Coop/Run in-progress - Pic Heavy!

[St-Hubert]

BankerJohn, thank you for that advice. That will be most helpful!


No real progress on the build....we have to wait until the weekend to get more building supplies.....but we did take the three oldest girls out to the coop to see what they thought of it. Appears it was a positive verdict.

This one is going to be their first album cover!

 

[St-Hubert]

Update. The coop and run are at about 80%-90% done. All the construction and wiring is finished, the earth-moving is mostly complete, and the coop itself is ready for the fluffy-butts.
I still have to put awnings around the outside, as there is a serious water drainage problem when it rains. That's going to take a few days to figure out.

So....photos!

This is the view from our house over to the Shop house. Pardon the white sheets of plywood haphazardly attached on the left side....that was to prevent more rain from getting in over the weekend.

The view from the stair-side:

The tiny little 5-foot by 27-inch wide door. I will be putting a closed-cell foam bumper over the door.

Oh, and I thought a 50lb bag of sand would go a bit further than this....

It's hard to get good inside shoots of the coop itself, but this was what I came up with.

Finally got some photos of the nesting boxes!

And then some random around-the-run photos.

We'll be putting our three oldest out in the coop for a few hours this evening, and will be moving them out there permanently on Thursday. I am going to be so nervous!

 

[teach1rusl]

LOL...yeah...I wouldn't try buying sand or rock by the bag. If you have a pick-up, or a friend has a pick-up, you can get that stuff pretty reasonably from a mulch or rock company...by the quarter or half ton....a MUCH better value than buying by the bag. They'll load it for you; you just have to shovel it into your run.
I love the shot of your three oldest out there! What a size disparity between those two chicks on the top roost!! They look happy to have freedom in their new, spacious digs!

 

[St-Hubert]

Heh.....yeah, that was a bag of sand I had laying around. For giggles, I decided to see how much it would cover. Not so much!

I do have a pick-up, and we have several local places where I can get sand by the truckload, so thank you for that idea. Seems it would indeed be much easier!

The girls seemed to like it for the short period we had them out there. And yeah, Kiev is our monster, and Cordon Bleu is the wee one. I have to say that both have grown a bit in the past week.....Bleu doesn't look so much like a shrimp next to Kiev now.

 

[Chook-A-Holic]

Lookin' good. I like the way you made use of the space under the porch.

 

[St-Hubert]

Quote:
Thank you!
We were just lucky to have that "extra" house on the property. And I wanted something as secure as possible.
Come to think of it....I could have actually built the coop inside that house.....hmm....maybe when I start adding another flock....

 

[Chook-A-Holic]

Well, I wasn't going to say anything but now I feel I must. That porch above the coop sure would make a nice flight pen with a ladder going down into the run below. OK, I shut up now and drink some more coffee.

 

[St-Hubert]

Quote:
Not a bad idea at all....
Though, I was going to look into raising quail at some point. I thought the "upper deck" would make a good safe place to do that.
And please....never "shut up now and drink coffee"! I love hearing advice and ideas from folk, especially when it comes to something I have never done before!

 

[Grungybones]

Excellent! I love the use of the space. The design looks VERY good. I wouldn't have done anything different myself. Lots of room, easy access, good venting. You've got it all. Excellent job on your first coop. Thumbs up brother!

 

[St-Hubert]

Quote:
Thank you very, very much! Coming from the creator of "Fort Chicken", that means a lot to me.

Now....to take the final step and actually move the chickens out of the house and into the coop/run. That's going to be the hard part. At least there's room in the run for me to set up a cot if I need to!