The great greenhouse to chicken coop project

[Dixiedoodle]

I think your coop will be wonderful! I love to see anything 're-purposed' and that is a great way to use what you have...

I love your dogs.. My dh has always wanted a Rhodesian Ridgeback! They are beautiful

 

[geojane42]

Holy crap that was a lot of work! No pics because it was dark by the time we finished but our coop is pretty much done and the rest of the chickens (ended up with 5 total) are here so it was an exciting day. Happy to report that our neighbours are totally stoked about the chickens. I'll post some pictures as soon as all the fiddly bits are done. We're so happy with how its turning out. We ended up devoting the entire greenhouse to the run and building the hen house outside which gave us more room and flexibility all round. Put in 2 nesting boxes in case someone got bossy or broody. The girls were all up on the roosting bar looking sleepy by the time the run was done tonight and didn't have any interest in checking out their new play ground so they'll christen it in the morning. Couldn't bring myself to fork out $40 for a water fountain without at least trying to McGyver something myself first so that'll be the next project.

 

[CityChook]

get out that camera girl. i want pictures.

 

[geojane42]

Well I was going to wait until it was all pretty but here are a few of the work in progress. We decided to build the hen house outside of the greenhouse area to give everyone more space. It's coming together nicely. Still need to do the trim and put on the roof which will have storage in it but when we're done it should look like a little red barn. Everyone is on house arrest until Thursday to make sure they know where home is. We need to do some wing clipping which will hopefully keep them in the yard. We have a small school behind us and some of the kids were out for a walk with their teacher while we were working on the coop this afternoon. They were naming the flowers in our garden so I invited them in to see the chickens. They weren't expecting that! I let them all throw a bit of scratch into the run and showed them inside the hen house. Hopefully they'll all go home and tell their parents that they want a pet chicken

Anyway.... here's the coop so far...

I was worried that our first chicken would get picked on because she's the smallest and because the other 4 already knew each other but she's doing just fine. She doesn't boss the Marans' around as they are about twice her size but she has no problem showing the Hamburgs who's boss. I found this great tree branch in the park behind our house (we recently had a HUGE windstorm) so I decided to make a roost for the coop out of it. Of course #1 (the first hen.... haven't come up with names for them yet) has claimed it for her personal throne but she lets the Hamburgs keep it warm for her sometimes:

The Hamburgs are pretty skittish right now but have already calmed down since yesterday. They're so pretty. One is for a friend of mine who can't have chickens where she lives so she's going to keep one here in exchange for chicken sitting when we're away:

Here's #1 again doing what she does best (eating a slice of banana):

I don't seem to have a nice picture of the Marans' but here they are checking out the cat:

 

[flgardengirl]

Very nice job. Those are some lucky babies. I really like the red !!

 

[geojane42]

Woot! Look what I just found in spite of ongoing construction and curious cats, dogs, and children. The brown eggs are from the Marans' and the white one is from #1 who I think is a Campine/Dorking cross because she has red earlobes but lays white eggs:

 

[gibsonbuzz]

nice coop

 

[humm-n-cluck ranch]

AWESOME! It looks great!

 

[CityChook]

wow - I'm loving it!!

Enjoyed your story about the school kids -- I know that ALL the kiddos that come over here have to check out the coop and most want to at least pet, if not hold, one of the hens. I'll bet they went home with some fun stories to share with their folks!

Can't see from your photo, but make sure your run doors are lockable. Especially since your coop door is not.

Love it!

 

[geojane42]

Thx much! Just picked up some cedar strips for the trim but I think its going to start raining tomorrow. I really need it to start raining as I have finals coming up and have basically done nothing but play chicken farmer since Friday. Should be done by the end of the weekend though.

There are locks on both of the hen house doors and there will be a lock on the run too. Just haven't quite finished that door yet so we're improvising at the moment. We have a lot of raccoons and coyotes that keep the local cat population down. They're gonna think they've died and gone to heaven with the sudden influx of urban chickens.

No one used the nesting boxes today. I'm thinking about taking the shavings out of the hen house except for in the nesting boxes to encourage them to lay in the boxes. The roosting rail isn't very high and there's a ramp so I don't think anyone is going to hurt themselves jumping down onto the linoleum anyway. Any thoughts?