St. Brigid's Chicken Paradise


Named after St. Brigid of Ireland, patron saint of poultry!
http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-brigid-of-ireland/
















In the summer of 2013, I hatched a Silver Campine rooster named King. You can read King's story here https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/faith He was lonely, so we bought a Barred Rock pullet from a local farm named Miss Kay.



We also ordered 5 chicks from Meyer Hatchery (who I highly recommend). 1 Black Australorp named Violet, 1 Speckled Sussex named Lotus, 1 Blue Andalusian named Iris, 1 Easter Egger named Rose, and 1 Blue Laced Red Wyandotte named Poppy. See more pictures of the five girls from Meyer here https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/the-newest-members-of-the-flock



As they grew, they started to jump out of the brooder even with netting over the top of it. It was time to build them a coop.

The entire coop is 16 feet long and 8 foot wide. So we first leveled out a place in the yard this size.

Then we built the frame.


The tallest point on the coop is 6 1/2 feet and then it slopes down to 6 feet. The tall part in the picture is the run. It is 12 feet long and 8 feet wide. The shorter part is the hut. It is 4 feet long and 8 feet wide.

This is the hut part.


The actual hut will be 2 feet off the ground.

This is the hut with the floor and roof on. Both the floor and roof are made of plywood boards.


The hut is covered with barn boards. We also painted them in tan paint to make them extra weather proof.



When we covered the hut with the barn boards we also covered the space underneath so that the chickens could have access to shelter when they are in the run.

This is a picture of the hut from the run. The hut holds the roosts and nestboxes but the chickens can still go underneath if they want. The little door is for the chickens to come in and out. The big door is for me to get inside the hut so that I can clean it out and collect the eggs.



On one side of the coop there is a door that can be opened when the hut needs to be cleaned out. When it is not being used, the cleaning door is screwed shut.



On the back, there are two vents. One for in the hut and the other for underneath.



We painted the run hunter green and then put trim on the hut in the same color.




We put drip edge and shingles on the roof of the hut.



Then we put chicken wire on the sides and top of the run. The day after the coop was finished, it snowed!



I put straw in the hut and underneath. This is a picture of the space underneath the hut were the chickens can have shelter without having to go back into the hut.



Here are picture of the roosts and nestboxes inside the hut.




Here is the coop all decorated for Christmas!



We added branches to the run for the chickens to play on during the day.



They love jumping around on the branches.




Here are some pictures of the flock enjoying their new coop.







Thanks for reading!
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