Kmhunter's Chicken Coop

   So after reading about and looking at so many great coops on this website, I decided to "remodel" my coop. Here is the original. It housed my three original girls.

My husband and oldest son are just starting the run expansion. We were waiting for my dad to come up from Oregon the following weekend to start the house. Here are the pictures of the run at it's new length. It is now 4X4X21.

We then started on the house the next weekend. The original house was 4X3X3, raised 2 feet off the ground, a small run area under it. The new one is 4X4X6. with a window, ventilation, room for nesting boxes and a 6ft roost. The only thing I kept from the original is the base that we connected to the run and the floor with the trap door. We just had to reposition it to work better in the new house. Take a look!

I think we were trying to decide where to relocate the trap door. The door to the run is now a 2X4 gate with hardware cloth.

My wonderful husband and dad taking a much needed break.

Hanging the door, trying not to step on Lucy who always seemed to be underfoot. Me in my BYC tee. 

As you can see, Lucy, has decided to make sure we are doing things the right way. She was head of quality control.

I decided not to enclose the whole area under the house so I could have some storage area that would stay dry. My husband suggested we put the gravel area in to help keep things cleaner and less muddy in the winter. Isn't he thoughtful? Palacio de Gallina is Hen Palace in spanish.

 I built a large community nesting box to fit the whole back of the coop, but they didn't like it. All I heard was squawking if more than one tried to get in at the same time. So I took some advice from some of the people on BYC, and bought the covered kitty litter boxes, cut holes in the back for egg collection. They love them! I was going to put a small egg door on this end, but decided to put a larger door so clean out was easier. Now I can just rake the litter out into a wheelbarrow. I also put a stall mat on the floor, so I can pull everything out as needed to deep clean.

 Here you can see the trap door, and the roost spans the whole length. I put vents at the base, one you can see and one you can't. You can see the ventilation under the eves. I have 2X4 peices that fit in over the vents under the eves if the weather gets REALLY bad.

I picked up the prints and put them in frames for a little homey decor. And I used the material from a discount sheet set to make the curtains and valance. The girls probably don't care, but I think it's cute!

        Ginger                               Charlotte                     Roxy & Lola                   Lucy

   Buff Orpington                  Barred Rock         Ameraucana, Marans      Golden Sexlink