New coop, small, street legal :P

[sailtexas186548]

All painted! caulked and sealed, inside and out, matches the house. Need to tweak the ramp, add some latches, handles, etc

A couple more weeks and the chicks will be moving in

 

[sailtexas186548]

Added some green trim to the rear to improve the appearance. Managed to screw up a side door so I’ll need to get some reinforcements

I made a roost in the chicks container but they seem to prefer the food bin... ready to get them into the coop where they cant do this 5 seconds after I clean it out hahaha

 

[rosemarythyme]

we had a late cold front so I put the heat lamp in the coop, it was fine for a couple days but I guess I knocked it loose when I shut the door and it almost burned the coop down! Lucky the fire put it self out, and no one was harmed. I guess I won’t rely On the clamp anymore and will screw The light to the rafters if I need it again.

Or... take the heat lamp out! Can't imagine you get cold enough to ever need to supplement heat, even with the silkie.

I always wondered if I was being too caution warning folks to not rely on the clamps on a heat lamp, but here's proof! Just glad to hear that it didn't start a big fire or harm the chicks.

 

[sailtexas186548]

Well they know what freedom is now, open the door and they come pouring out!

they seem to be doing well, easy to coax back into the run at dusk, and all of them go into the coop as the sun sets. Even the little one has assimilated back into the flock

 

[sailtexas186548]

Chicken pirate! This is the one that was sick, climbed up all on her own

 

[sailtexas186548]

It’s been fun but she needs to go back outside, so what is the solution? I turned to chicken math to solve this problem:

Three bantams, a black and a red frizzle Cochin, and a white silkie. Also one normal sized black australorp. Why you ask? Well naturally three bantams are to keep Turd the Silkie company in her new coop! and the Austalorpe to take Turd’s spot in the “big” coop.

buried some treated 2x10s about 6” in the ground (clay), added some nailers to the existing stair posts, built a door for access, just need to hang the hardware cloth and add dirt to finish the run. I’m in the process of building the coop with scraps I have so it’s form is going to be a surprise lol.

 

[sailtexas186548]

everyone is doing well, trying to make the coop blend in and look like less of a trailer. I think next I will build a ramp to block the view underneath

 

[Kgbao]

I hope you have a golf cart, small 4 wheeler or something to pull it around with. Looks like it might get a little heavy manually moving it around. Looks really cool, and great work.

 

[aart]

What a cool little coop!
The 'street legal' tagline makes me grin every time.
Might want to crank up the bottom of ramp a bit more, it's pretty steep.
Hope you keep updating us here as things progress.

 

[Panhandler80]

That's awesome! I'm on the water as well at about 2' above sea level with lots of hurricanes. If we ever get a bad surge my coop will be flooded. Chickens can get high enough to not drown, though. I'll also ride out any storm at my house... it took a direct hit from a Cat 5 two years ago with zero damage. Not worried surge taking house out because our water is a very protected bayou. Water may come up, but there's not enough fetch to create any major wave action. I'll tell you one thing, though... watching what a Cat 5 does to open water is UNBELIEVABLE. Stayed at a house on the water for the storm (which is fortunate because we had doors blow open even with plywood over six sets of french doors) and had a few peep holes drilled in plywood and the wind / waves / debris was truly indescribable. Basically a 2 hour tornado. I knew we were ****** when trees started coming down at 11 am and the forecast called for eye wall to come on shore at like 3:00! House we stayed in lost chimney which compromised roof and we had standing water in attic, upstairs, downstairs and basement. Basically had to gut it, but little structural damage other than the roof and the chimney. Had we not been there (my parents house) with cordless drill and scraps of plywood to scab onto the doors after they started popping open, ALL of the contents in the home would have been destroyed. Fortunately there were a few rooms that stayed dry and we were able to get all artwork, valuables, etc into there in a mad scramble. Unfortunately I lost my boat. Found two days after the storm upside down and destroyed. A different boat had gotten into me and pulled my anchors. Dad's boat made it.

Hurricane rant over. Now it's just Covid. Been a rough 10 years or so for this area. Oil Spill, Cat 5 and now Virus. Geeze.