Oh for the love of chickens --- Chicken coop finally 99.9% done!!

[nature nut]

oh man, ouch! that makes me cringe just thinking of it!!!

I tell you he has banged that thumb on more stuff since he hurt it. Seems like you bang it more after you've done something to it. I guess because you think about it more. I told him how long it took for your nail to grow out. I bet his will take forever like that. Its really short and deformed looking right now.

Hope to see your coop soon

 

[Tala]

This was a picture I took this morning from our back porch, because it was misting/drizzling all day long.
You can see that the roof is finished and I put the doghouse chicken tractor house and feeder inside for the chickens to get used to going that-a-way at night. You can see the chainlink gate that I mentioned buying, it's leaning approx where it will be installed on the south side of the coop.

My father in law and I donned rain gear since it was mostly just misting all day, and we put tin up on the west side to provide shade in the afternoons. The roost will also be against this wall to provide complete reach-through protection from raccoons at night.

You can't see in either picture, but the north and east side already have welded wire up. I've just got to do the finishing work on those sides and add the dig-under protection. It doesn't get cold enough in Arkansas to freeze chickens - so I figured the most open design with the most ventilation possible would be the best thing for us.
I'm off on Tuesday so if it doesn't rain too much we're going to set a post to latch the gate on, and one of these days I'll have it finished.

 

[nature nut]

It's lookin' good

They're sure to love their new place it's very nice. I can just see you out there working on it in the misting rain. It's just torture to have to stand at the back door looking out at it when you could be out there

We've done a good bit of work on it out in the sprinkles and soggy mess too so our neighbors really think we are nuts

....hhmmmm... they're probably right

but, oh well I've got plenty of company here! Hope the weather is good to you this week. Keep us posted.

 

[Tala]

Well today I finished putting the wire up from the top of the 4ft welded wire up to the very top of the house so that raccoons can't climb in, as well as put a dig-prevention skirt 2ft out on two of the wired sides.
We hung the gate on it's hinges and set the post that it will latch to.


Have one 2x4 to put up on the front wall, and all the fence to attach on the front side. Then I can polish up the inside and it will be done!!

Got new babies tonight, so it should come together about right that the adults can be in their new house by the time the youngins need to move out to the tractor.

 

[Tala]

It's not 100% yet, but it's at least 95%. It will hold chickens in, and most things out. I haven't caught anything in my live trap, so I put the chickens on their new roost tonight and I feel that they will be safe even without the finishing touches.

There's going to be a lower level (offset of course) of the roost, but I didn't have a long enough 2x4 left so I gotta go scrounge one up. I've got some hardware clothe left to put up around the bottom, and I need a lot more pine pellets (or sand, if I can afford it) but its finally looking finished.

Oh, the gate I bought isn't really square, so I've got to do some more tweaking to the way that it's hanging and put on the lockable latch.

And I've still got to spread some wire on the ground on the backside where the tin is, but I'm gonna need another 2x4 for that too because I don't fancy attaching wire to the tin-covered one that is there now.

I will take a few more pictures in the daylight so yall can see better.

 

[cinnamongirl]

I'm in the middle of building my coop too and so far just a little blood. But I've also been remodeling my house top to bottom on my own and I'm proud to say there's a little blood, sweat, and tears in every room!

 

[Tala]

The chickens free ranging decided to roost for a bit up on top of their old tractor. Scared the poor chicks underneath them. View off my back deck -it's raining again

 

[nature nut]

Sounds like you're almost done and nothing should be getting past that 2 ft skirt! Beautiful chickens

. What are your chicks? We have sand in our run and I really like it a lot. I bought the sand with small bits of gravel in it instead of the clean sand and when I put more in I will definitely be getting the clean sand. It is easier to scoop clean. I hate putting all of that gravel into my compost makes it hard to turn the compost and I'll have to sift out the majority of the gravel before adding it to the garden or flower beds.

 

[Tala]

Quote:
Thanks for the tip, I was kinda wondering which kind to get.

The chicks are Black sexlinks made by crossing a Buff Orp and a Barred Rock, the breeds of all my birdies are in my siggy too. Unfortunately 3 chicks have gone missing and I suspect that they were stolen by a 2-legged predator. There's a thread about it in the Predators section.

 

[Tala]

LET US OUT MOM!!!

Chickens want OUT!

They laid me some pretty eggs in their new nest bucket:

Roost over on this side, obviously I'm not quite done finishing it out with the hardware cloth protection, but it came a flood on my last day off