We've Got Chickens! [Almost.]

Warning - picture intensive.  

 This is what we have been working on since March.  Our chickens arrive next week, and summer has already arrived minus the humidity.  Some days have even been chilly, thank goodness, because building is HARD WORK!  We had no plans for this coop, the design is completely out of my head.  We have researched and visited a few coops, but I haven't seen one like this.

So first the layout.  We wanted fast and cheap.  Well, fast was not doable, and cheap?  Ha, no way.  We had seen photos of coops made completely out of pallets.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to take apart a pallet?  Those things are made to stay together!!!  You have to cut them apart.  And most are untreated, so would need water seal.  We thought about ready-made walls - OH, privacy fence panels!  Not too expensive.  Then we needed some plywood flooring, two sheets to make the coop 8x8.  I won't go into all the stuff we needed, but it was a LOT.  Some things we had, like leftover 2x6s from the deck.  And hangars from garage sales, chicken wire from CraigsList, etc.  Such fun treasure hunting!  But we hit Lowes at least once a week for one thing or another.  Never built a building before in our lives!

Taping the layout of coop and run

framing the floor and roof

The first metal panel goes up

Metal roofing is sharp!

 The three sides of the coop are up, and the roosting bars were put up after a hunt for cheap linoleum for the flooring (easy poop cleanup).  It's a lovely pattern.  Do you think the chickens will like it?

roost bars up

Barn Red Paint

 The coop is almost done.  We are not going to lock them in at night.  Therefore we need lots of protection around the coop.  Twenty six wood posts and four chain link posts at corners will secure the 6' wire.  We have every animal that loves a chicken dinner living around us, so first 150' of 3' hardware cloth sunk in the 1' trench and cemented with 350 pounds of cement along the bottom.  That took a couple days, uh huh.  We went through 4 nail/staple guns.  Fortunately we had bought the warranty, so we just kept taking them back.  The last one seems to be working.  But we still have that warranty just in case.

 We got a chain link gate and had the old cement platform from our old A/C unit laying around, so when we discovered it fit perfectly, we laid it in place under the gate!  More security and FREE - my favorite four letter word!

 Here the hardware cloth is cemented in and stapled onto the posts.  We also love zip ties, and used them at the corner posts. 

 These posts look so crooked!  But they're not, I assure you we used a level on each one. I think it was the photographer...sheer exhaustion, maybe?

150' of chicken wire stretched and stapled

 This is a sign that we were supposed to have chickens, don't you think?

Well, it's almost done.  We made it a little more private for the chickens and put up a lattice screen on the front.  We are not worried about our chickens being cold, they can stand snow.  But the heat and humidity can be daunting for them.  We still need to put on wire along the whole top between poles to support the netting to keep out eagles and hawks.  And we will tarp part of it for shade and rain. Chickens hate rain.  Now to keep the critters out.  We knew that from research electricity is a chicken's best friend.  But it's really pricey.  A find yesterday was a big tub of electric fencing, the box and the connectors, etc. at a road sale (impromptu sale on side of road).  Bought the whole thing for $20.  Best find so far.  :)))

The chicks are arriving by mail next week from Ohio and they will need to be warm (95 degrees) for the first week of their life.  So we got a refrigerator box from Lowes to make a brooder, cut it down and it is ready for their arrival.  We figure that by the fourth week of their young lives, it will be warm enough for them to go outside and play.  They will be too little for the run, so we made them a playpen.  We lugged around a tent in our RV for years, and never opened it.  What a great playpen!  We made a frame from some of those leftover 2x6s, braced it, put on wheels (garage sale find) and attached the tent to the frame.  Now we can move them from green grass to green grass during the day, and back into the run at night. And it's collapsible when not in use!

Voila!  Moveable playpen!

 We finished that this morning, then Gary made a bluebird house for our poor bluebird that is attempting a second nest in the garage corner.  Some other bird destroyed their first one.

Lots of hummers, new strawbale garden started, landscaping and planning our son's wedding in September is just a few of the other things we are enjoying.  Gary sure would like a tractor, so I jokingly said 'get a job, and we can afford one'.  The smallest Tractor Supply store in Florida is here in Lake City.  BUT they are building one even closer to us that will be the BIGGEST one in Florida so they are hiring now. So we'll see if he takes me up on it...

LIFE IS DARN GOOD!