The chicken coop

A few people have asked me about our chicken coop and the easiest way to show the progression seemed to be to do a blog post.

The coop is actually a shed kit from Lowes, you do have to buy flooring separately. Our order was 1 shed kit and 6 sheets of sub flooring.

Other materials that we needed to buy were vinyl flooring, 2 by 4's for roosting bars, nest boxes, a ceiling vent and several small round vents. Also one more window.

First step was to level the ground and put down cement blocks since the coop will be raised. The ducks enjoyed any part pf the process that involved digging and moving dirt, someone to find the worms for them!

Then we put down the floor a double layer of the sub flooring, 3 sheets per layer with a frame in between. Followed by assembling the walls, usually one of 4 kids in the family was called in to help hold up walls of pass tools as my youngest son Tristan is shown here.

 Then the roof went on, we had to buy shingles, they were not included.

Vents, some of them look like this:

A silkie was sized for roosting

Then everyone checked it our, ducks, chickens, kids....

Finally it was babies first night in the coop and I was nervous and barred the door with bricks but they did fine.

Because they were getting so big they moved in before the shingles were on and finishing touches were done. The birds enjoyed watching the building process and took advantage of ladders and such. They LOVE being under the coop on hot days, I'm so glad we made it a raised coop even though it's large.

The ducks have a section which at first was a large dog kennel on one side, this is still in the process of being finished off so they have their own little part (so they don't get the coop all wet at night, all the birds do fine together in the daytime and outdoors).

We've changed the roosting bars and added nest boxes, plus interior walls.

We added a second window and a pop door to the back fenced area. They have about 110' of 6' chain link for their secure area, it has been buried, reinforced with hardware cloth (more is being added)  and is in the process of having netting added to the roof. Their limited free range is much larger and is only secured by 4' welded wire fencing but a goal is to continue buying 6' chain link and replacing welded wire as we can afford and time allows so their limited free range will be bigger and more secure.

The chickens and ducks seem happy with their coop and runs and so far it is keeping them safe. We will continue to change and improve it as we can. I think this coop is great because there is room for this rather adorable next generation too.