When we finished our coop, it looked more like fine furniture than a chicken coop, so we called it The Chicken Mahal. Here are pictures of its construction from boards to beautiful!
We spent the first day getting all the wood cut and building the frame and floor of the coop space:
The next work day, my dad and my husband worked hard at getting the sides of the coop space built and put on. Didn't they do an awesome job?!
Day three the doors are built for the ends of the run and for the nest boxes.
We had leftover redwood from the frame, so we made the nest box doors out of that for aesthetics!
This was when the design really started to excite me. I love the redwood and pine combination!
Days 4-5 we sealed all the wood with outdoor spar urethane. It gave the ark a gorgeous sheen and has
kept it from discoloring or warping with the rain and sun.
When the varnish was dry, we started on the run below. We installed a ramp with a
pulley and wire to pull it up at night and put 1" x 1" cage wire on the sides of the run.
Day 6 we finished up by putting 2" x 2" fencing on the bottom of the run to keep out digging predators (of which there are many around here).
The finished product!!!
As I said to my husband, "I wish I was a chicken so that I could live in here!!!"
The babies happily went exploring on their first day in the ark:
Although a few were reluctant to try out the ramp until the second day. They just watched the others running around down below until they just had to join in! Within two days, all of them were navigating the ramp like pros!
They love seeing the world, eating bugs, and living in the ark! We love watching them!
We spent the first day getting all the wood cut and building the frame and floor of the coop space:
The next work day, my dad and my husband worked hard at getting the sides of the coop space built and put on. Didn't they do an awesome job?!
Day three the doors are built for the ends of the run and for the nest boxes.
We had leftover redwood from the frame, so we made the nest box doors out of that for aesthetics!
This was when the design really started to excite me. I love the redwood and pine combination!
Days 4-5 we sealed all the wood with outdoor spar urethane. It gave the ark a gorgeous sheen and has
kept it from discoloring or warping with the rain and sun.
When the varnish was dry, we started on the run below. We installed a ramp with a
pulley and wire to pull it up at night and put 1" x 1" cage wire on the sides of the run.
Day 6 we finished up by putting 2" x 2" fencing on the bottom of the run to keep out digging predators (of which there are many around here).
The finished product!!!
As I said to my husband, "I wish I was a chicken so that I could live in here!!!"
The babies happily went exploring on their first day in the ark:
Although a few were reluctant to try out the ramp until the second day. They just watched the others running around down below until they just had to join in! Within two days, all of them were navigating the ramp like pros!
They love seeing the world, eating bugs, and living in the ark! We love watching them!
