IT ALL STARTED WITH A CHICK...than a Coop

3-22-2018

IT ALL STARTED WITH A CHICK..than a Coop

2 years ago this month I (we, we all, all of us I'll introduce you later)  started on our chicken adventure. 

We moved to the country soon after my guys started asking me for chickens. We lived in a neighborhood and it was SOO easy to tell them, no, not now, when we live on some acreage.  Well, soon came the acreage and our 1st spring brought chicks to the stores.  The very 1st time we went the guys fell in love with the babies and begged me, reminding me over and over "but you said!!" So home we went with 1 little RIR and 1 little Welsumer (we found these out later, they were in a straight run assortment bin).

Martin & Peep

Well now where are we going to put these little dudes? We made shift for a day or so and ended up using a plastic container, wood chips, chick water, chick feeder and a heat lamp. There, we were set, all this right in the kitchen dining room. Great, we can keep and eye on them, see them, talk to them, AND...listen to them chirp ALL...Night...LONG!!

Ok, so now they are a week old or so, lets move them to the garage. Done deal, out they went. Within the next couple days we added a few more chicks, then some more, oh and then some more!  Now what?? We really need to prepare for their outside coop and run.  So off to Pinterest I went. 

I looked through all the beautiful cottage type coops, to industrial, to pallet home made to OMG!! OK so I found the one I loved and I had a friend build it, well, yes a friend, that is my employee and is always so sweet to do anything I ask in between scheduled appointments at the shop. So the pictures were printed we made some measurements and started talking.

 I started having to decide how many laying boxes, where exactly I wanted the coop door to be, what peak to make the roof...these were hard decisions. What if I made a mistake, what if I hated my choice, would the chickens be warm, or cold or to drafty? Where will they sleep? Will their poop stink in there? How will they know to go back in and sleep at night? Do you mean I have to close their door every night? What if it rains? IT WAS ALL FINE, WORKED OUT WELL, THE GIRLS ARE NOT PICKY!! They are safe, out of the weather and clean!

So here we are. Coop is done and ready to go home. 

Problem is its SO HEAVY and wont fit in the back of the truck so we have to use a small 77 x 12 Utility Trailer to make it home. I was so not ANY help at this time, I was laid up in bed recovering from an ACL replacement. My sweet Babylove took care of it and and blocked it and made sure it was stable right on the east side of the pool house (outside the fence of course, everything I read said do not put the coop by the bedroom windows or in an area you would NOT want to smell animals. So here we are, right by the bedroom window, right by the backyard, downwind. It was a perfect spot. 

So now we have a nice raw coop. Raw? What do I mean? Well...I love to read up on everything before I do it. Apparently, you need a really great coating of paint on wood due to small bugs burrowing into the wood, in the coop, eating on your birds, making them sick, yadda yadda yadda.  OK, lets pick a paint. Grey on the outside, white semi gloss on the inside. IT TOOK FOREVER!! But I had a little help from one of my little racer and his little friend.

 

Now we have to figure out the run.  So a 6 x 6 chain link kennel will work perfect, with additional chicken wire around it and a netted top of course. Ya see, we are already growing, the chicks are not ready to go outside yet but for some reason they keep multiplying, chicken math is a bitch! 

All of a sudden we have Maran, Curry, Steph, Checkered, Blackie, Angel, and the list goes on and on and on ...