We pretty much haven’t stopped working on the coop since the weekend. We were hoping to have them move out then, but things kept coming up. I did most of it with a one year old on my back. She must be heavier than Meredith was at this age, as I don’t remember Meredith making my back so sore! But, it’s paid off. It is mostly done, and the older chicks have moved in.
There is still a little bit of painting to do on the inside, and the outside won’t be painted until it stops raining here for long enough to give the wood a chance to dry out. The beige on the door itself will likely be the coop colour, with the trim being the dark brown that the sides of the door are. There are a few aesthetic and convenience things too, like latches for the windows and a board for the doorway to keep shavings in. But it should be safe and draft-proof for the chicks now. I am a tad concerned because the log the door sits on is rounded, so even though the door is flush with the top, the trim sticks out a bit. Something could get a paw under there and yank it open if they were strong enough, but we figure tomorrow we’ll put something along the bottom to prevent that, and for tonight I piled some big rocks in front of it. I doubt a prey animal would manage to discover my coop full of chickens the first night out anyway, but better safe than sorry.
The older chicks were outside in our fenced garden all day (the younger ones have Coccidiosis, poor things, but more about that later), and when they wanted to come in we put them in the coop instead. Talk about confused, but they were getting crowded in their brooder and seemed to be happy about being able to stretch out their wings and actually move around. I am so glad to be done because both sets of chicks are really needing to be moved into bigger spaces, so now the younger ones can be moved into the bigger brooder. I’m sure the small brooder didn’t help the Cocci situation.
The ramp on the outside is on hinges, and will lie flat against the coop, so if we ever become concerned about predators sniffing around we could start putting it up as double protection. It will also make it easier to clean underneath it if needed. The hinged windows on the sides and the doors were all made by us. The front windows were $5 sliders from a thrift store.
Inside, the roost is on hinges (which I already showed in another post). There are four nest boxes, but for now we’ve put a piece of OSB in front of them and stapled cardboard over that to prevent them from trying to sleep or roost in them. Once they are closer to laying age we’ll take that out. I’m thinking we may have to put some sort of ramp up to the roosts, but we’ll see. The waterer will be a PVC nipple waterer, but the silicone is still curing so they just got my dog’s water dish in there tonight. I ended up putting the food dish on the ground for now too, because they didn’t seem to notice it. They mobbed it once on the ground. Tomorrow I’ll put it back up and maybe put a little block beside it for the littler ones who might not be able to reach it easily.
And here’s looking towards the front from the back. The pop door currently doesn’t have a lock, but I think for peace of mind I will probably put a little hook and eye or something on the inside. I tried to open it from the outside and couldn’t budge it, but, again, better safe than sorry.
