Stable = Coop to be... where to start?

[farmerfogg]

Wow! You've made great progress! It looks like a lot of work. But soon, you chickens will have a great home and run, thanks to all of yours and your husbands hard work! Great job!

 

[MollyDora]

thanks guys.

we already get feedback from the chickens. When we let them freerange from their current housing which is about 150 ish feet from the new to be coop they always wander over there and start pecking where their run is going to be or dustbathe inside of the coop area.
makes us feel good to know that they approve!

Today my better half added a 4x6 in the middle of the coop (to frame the top for added stabilasation for the hardware cloth which will secure it from predators which might climb in the rafters) and started digging the trench around the inside to put hardware cloth in so nothing can dig under the coop.

hopefully we can get the inside primed and painted by the weekend.

Have a great day!

 

[cafarmgirl]

I think it looks great and obviously your chickens are already interested in moving right in so they must think it looks pretty good too!

 

[MollyDora]

LOTS of progress!! so far all the walls are up, both doors are in (we still need the Pop hole) and the entire inside is primed.

My better half is all the way done with digging. and half way done with putting down hardware cloth for predator proofing.

Hopefully today we will get the last hardware cloth in, fill the holes back with dirt, paint the inside (I chose a light shade of green) and figure out where the nestboxes and roosting bars will go.

It's been a while, so I thougth I'd send an update...

in between then and now we added 2 Angora goats to our farm and chose and paid for two Llamas (that still need to be with Momma till the end of January) that will be our Guard Animals for the goats.
fun times!!!

On a sad note, our Favorite Chicken Roxanne died, we think she might have been eggbound, but we can't be sure. We had a horrible storm the night she died and I'm not if she might have had a heart attack or something. Poor thing, she was our funnest hen, she would always play with the dogs..... we buried her under a big oak.

~Anna

this is the front of the coop (we will be adding a pop hole to this door, since the run will be attached here)


predator proofing....

 

[cjhubbs]

Wow great job, everything looks like it is coming along nicely!

 

[The Lazy L]

nobody cares, huh?

I care!

PLEASE continue!

 

[MollyDora]

Hello Ya'll

I have not updated this in a while and there is lots of progress.

We have painted the inside in a light green, the doors copper, attached the nest box, roost and a ladder for them to get to the roost.
We also added some windows, that we closed off with hardware cloth and re-attached the cut out, so we can close them when it gets really cold and breezy.

we are 90% done predator proofing it, the only thing that's left is a few spots on the ceiling.

tomorrow I'll get some chain at work (I work at Lowe's, I know, convenient! ) so we can hang the waterer and feeder.

after several ideas we decided to just use some branches from a tree we had to fell not too long ago, it gives it a natural look and the chickens have several different thicknesses so they can choose where to roost and what's most comfortable for each individual chicken.

Please let me know what you think. We were unsure about how high to hang the nestbox, it was more important to us that the hens can get to them easy then for us not having to bend.

this is the right side of the coop, there is lots more space on the left, but there is nothing going on there yet, that's why I did not bother with a picture. Once the chicks (that are in the laundry room now) are big enough to go outside, we will close off part of the left side of the coop for them, so the bigger hens can get used to them.



I also took this nice snapshot today, it's a bit dark but I thought it was too cute how the goats and the chickens just live in Harmony. the Hens love going in the goatstall and scratch.




so, do you guys think we're heading in the right direction?

thank you
Anna

 

[loanwizard]

It is VERY nice. Comparing that to where mine are is like Watts to Beverly Hills!

 

[MollyDora]

thank you!

 

[gryeyes]

Yes, you are indeed going in the right direction!