Chicken Coop IV

Ok, well that took a little longer than expected to get the coop done. I completely forgot that May is the busiest time of year for opening the garden and the pool so lots of distractions.

However, the chicken’s arrival was fixed and the coop needed to be up even it was even painted properly yet. Step 1 was to prepare a bit of ground with some gravel to try and keep the weeds down and also to allow for some drainage. The part of the yard we have put the coop on has been known to turn into a river in Spring with all the snow melt coming of the field behind us.

Step 2 was adding the base. Some concrete blocks where placed on the gravel and the floor attached with the aid of some 2x4 that slides in the holes in the blocks. Now a word about the rather natty floor. Having got to nearly the end of the project without deciding what to put on the bottom the missus ended my procrastination by sending me out to get some lino and not come back till I had some. Luckily one of the big flooring shops had some cut offs available (still more expensive than I would usually pay for this kind of thing) and thus we have the poshest coop floor in Ontario.

Enough of the preliminaries, it was time to put the walls up. They simply screw into the base. This doesn’t have to be that strong as the roof ways a ton, so the weight of that should keep everything together.

The more astute of you have probably noticed a lot of holes in the walls and are thinking that looks a bit drafty. Never fear, there are doors to put on, they’re just in various stages of being painted.

Just the roof to go. This is made from 2x4s, plywood sheets and roof tiles and is rather heavy. Far too heavy to lift by myself so I had to enlist some willing volunteers to get this sucker up and on the top.

Ok, so that’s the meat of the project done. It still needs more paint, some doors (!), nesting box and a fence. So a little bit more work before the chickens take their place.