New chicks!  February, 2009

I've always liked chickens, I had a few at one time growing up, and have always hoped to have some here on our small farm someday.  With quite a few building materials we had laying around, and some materials we had given to us, and some we of course had to buy, we spent the summer of 2008 building our chicken coop.  It is 8' x 12' in size, with an 8'x8' chicken area, the remaining space is storage space for their feed and supplies.  It has 3 nest boxes now, but I think we'll change the dividers around a little to make 4 instead, as one is just too big, and the chickens we had for awhile never used that one.  The coop currently sits empty as we gave up our flock of white leghorns before winter, however  February 9th, 2009 we received some chicks by mail order!  We have 5 Black Australorps and 4 Rhode Island Red pullets ....

New location, choice #1 (photo on right).  Zoning guy said no.....so..... after the long wait....

Picked location #2, measured for setbacks,  leveled the site, and put blocks down to set the structure on.

Coop is then moved to new location, but had to stop when hard rain and hailstorm hit.  But as soon as the weather passed, we were back out again to finish setting the building, just in time to see the rainbow after the storm.  Then, finally to it's final "resting spot!"
 

A day of nice weather, and it was time to get started yet again!  Even our 6 year old helped!

By the end of the weekend, it looked like this!  Even with the rain and hail...

The following weekend's progress.... (we again had some heavy rain to contend with for a time!)

The siding is Hardie Plank siding that we got for free, and it matches our house pretty nicely!  A turbine vent is being put on the roof for summertime ventilation (will be closed off in the wintertime to prevent snow from coming in), and it will have a roof vent and soffit all the way around.  Both windows open, and we're putting hardware cloth screened frames on the insides of the windows so we can leave them open without worry of predators getting through the window screen.  We're learning as we go, but I'm so thankful for a great website I found, www.backyardchickens.com, as the forum there has been where I've gone to ask and answer all of the questions I've come up with on building this thing!

Another rainbow (well, two!) over the coop a week after the first...

More to come.......rain ended our progress....again.

Latest progress...the roof is just about done, the siding pretty much done...the turbine vent will be LOWERED.... (I have no idea what hubby was thinking...I was out of town the weekend he did it!)

And...(hubby's idea) we have two "guardians of the coop"...they are solar powered, and will guard the door once it's done.
Here's our two tiki guys!  (I have to admit since this photo was taken...one of our tiki guys was "beheaded" after I knocked him over while mowing the lawn.  We'll try to fix him up!)


We have had a BIG weekend working on our coop!  It has been primed and painted, the nest boxes are in, we have the hardware cloth "screens" over the windows, and we have the "wall" up that will separate the chicken area from the storage area.  It was three straight days of work, but the weather worked in our favor, except for a brief downpour, but hey....it's pretty much inside work now!  Here are the photos of the progress!

Primed....                                                              Painted...
  
The "window guards" on hinges so we can still access the windows (and looking out the window, the chickens still have a view of our pond behind the house!)
 

     
We have the door for the "doorway" into the chicken area, but it's not mounted yet.  Might be by the end of the day!  It looks the same....the frame with the chicken wire...and will have plywood on the bottom of the door and both walls (you see it on one side already) to keep the shavings inside.

We will have a roost pole/board along the back wall, and will also have a board below the nest boxes, or ladder, some way for them to jump up there.  We just haven't gotten that far yet!)

(We're putting chicken wire up above too to keep them from flying up and roosting over the soffit on the sides)

And more.....from the end of the day! More progress....and WE'RE BEAT!  Still have to put some trim on the outside (minor stuff)...but the inside is very close to finished....and my son and I have a LOT of cleaning up outside to do......

Floor's painted!

(On the photo on the right, we put the OSB up on the lower half to keep the shavings inside the chicken area.) 

 
Happy Chickens!

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