I found a good coop builder and had him build me a simple coop that could hold 10 chickens. He delivered it at which point my father and I set it up on a base to keep it level, the picture below shows it with some of the chickens free ranging.
Even though the environment was great for having free ranging chickens, the area where they lived in seemed lacking...pretty much...everything... So one morning while my father and I was sipping coffee on the porch looking over the area we decided to make some changes... So after about 9 months of building we now have the area looking like the pictures below.
We first replaced the base of the coop with bricks I collected from an abandoned brick fireplace of a house that burned down about 80 years ago... All the bricks seem to have been hand made and fire hardened the old fashion way, no two bricks are alike, makes for an interesting look and the chickens like to sit on them since in the summer time they stay cool
Once we where done with that we wanted to create a garden near the coop so I can grow different types of vegetables, that's when we built a fence around the designated area as shown in the picture below.
we planted grape vines and bordered them with mulch they have been growing very well and we hope to see them cover the fence with vines and leaves
Once we started we could not stop...as the pictures show. We built a shed, boardwalk around the environment and planted fruit trees to make look like a park in front of the coop.
I wanted to extend the run area so Joe (My Rooster) and the girls can have room to move around, I like to keep them in there if I have to leave the house for any reason.
My Parents live in Florida and in the area where they live they have a lot of boardwalks on the beaches so my mother and father thought it would be great to build and place boardwalks around the three buildings as you can see in the pictures.
The shed is used to hold all things that are used for the garden and the coop, it makes it very easy to do things that are needed on the coop when you have everything close to hand.
Joe and the girls seem to like the area much more now with all the improvements the pictures below show them walking around with also two chicks that where born in the coop a few weeks ago.
We also worked on improving things that where left behind by the past owners like the walkways and bushes as shown below
Next project to do is repaint the porch, have a dry river bed built near the driveway to control water flow and then build a bridge over the river bed attached to the boardwalk... it seems the ideas never stop coming...
Crazy Yankee in Georgia
