We moved them out there today! (gulp) Yesterday we spent about 5 hours fixing the coop up to our liking. We added sand all along the ground, and leveled the runs and the coop really carefully. We also added the hardware cloth apron along the bottom. We screwed it with screws and washers to the inside of the bottom of the frame, and tacked it down with landscape pins. We're going to throw a little dirt over it just to make it less ugly but it's pretty secure right now.
We also added additional locks to it. The original locks (the silver-colored ones) were really easy to open, and our 2 year old was constantly opening all the doors and crawling around in there. We don't want him doing that with the chickens in there so we bought the brass locks and added carabiners to keep them closed (so we don't need padlocks or something more difficult out there). We put them on all the doors except the 3 doors to the nesting boxes, since they aren't as easily accessible anyway.
We covered the hole that leads to the ladder so they have to stay up in the coop for now. We want them to learn that's where they live and sleep. Plus, they still seem really small and we were worried about them being able to know to go up and down that ladder. We'll let them have access to the run probably in a few days. You can see the hole in this pic next to the food.
We also put the heat lamp out there since a few of our chicks aren't fully feathered, and it's NOT warm here lately (ugh). We screwed in a heavy duty plant hook to the very top of the peaked ceiling and hung the heat lamp from that, so it's plenty high. One of the roosts that's directly under the heat lamp feels pretty warm but it won't combust or anything, and it's nowhere near the shavings.
They seem to love it! Right away they were all craning their necks to check out everything. It's SO cute looking at them at eye-level too rather than from above.
We also added additional locks to it. The original locks (the silver-colored ones) were really easy to open, and our 2 year old was constantly opening all the doors and crawling around in there. We don't want him doing that with the chickens in there so we bought the brass locks and added carabiners to keep them closed (so we don't need padlocks or something more difficult out there). We put them on all the doors except the 3 doors to the nesting boxes, since they aren't as easily accessible anyway.
We covered the hole that leads to the ladder so they have to stay up in the coop for now. We want them to learn that's where they live and sleep. Plus, they still seem really small and we were worried about them being able to know to go up and down that ladder. We'll let them have access to the run probably in a few days. You can see the hole in this pic next to the food.
We also put the heat lamp out there since a few of our chicks aren't fully feathered, and it's NOT warm here lately (ugh). We screwed in a heavy duty plant hook to the very top of the peaked ceiling and hung the heat lamp from that, so it's plenty high. One of the roosts that's directly under the heat lamp feels pretty warm but it won't combust or anything, and it's nowhere near the shavings.
They seem to love it! Right away they were all craning their necks to check out everything. It's SO cute looking at them at eye-level too rather than from above.
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