!0 years ago I built my children a two story playhouse and sheathed it in stucco to match our house. Needless to say they outgrew it in less time than it took to build it and there it sat. I'd look at it sadly and wonder what I'd been thinking when I built something that couldn't be dismantled when the light went on. Coop! Out came the tools and there it was. Insta-coop! It wasn't quite that easy, but close enough. I built the Fort Knox run using the swing set beam to run the rafters and ordered a recycled billboard cloth to cover the run. You may have noticed that I have yet to use it. Its heavy. I'm waiting to build muscle mass before I attempt to put it up. At some point there will also be awning windows before it gets chilly. The current plan is to do glass mosaics for the front window, but as I said. The billboard cloth is still in the box on the front porch where the amazingly muscular Fed Ex guy dropped it. Bless his heart...
I train my chicks from day one to use a roosting bar and close off the nest boxes until they're at point of lay. Call me lazy and you'll be right. I don't like poopy eggs. For the same reason I use the deep litter method to decrease the total clean out. The inside of the coop is painted in high gloss. Nothing sticks to it, not even slimy wet stinky stuff that magically transforms into beautiful compost for my garden that I never remember to weed...never mind.
So far, no predator probs. Not that I dont have them. I have a raccoon in my livingroom. I took him out there and he couldn't get in and believe me, he wanted to. It was fun watching him try. I laughed a little. Not at him, WITH him. Kinda...
Oh, and there's art in the coop. I don't know why. Just 'cause. All that white creeped me out a little.
I train my chicks from day one to use a roosting bar and close off the nest boxes until they're at point of lay. Call me lazy and you'll be right. I don't like poopy eggs. For the same reason I use the deep litter method to decrease the total clean out. The inside of the coop is painted in high gloss. Nothing sticks to it, not even slimy wet stinky stuff that magically transforms into beautiful compost for my garden that I never remember to weed...never mind.
So far, no predator probs. Not that I dont have them. I have a raccoon in my livingroom. I took him out there and he couldn't get in and believe me, he wanted to. It was fun watching him try. I laughed a little. Not at him, WITH him. Kinda...
Oh, and there's art in the coop. I don't know why. Just 'cause. All that white creeped me out a little.
