Wow...we just did our coop too and I had no idea that raccoons could reach through the wire to grab a chicken. I thought they had to physically get inside the coop. Will they dig down below the wire as well to get inside, is that why you should put the wire down in the ground? We have the wire staked to the ground tight with strong metal tent stakes. I guess we better do a little more work on the fence to be sure it's secure! It still isn't all the way finished...this coop has been a real project...just got it all finished except for the fence.
We have a garden shed that is a multi purpose building that's used for storage, garden tools, a cat house and a dog house...and we re-designed it to also be a chicken coop and added shelves on one side for all of our canned vegetables from the garden.
Originally, it had the dog house in the back...that is now the chicken coop. On the inside above the coop is a loft area where we store our Christmas decorations and misc. other things. To the left of the inside are now several shelves...with the cat house and food on the bottom area accessable by their own pet door. On the right of the building is all the yard tools. There are two entrances to the coop; the main door you access by coming in the front door of the building and entering the coop door that is below the loft. From that entrance, there are two doors that lead out to the chicken run, a small one for the chickens and a bigger one that we can use to enter the run. The building has an extended roof on the left side and we divided it in half by building a partition and then enclosing the side of it. The front side is now the dogs area and the back side it a covered area for the chicken run that their small door opens to. I painted some cute signs for the building that hang on the front of it. We cut out windows and screened them--in the front and back doors that can be opened and closed for ventilation and to keep heat in--in winter. When you close the doors, there are pictures that show through the windows...I made them so you can change out the pictures with all sorts of different cute ones of chickens that are festive for different seasons or holidays. It makes the building cute and is just fun! We also have nesting boxes accessible from the inside of the building to the right of the coop entrance door. There are three nesting boxes and each has a little screened window in it for ventilation.
Here are some pics of our project--converting our existing shed to accomodate a coop as well as everything else!!!
Front of the completed building:
The next three are what the front, side and back looked like:
All emptied out and ready to start the modifications:
Enclosing the extended roof on the left side:
The chicken's door is built:
The back coop door is guilt and framing put up for the top wire to connect from the building--to our existing fence:
The front with the new dog house on the left side (other side of partition is covered chicken run):
Painting has begun!
The chicken door and ramp all neatly painted
View of the side all enclosed:
Three nesting boxes to the right of the coop entrance door:
The door to the nesting boxes...with a screened-ventilation window for each box:
The coop entrance door with the nesting boxes on the right and feed bins below:
A look at the back all painted...
A view of part of the run taken from the covered roof area...(still working on completing our wire)
The ramps going into the nexting boxes:
The roosts across from the nesting boxes:
My cool new shelves for canned goods! (cat area below):
Yard tool area on the right side of building:
A view of the coop looking in through the main coop door entrance (can't see the roosts and nesting boxes since they're in on the right side out of view)
A view from the entrance door to the building...you can see the shelves on the right, cat area, storage loft, coop entrance door and nesting boxes...
The sign I painted that hangs above the dog house:
The sign I painted above the cat entrance:
The chicken eggs sign I painted that hangs on the building:
One of the many pictures that can be shown through the window when the window door is closed. It's just put inside a sheet protector and the sheet protector is taped to the window door. Fun to change out the pics..I have several different ones...this one is for spring and summer
A closer pic of the front door of the building:
Well anyhow...I'm excited to get our chicks in there when they're ready...but first we must finish up our fence to be sure it is predator secure! Glad I read this post about the raccoons...I know they're crafty little critters but didn't know they could do that.
Thanks
