Well all the things I had to spend money on in May, 5 birthdays, daughter's baby shower, other daughter's confirmation, are done and paid for. So starting with my first pay check in June, the coop building will begin.
In the meantime, I will be working on a chicken tractor as transitional housing for Sugar, Snowball, Guinevere and Juliette, (cochins)
as well as Emma, Claire and Charlotte, (blue Marans)
who all need to move out of my living room and live somewhere else until the new coop is ready. I have most of the stuff for that already. Yesterday, I made a trip to Home Depot and got the paint for the tractor and if the sun comes out today, I can start painting my wood and getting it cut. I am sure that will take me at least until my next payday to get done. The tractor will also serve as an isolation coop or a broody coop if I have that need someday.
I have the area where the new coop is going all cleaned up and ready to start laying the hardwire cloth and foundation blocks, so that is what I will be purchasing next payday. I will be building my coop, payday by payday, purchasing what I can each time with the allotted budget. I already have 5 vintage windows with screens and some pine tongue and groove that I rescued from a 1930's cabin. The rest I will be purchasing new as I go.
Here is the new coop site. It sits right outside our current pen and off the sidewalk leading up to the pen. I want to be able to access the coop from this sidewalk, since we keep it shoveled in the winter. Not sure if the railroad ties will stay or go. I may surround the coop with them once it is finished as they would keep the chickens from flinging stuff out so much. The coop will have this 3' wide sidewalk on one side and our driveway on another side. I will then be putting some sort of stones or cement stepping stones around the other two sides as well once it is complete if I decide to forgo the railroad ties.
Here is another view.
The new coop and covered run will be 17' long and 6 to 7' wide. Haven't decided yet how close to the garden I want it to come. It will butt up against our current pen, which is 32' long and 24' wide and they will have a door that goes into the big pen. I am planning to reline the fencing in our current run with hardware cloth, once the new coop and new goat house are done. The new goat house will most likely be going in the corner of the pen to the left of where the chicken coop will be.
They will have oak trees for summer shade and will have southern sun in the winter. I will be able to see the coop from my living room and dining room windows. As you can see, it will be very visible from the street as well, so it has to be exceptionally cute so I keep on all the neighbors good sides. The colors of the coop are going to be sagey( a sage green) for the main color, rice paper for the trim (it is a creamy, cottagey white) and Chianti (burgandy) for the doors, shutters and window boxes. We live in a mountain cottage and are doing the inside of our cottage in similar colors, so I thought we might as well do them outside too, just a tad darker. We will be painting our house and my soap shed to match the chicken coop over the course of the summer and the new goat house will be painted the same as well.
I am very excited about doing this as I have been waiting for 5 years. My husband put up our current animal house as something temporary to get through the winter. That was in Oct of 05. He has been promising me new house ever since, but we have had one issue after another. He got burnt at work one summer, I broke my foot the next, my business closed up and so on and so forth. But now is the time, so I am very excited. I will keep posting pics as I go and make a page when I figure out how. Thanks for all the tips and inspiration everyone on this site has provided.
In the meantime, I will be working on a chicken tractor as transitional housing for Sugar, Snowball, Guinevere and Juliette, (cochins)
as well as Emma, Claire and Charlotte, (blue Marans)
who all need to move out of my living room and live somewhere else until the new coop is ready. I have most of the stuff for that already. Yesterday, I made a trip to Home Depot and got the paint for the tractor and if the sun comes out today, I can start painting my wood and getting it cut. I am sure that will take me at least until my next payday to get done. The tractor will also serve as an isolation coop or a broody coop if I have that need someday.
I have the area where the new coop is going all cleaned up and ready to start laying the hardwire cloth and foundation blocks, so that is what I will be purchasing next payday. I will be building my coop, payday by payday, purchasing what I can each time with the allotted budget. I already have 5 vintage windows with screens and some pine tongue and groove that I rescued from a 1930's cabin. The rest I will be purchasing new as I go.
Here is the new coop site. It sits right outside our current pen and off the sidewalk leading up to the pen. I want to be able to access the coop from this sidewalk, since we keep it shoveled in the winter. Not sure if the railroad ties will stay or go. I may surround the coop with them once it is finished as they would keep the chickens from flinging stuff out so much. The coop will have this 3' wide sidewalk on one side and our driveway on another side. I will then be putting some sort of stones or cement stepping stones around the other two sides as well once it is complete if I decide to forgo the railroad ties.
Here is another view.
The new coop and covered run will be 17' long and 6 to 7' wide. Haven't decided yet how close to the garden I want it to come. It will butt up against our current pen, which is 32' long and 24' wide and they will have a door that goes into the big pen. I am planning to reline the fencing in our current run with hardware cloth, once the new coop and new goat house are done. The new goat house will most likely be going in the corner of the pen to the left of where the chicken coop will be.
They will have oak trees for summer shade and will have southern sun in the winter. I will be able to see the coop from my living room and dining room windows. As you can see, it will be very visible from the street as well, so it has to be exceptionally cute so I keep on all the neighbors good sides. The colors of the coop are going to be sagey( a sage green) for the main color, rice paper for the trim (it is a creamy, cottagey white) and Chianti (burgandy) for the doors, shutters and window boxes. We live in a mountain cottage and are doing the inside of our cottage in similar colors, so I thought we might as well do them outside too, just a tad darker. We will be painting our house and my soap shed to match the chicken coop over the course of the summer and the new goat house will be painted the same as well.
I am very excited about doing this as I have been waiting for 5 years. My husband put up our current animal house as something temporary to get through the winter. That was in Oct of 05. He has been promising me new house ever since, but we have had one issue after another. He got burnt at work one summer, I broke my foot the next, my business closed up and so on and so forth. But now is the time, so I am very excited. I will keep posting pics as I go and make a page when I figure out how. Thanks for all the tips and inspiration everyone on this site has provided.
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