Worked on my coop almost all day. :) (Now with MORE photos)

[Erin K]

It was great! I have a little a frame chicken coop. The idea was that it would move around the yard, it's very light weight. But some horrible critter dug under it and got one of my chickens a few weeks back.

So we moved it up onto the patio, which was a stinky dirty mess and we didn't like that, but we kept our birds safe.

In the mean time I planned and planned. I finally decided to dig a trench, bury hardware cloth, attach that hardware cloth to my coop, making it a permanent coop. But to do that I'd need a door because it was one where you just sorta lift one end and they go in or out. (made a whole post about the door)

Anyhow did the door last week. That went super well. Today I got up early and dug the trench and did the wire. Then I attached it to the coop. Then I decided to wall in one end that had a roof but not walls so they have one more closed in end of the run part. (I know, you need pictures.) So we went for a drive. I found a stack of wood on the side of the road, like for garbage, that was perfect. And it truly was, it fit where I needed it to perfectly! I didn't have to even cut. So I did all that.

Later this week I'm going to paint all the wood. I think it will look less kludge-ish then. But it's super secure, super practical for my chickens and me and I did it all myself! My hands are TORN up and I'm sore and tired, but I am so proud of my work. It won't win a cute coop contest but I'm really happy.

I'll take pictures tomorrow.

I'm going to paint it yellow. Because I happen to have a can of yellow paint.

Here are the photos It's all rainy, but you get the picture:

door side of coop by Erin K Creatoins, on Flickr

Other side/end of coop/ by Erin K Creatoins, on Flickr

and my new walls totally worked! It rained all night and was still raining this morning and it was totally dry under the loft area! So they now have two areas to go in the rain, one on the ground level and of course, their loft area.

They seemed happier. Silly chickens would never sit upstairs in the rain, they would just sit under the loft but still get wet and look all angry and dripping.

I know it looks like a ghetto coop but I love it. Paint will come soon.


Ghetto coop by Erin K Creatoins, on Flickr
Ripped off all the plastic chicken wire and replaced with hardware cloth. It needs paint. It's really ugly. I love it though.

 

[gale65]

Can't wait to see the pictures! A yellow coop will look very sunny and cheerful. How cool that someone's trash was exactly what you needed. That's kismet.

 

[wava1vaughn]

Hi from Ga. Sounds good waiting for pics.

 

[maybejoey]

I was working on my coop all day today. Finaly I finished it.

 

[Erin K]

I added photos to the first post.

It rained overnight and the under-loft area was bone dry!

My hands HURT. I took off my gloves halfway through, not sure why... I'm all cut up and burned (I kept touching newly screwed screws) and blistered. But I'm happy!

 

[Wisher1000]

Erin, you did a great job on your coop! Isn't it rewrding to do something all by yourself and have it turn out good? One question, what kind of "wire" is it. Is there metal in the center or is it plastic? If you have varmits digging in, you may have varmits that can tear through plastic or thin wire. I hope it is stronger than regular chicken wire, I would hate to see your babies hurt.

 

[ChickInDelight]

It will not look ghetto when it is yellow. It's cute!

 

[pawsplus]

I'm confused. That looks like plastic mesh, which isn't at ALL predator proof. You aren't leaving them in there at night are you??

 

[teach1rusl]

I can tell you love your little birds

Your tractor is very cute, but if that is plastic netting, then you will most likely lose another one of your babies if there is no secure area for them to stay at night. If it is plastic netting, you really need to replace it with hardware cloth (like in rabbit cages) or some other really small meshed metal netting.

 

[Erin K]

Ok y'all I'm gonna replace with the hardware cloth tomorrow. I thought I was going to get away with it, I bought the coop "done" from someone and that's what they had. They assured me they never had a break in, so it was ok. I guess they were lucky, as I apparently have been so far. But I didn't do all this work and fall in love with these chickens just to have one weak part be our downfall.

I haven't gone so far with it that doing the hardware cloth will be too much more work. Should I just go over the green stuff? Is the green stuff worthless?

Can I use a staple gun on the hardware cloth, or is screws with washers way better. I guess staple gun would be ok because I'm going to do trim everywhere to cover all the edges anyhow. I have young kids and don't want them accidentally encountering any hardware cloth edge, that stuff is lethal.

So cover all the plastic with hardware cloth, staple gun the hardware cloth on, then use good screws to attach wood trim on all of it, basically sandwiching the cloth edges between the existing "frame" and the "trim" then paint it all yellow. Then it will pass BYC inspection? Because I'm all about passing BYC inspection.

Oh and thanks for the input. Although I'm annoyed that I'm not really as done as I thought. >