Chickens? Are you Crazy?

When we decided we were going to begin raising chickens, we really had no idea how much work was going to be involved.
We started out with a run down structure that was here on the property when we bought it. Rather than buy/build a new one, we repurposed what we could and began making it 'chicken' habitable. This is how it looked when we moved here:

One of the first things we needed to do was to make the barn predator proof so we could all sleep at night!
We dug a trench around the barn and attached 1/4 inch wire fabric to the sides and buried it to prevent predators from digging underneath. This is how the process looked:

Next we framed some inner walls to create the coop/nesting box area and installed some perching. As can be seen in the picture, we also added wire fabric on the inside as an additional safety measure to protect the birds from predation.

This is how it looked once we completed it. Hope this helps if you are thinking about raising your own birds.
We currently have 30 hens and average about 2 dozen eggs per day! Our friends and neighbors love us.