What next? Building a chicken yard

Please understand this is a work in progress. The first thing of course is to figure out how I could build a good secure yard safe from predators. My parents had one of those old metal gazebos that the top had blown off in one of the hurricanes. I had my sons to go take it apart and bring it to the house. This would become the frame I would use to fence the chickens in their own safe yard. I decided to put it up behind a little garden house I had obtained several years back at a craft show.

I never did use this little building for much of anything except to store shovels, hoes, and crap. So I intend to make this little garden shed into my chicken coop. It has a nice little sunroof and a light inside. I will be able to plug it in using an extension cord to add heat in the winter if I have to. Plus they will be exposed to extra light while in the shed which should help to increase egg production.

Here is a picture of the front of my little yellow garden shed. In this picture, the front door was still intact. One day the wind got so horrible it blew the door open. Then my dogs found a raccoon under the shed and of course at that point the dogs tore the door off trying to get to the raccoon. I went to Lowes and bought a set of hinges that came with a gate lock. Which I used to fix the door to the shed. Eventually; I will have to replace the door. But for now I think it will work.

Once I finished getting the Gazebo back together behind the shed: I bought some of that cheap green garden fencing at the hardware store and placed it around the Gazebo frame. I attached carpenter's cloth to the fencing and the gazebo frame with those plastic ties. 

Then I attached chicken wire. I attached it at the top of the gazebo and the bottom of the chicken wire was tied to the green fencing with those plastic ties. I used a section of the black "No Dig Powder Coated Steel Fence Panel" from Lowes as a gate. You buy the poles separately. It looks likes it's going to work. One day I will make a video of how it works. 

I also lined the gate with hard ware cloth. My next job will be to cover the top with chicken wire. Once that is done I will affix the back of the chicken wire to the building, block off underneath the shed from predators, and install a doggie door. Oh yeah, I will have to build nesting boxes too.

Whew! There's still a lot of work left to do!