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The first chicken house I made for housing Lego and his ladies involved netting the fronts of two pens in a small goat shed I already had:
This worked fine. Lego and his 4 ladies had the choice which side of the duplex coop they wanted to sleep in - they were free-range during the day.
When I got the Australorps I decided to put them into a small 35'x40' garden at the end of my house that is surrounded by 6' netting - they would be safe there temporarily, at least.
Temporarily it was. One of my Kunekune pigs had made a small hole under the wire by eating out a bromeliad planted there, and overnight the rooster and one hen escaped. I managed to catch the hen and put her back, but the rooster (Ozzie) was another story. He integrated himself with the others, put Lego in his place, and fell in love with Petronella.
So I finally let his 3 hens out, hoping they would roost with Ozzie. No such luck - they decided to roost on the branch of a treefern near the house. I thought of catching them at night and putting them into my existing hen house with the rest, but I had a strange feeling that when I released them, they would simply return. I was going to have to build another chicken coop, from scratch this time....
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NOTE ON HOUSING
Here in New Zealand we don't have problems with as many predators as some other countries - no foxes, coyotes or snakes. The main predator dangers for our chickens come from stoats and ferrets, dogs and cats, and the ever-present hawk.
