This is my Hubby's and my first time raising chickens from biddies, so we had no idea how fast they would grow. Following is a photo of the Rhode Island Red girls (before Daughter and I went back and got two more to go with the six) in late August 2018 at one week old when we had just brought them home from TS.
Hubby and Cousin built out of used materials, a 'biddie coop' for our little girls' first home of their own, which they quickly outgrew within about two months.
So Hubby and I hired some help and they and my Hubby built the girls a big walk-in coop made with new weather resistant materials and at the end of October 2018, their new coop was finished.
The girls are very happy. The part of the coop with the windows, size 8 x 8 feet, is for storage of their food and other supplies. The part of the coop with the nests and the screen door is the part of their home that they live in which is 8 x 12 feet. The total size of the chicken coop which includes the storage part and the part they live in is 8 x 20 feet and they have a lot of room for the eight of them in the part they reside in. They are a little over two months old now. The cost of the new coop including supplies, hired help, and other expenses related to building it was about $2500.00.
Although worth it, the total cost far exceeded our expectations of how much it would cost to build this coop. I could have chosen a less expensive coop for the girls for us to build but I am happy we built this. It is in the middle of the back of our back yard, behind our house, and when I get up in the mornings, I open the kitchen window curtains and shade to look at the coop. It is a work in progress, as I plan to make decorative signs to hang on the front of it...one with the girls' individual names on them and other decorative signs.
There are 2 perches in their home for them, as well as a specially built feeding trough that they eat from. We have a large steel waterer set up on bricks.
We thank the Lord for this learning experience in building the coop which is continuing with taking care of our girls that the Lord has blessed us with.
