Coop Project: Maken the Plunge & Getting Chickens

[Rock Home Isle]

Looking good! I love how the chicks and ducks all cuddle together, so cute!

.....

The chicks & ducks have been raised together. Even though they came from different locations, they arrived at our home on the same day. The ducks have been awesome to work with and its been an asset having them in the flock. Ducks are very messy though...they are essentially pigs with bills. But they have such happy personalities...how could they not touch your heart?

The chicks have been a bit slow in a few areas and having the ducks present has been a big help. I was having trouble getting a few of the chicks to drink and eat, but the ducks just dove right in...no problems. The chicks then imitated the ducks and after a day or so, all of them were drinking and eating just fine. I have suffered no losses (knock on wood).

I've come to notice that the ducks pretty much call the shots in the flock. The chicks follow them everywhere they go. The ducks like to sleep by themselves when they can, but during the day when they take that afternoon nap, the chicks just come right in and sleep with them everytime. The chicks walk all over them and climb on them and push in close to be next to the ducks. Sometimes if a chick is standing there not paying attention, the ducks will use their bill to knock the chick over, then they kinda do this quack laugh and clack their bills...it cracks me up.

If I have new food items that I want to introduce into the flock's diet, the chicks are very hesitant like a herd of sheep waiting for the first one to try it; until a duck starts to eat it first...then its a free-for-all until its gone.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

When I started the coop projevct, I figured 2 ...3 days at the most. Its been 4 weeks. Granted I haven't been able to work every day on the project...But stiil, it became more than I thought thta it was going to be.

Today was a great day. I feel that WE got so much completed on the coop. I had my dad, my daughter, her fiance and my wife all helping me today. I'll post updated photos later.

I feel much better about getting things done.

 

[itsren]

I'm glad I came across your thread. You have a great story and your coop is fantastic. The picture of your chicks sitting on the edge of the brooder is too cute! It gave me a good chuckle. That's neat that you can bring your chicks outside. We keep hoping for better weather so we can introduce ours to the great outdoors. Best of luck to you and your coop project.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

I'm glad I came across your thread. You have a great story and your coop is fantastic. The picture of your chicks sitting on the edge of the brooder is too cute! It gave me a good chuckle. That's neat that you can bring your chicks outside. We keep hoping for better weather so we can introduce ours to the great outdoors. Best of luck to you and your coop project.

Thank you...your words are much appreciated.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

The inside of the coop is wired. The coop is painted and the roof is now permanantly attached. I have only a few odds and ends details that still need to be completed, but nothing to block a certificate of occupancy for the chicks and the ducks. So the chicks and the ducks spent their first night in their new coop last night. It also rained all night, and at times it rained hard.

I went out this morning and the chicks were sitting on their roost and ducks were sitting in the woodshavings quaking away. They all wanted to get outside and start the day. It is stil raining fairly hard, so I pulled the ducks out of the coop and set up their feeder under the deck out of the rain and a waterer for them. They litteraly sat and ate and drank...quite contentedly.

I left the chicks in the coop today. They are still pretty young, even though they look like miniature versions of adult birds. I didn't want them wandering around in the rain and getting chilled. The chicks follow the ducks everywhere. The ducks are feathering out very nicely and will do much better if left outside under these wet rainy conditions. I put 2 waterers and a feeder in the coop...the chicks were feeding happily and the coop is cool and dry.

At the moment the ducks are wandering around the backyard and quaking loudly...they've never done that before. The chicks are in the coop chirping in answer to the ducks. AMAZING...I had no idea that they had developed such a reliance on eachother....Go Figure.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Over the weekend I had lots of help on my coop project. It was great to have everybody over. My Sister is house hunting and brought my Mom & Stepdad, who are visitng from Montana. Dad came over from Loveland and my Brother stopped by to lend a hand as well.

It was a very busy and very hot weekend...but the coop now has occupants.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

My daughter & my wife painted the inside of the coop. They put down a primer white coat, then 2 coats of Aspen White.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

My daughter did a very thorough job of painting the inside of the coop.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Once the inside was primed, all the cracks and joints realy jumped out and became readily visible. These are places where lice, mites and parasites in general can hide and make a home inside the coop. I went through and caulked these seems to seal them up and reduce hiding places for critters that could be potentially harmfull to the flock later down the road.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Kismet made a good observation about ventilation and air flow in the coop. I had planned ventilation in my design, but after reading Kismet's post in this thread, I didn't think that my planned ventilation was nearly enough for this project.

Here we are owrking on the underside of the roof. It was a very hot day so we setup the Pop-Up Tent and we laid out a set of 4 much larger vents for the coop. My Dad did the layout for the vent locations, while I came through behind and cut out the openings. These vents are in the roof, under the eves of the coop.