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Hi and welcome to BYC! We're so happy to have you with us! Please have a look around and make yourself at home! You don't need to feel uncomfortable, this is a wonderful group of people! If you need help with anything don't hesitate to ask! :)
 
Thank you for the warm welcome! :frow
(That's to all of you! I'm still trying to figure out the quote thing! 😅 )

I don't have any pics that really do it justice at the moment, since its really a pretty build in the works....and built like a chicken Fort Knox. The tree house itself was built on an old loading platform used ages ago for grains being put onto trains, but because we have old fallow grain fields around us where they tore down the silo the year before we got here, there's an abundance of very large grain fed rats who would really like another warm place to snuggle in. The inside itself is 14x14 square, but we have it partitioned in half so its 14x7 currently where the girls are roosting. The old coop is attached to the back of the garage, so hubby was MORE than happy to give me a hand with this one.

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Both sides have a door and the floor is raised above the ground using the same concept as a deck on the inside. Theres hardware cloth sandwiched in between the outside walls and inner so on two sides we can take the screws out of certain boards to allow circulation in the summer and keep the more determined rats and raccoons out in the winter. There's also hardware cloth buried in pea gravel underneath, the rats here are very very determined and I'm not losing another single feather to one!

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The top floor boards are spaced like decking planks so about a thumbs width between the boards, which has been our ventilation system over the winter, paired with.. I know theres a technical term for it... where the boards meet at the corners, they over lap sort of with a spacer so they dont touch and allow air to pass through but you can't see the space unless you're on the right angle. We have half the coop sectioned off since it requires less to heat on the most bitterly cold nights since we only had 5 hens at the end of last season and it gets really, really really cold, here. And since it's already sectioned off, we'll be using it to put the chicks in to do the side by side intro to the bigger girls once my renos for this year are complete. Putting in screened windows with shutters with pretty flower boxes and the like so we don't have to remove as many boards come summer, I'm after that picture perfect cottage dollhouse coop that actually works, but I'm also cheap so it's mostly hardwood solid planks and found items! We need to do some regrading of the run area so it's not so darn wet in the spring, so the current run is directly behind the coop and only measures 18'x28', but once we get that fill dropped off once load restrictions are lifted and the fence goes back up, another 28' x 40' will be added to make it L shaped. It's dusk in the photo here, but the run itself gets a good amount of sun and shade thanks to the trees, which many are incorporated into the run itself, its screened in all the way around, top to bottom and well into the dirt. I need to do some perch repositioning, as well so we've got no direct drafts once windows are in, which is going to take some thought since my nesting boxes are hung in the middle toward the back, not up against a wall or externally.

Theres a few other little perks my man incorporated for me that I'll ramble on about in another post dedicated to my dream coop once we finish her, since I'm sure no one really wanted to hear all this on a general inquiry about my treehouse, but this silly design makes me and my hens so ridiculously happy that I tend to gush on about it to anyone who'll listen.. which there aren't many of these days!
 
drumstick diva said:
Your coop is a very interesting concept :yesss:
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Woohoo! Figured it out!

Thank you! It's not much yet.. but soon! I couldn't bring myself to tear it down, the kids don't use it, and I drive by this shed builder every day and grovel over the pretty sheds with there pretty windows and shutters and though... "my girls deserve that!" :drool
 
sourland said:
Welcome to BYC - not everyone can say they sell bears for income. :bow
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Bahaha Income yes, but it really only covers my chicken addiction! I might be more successful if I could devote more time to my bears, but I'm only allowed to keep chicks in my sewing room, not my hens and I swear it's not my feelings of withdrawal that drag me back to the coop... I do it for my girls!
 

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