Henhouses and Duckhouses

This week I had a parcel containing new poultry models, I decided my original henhouse was getting to be far too full, and it was time to build some new homes for my chickens and ducks

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The first henhouse on the left was made when I had about five or six chickens, I'm now at a total of 11 so they can be split into two groups, with the newer arrivals moving in to the new henhouse, in the middle. And on the right, a duck house for my first pair of ducks, and any future friends they might gain.

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Henhouse 2 - I thought I'd got for a totally different shape and colour to the first one, so they look nice and varied in pictures, and so it wasn't too repetitive to make.

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Like the first, it's made from cardboard painted with streaky acrylic paint, sliced into strips to make planks, then glued onto a cardboard box trimmed to shape. The roof is just painted card, too, so it's all just recycling tea and biscuit boxes - environmentally friendly and zero cost for building materials!

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And here's the duck house - I had to google what the difference should be, and most of the duck ones had this steep angled roof - unlike chickens they sleep on the ground, not perches, so they don't need the upright space.

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The ducks seem to like it!

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Here's the giveaway shot which proves they really are just cardboard boxes...

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While they were outside in the garden, I set up some scenes with all the chooks'n'ducks looking happily settled into their houses

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And one final shot cos it amuses me - over the last few years I'd found the chickens had a habit of falling over on the shelves all the time, and being made of rubber, if they roll off the edge they bounce away and it becomes quite the hen-hunt to get them back again, so I found something to keep them safe...

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Fantastic houses! I love the feeders (including a snail!) too. What brand are the chickens? You have a good variety of breeds.

The feeders are also made of cardboard and glue, painted and given a slight metallic shine to the scuffed edges with silver gel pen scribbled and smudged in.

The chickens are made by Julip, I put their details in my general additions thread when I wrote about the newest arrivals, but forgot to mention it in the topic showing their houses too - I should've realised some people would see this post before that one!

What great and beautiful fowl houses! Great work, very creative, and environmentally friendly. I love your birds too, each one is too cute!

These are so cleverly made, perfect for all these wonderful chickens!

I love those houses. Congratulations

I really love making these little cardboard box projects, it takes a very long time (about six hours work for the two new houses!) but leaves a real feeling of satisfaction having made something useful from almost nothing!

This is delightful, you make these perfect miniatures using material that we all have at home. Everything looks perfect and it is so interesting that you made different houses for different kind of fowl.
Is it an Aylesbury duck house?
I wonder if there are turkey houses too. I performed a quick search but Google is showing me houses in Istambul or so...

George wrote:

I really love making these little cardboard box projects, it takes a very long time (about six hours work for the two new houses!) but leaves a real feeling of satisfaction having made something useful from almost nothing!

Wow, that is so impressive! I never knew you made these yourself, they look professional!

Great houses and wonderful flock of hens!!

I love it!!! Congrats

This is AMAZING

True gems, and absolutely unique !!!

All that detail, - and they are so different.
They are home made models of home made houses, and they look so real

Their habitants are wonderful also

George, these poultry houses are truly fantastic, and the feeder is so detailed! I love how there is a snail on it.

oh these houses are so wonderful! well done George!
I've been laughing so much because they are all so fun
and even more so because of being made out of biscuit boxes! what a wonderful job you made of them, including the galvanised steel feeders - they all look Very real!

and I really like your chicken and duck storage box

Great to see these again. They are truely amazing

Cool

Goodness, a lot of replies to respond to, I missed most of these last year so thanks to the recent commenters for popping the post back to the front page!

Taos wrote:

Great houses and wonderful flock of hens!!

Thank you! The hens are addictive, every time the company make a new breed I try to get it, but it's a slowly growing flock!

NandO wrote:

I love it!!! Congrats

Thanks!

SUSANNE wrote:

This is AMAZING

True gems, and absolutely unique !!!

All that detail, - and they are so different.
They are home made models of home made houses, and they look so real

Their habitants are wonderful also

I'm so glad you enjoyed them, and my aim of making them look home-made! I don't like big-money perfect stables and buildings, that's not the horsey world I'm from, so when creating my little fictional world in miniature, it needed to have that rustic, run-down feeling I'm at home with - it was almost automatic that the little additional buildings like the hen houses would have the same imperfect, bodged-on-a-budget look to them.

The little hens really are gorgeous, I'd have a lot more if they were easier to get hold of, but they're from a small family business, the owner makes the horses and her husband makes the pets and birds, and they're usually only sold at shows (pre-covid) or in small first-come-first-served batches sold online, sometimes only once a year, so there's not a huge output - and a lot of hen fans waiting to snap them up!

Advicot wrote:

George, these poultry houses are truly fantastic, and the feeder is so detailed! I love how there is a snail on it.

The snail was a last minute addition, and none of the birds can have noticed him yet cos he's still there, unpecked!

sunny wrote:

oh these houses are so wonderful! well done George!
I've been laughing so much because they are all so fun
and even more so because of being made out of biscuit boxes! what a wonderful job you made of them, including the galvanised steel feeders - they all look Very real!

and I really like your chicken and duck storage box

I'm so happy they amuse you as much as they amuse me, I never paint the bottoms of the boxes just cos it makes me laugh every time I notice the old biscuit box print showing underneath, as a reminder of how they were made from recycled rubbish There's a stack of emptied cardboard packaging accumulating on one of my kitchen chairs for future projects, I'm stashing cereal boxes this time cos they're a bit bigger!

lucky luke wrote:

 Cool

Thanks!

These tiny hen-houses are so cute! Very well made! And love the chicken collection and the ducks! That tiny snail!!

Lucky poultry to have so beautiful homes 

Wow, they're beautifully made! The best transformation of tea boxes ever