My first coop

[ridemcowgirl]

Wow it looks great. Even looks better than some homes I've seen lol. Great job

 

[blackwpk]

I'll have to agree with you ridemcowgirl!

 

[jdlong27]

Not a lot of progress this last week. Lots of "life" happening. But here's what's done.

I finished painting the exterior and added the ventilation panels. I'm not sure how much I'll need so I cut the hardware cloth long and covered it back up. Thinking on this is that if I need more, all I have to do is remove a board at a time. I can remove two full panels on each side.

I also ran into an issue with the 1x4 edge coverings. I wasn't thinking about the hardware cloth extending through this area on the run side.

So I ripped one board the right size to cover the "gap" and attached it to the other. The remainder of the ripped board will go inside the run and still look like the same dimensions since the hw cloth is about the same thickness as the saw blade.

I also painted the poop board, board supports and roost. No fancy pics of this.

 

[blackwpk]

It's coming along very nicely! Our roof sprang a couple leaks yesterday. We have corrugated roofing but with the wind it was going up under where they overlap each other. Hubby and I got up top in between rain events and put 208 on all the seams as well as the nails, just to be sure. It's definitely getting a good test for what is to come!
Hubby and my Mom spread sand in the run for me (I've been laid up with a twisted ankle from Sunday) on Monday. It looks great and will be so easy to keep clean. I'll be getting some food grade DE to spread in the coop as well as the run soon. I opened their hatch last week on a warm day to see if they would come out and they just looked out, stretched their neck to look, turned around and looked back like "nah, I don't think so!". So funny!

 

[jdlong27]

Haha. I can picture them doing that. Sorry about the leak though. Hope you got it sorted.

 

[blackwpk]

Yes, we did!! So many things to learn, my brain gets tired!! LOL!

 

[crazyfeathers]

My two cents, my chickens and 5 week old chicks roost in the barn oh I'd say at least 7 feet up with no problem. When my chicks were 3weeks the were roosting on a 4 foot fence. Don't worry about the height they will find a way, just so you know I do have regular ladder roosts and roosts made out of 2x4 and shelf brackets so if I had a physically challenged bird they could still roost lol. They are in the end animals. I did try a tree limb but they do. Prefer manmade roosts.

 

[jdlong27]

My two cents, my chickens and 5 week old chicks roost in the barn oh I'd say at least 7 feet up with no problem. When my chicks were 3weeks the were roosting on a 4 foot fence. Don't worry about the height they will find a way, just so you know I do have regular ladder roosts and roosts made out of 2x4 and shelf brackets so if I had a physically challenged bird they could still roost lol. They are in the end animals. I did try a tree limb but they do. Prefer manmade roosts.

Thanks! My concern is them having enough room to dismount safely without smacking the wall. I'll entertain the ramp option (I have enough materials) but don't want it to take up too much of my time of moving them in.

 

[jdlong27]

Today I painted more trim (no pics). Door is up and door stop cut and mounted. Also mounted the nest door and started framing the end of the run.

 

[aart]

Thanks! My concern is them having enough room to dismount safely without smacking the wall. I'll entertain the ramp option (I have enough materials) but don't want it to take up too much of my time of moving them in.

I found myself making modifications for functionality after I moved them into the coop...lol...there will always be something that needs to be tweaked.

It was a pain to work with them in there but they got used to me so it was good thing in the long run.