it will allow us to keep the windows open on the very hot nights we have at the new place.

DH put a small kick board in, so if we have the main door open for some reason, or if for some reason the chickens kick the shavings over to the door during the night, we won't end up with a large amount of shavings out the door.

The chickens will have their own sized, locking Door soon.

  The Hen House yard we used heavy duty 2" by 4" wire.
 Then to keep predators from digging under the fence, we used 1/2" by 1/2" heavy duty hardware cloth, folded in half, part placed on the fence and part placed on the ground. Then gravel over the part on the ground.
Some folks dig down along their fence to do this, and then put the dirt back on, but we found the way we did it above, a lot less work.
Had DS wire it to the main fence to make sure it stayed secure.

The only chicken wire we used, was inside the Hen House yard and around the shed to keep the chickens from going under there, so they don't have to go into their Hen House at night.
I won't recommend chicken wire any where else, as many predators can chew through it.

DH's home made gate, nice and sturdy.

Roosts inside the Hen House.

Along the bottom of the Hen House, that is outside the Hen House yard.. we again used 1/2" by 1/2" hardware cloth, folded just like on the back side of the Fencing, to keep the predators out.

We have a couple more things to do before everything is buttoned up like we want.
Here you see that we have the 1/2" by 1/2" hardware cloth folded, but we still have to put the gravel on it.
I will also be putting up some Hot Wire around the top and bottom. Should be getting this done before the chicks are fully feathered out and in the yard.

There is also a good chance we will be putting netting over the top of the run, to keep the birds of prey off them.

Know it seems like a lot to do, just, for a Hen House, but being able to sleep through the night without worry, is priceless!