Building Our New Coop

Before I get into the pictures and details of our new coop, I`m going to tell you a story.  The epic story about how three hens moved from the city to the country, and how they did it.  It wasn`t your typical `put them in a cage, drive to new house`.  Oh no.  That would be too boring, and we don`t do boring here!

When we put the city home up for sale, I told my husband, "You watch, whoever buys this place is going to want my coop".  He assured me that no one, other than me, was going to want the coop.  I said the same thing to my realtor, my friends and my family.  None of them seemed overly concerned that someone was going to buy my coop.  It was a concern for me though.  My plan was to TAKE the coop with us, so the girls would have a home at our new home.

Well, you guessed it.  We got an offer on the house.  Aside from basically asking for everything including the kitchen sink and a few other outlandish requests, they also wanted my coop. I swear they probably would have asked for the chickens too, if they thought they had a chance.  But really, it was a buyers market and we were very fortunate to have an offer and sale within a month and a week.  If you are ever buying or selling a home in Southern New Brunswick, I highly recommend calling Andrea Hughes ( shameless plug!).

So, without making this little story too lengthy, here is how it went:  They kept the coop. We had to stay at my  dads for two weeks between houses, and there was obviously no coop there.  So,we improvised.  We had a garbage box constructed in the garage, waiting to be placed at the end of the driveway of our new home.  So, hubby cut a door in it, we put the girls in there and they lived in a garbage box for two weeks.  We put a small run on the side, so they could get outside for air and pecking.  When we moved to the new homestead, they girls traveled in their garbage box and used their make-shift run for about a month, until we built their new coop.  They didn't seem to mind their garbage box, but they definitely appreciated their new place, having perches again and a window to see outside.

 

Time was passing and we really needed to
 get the  girls into a safer, permanent home,
 so hubby  and my dad (and I!) worked after
 dark some  nights to get it done.

The new Coop

So, this is what it looks like now.  In the spring, we will shingle it to match the house.  We went with a standard 8x10 shed package, but only closed in half.  My thoughts were to leave the other side open so they would have a covered run area.

Under construction.

Guess what?  When they say "As soon as you have your coop done, you will be planning it's expansion". It's TRUE! Ha ha.  It' MUST be a chicken lady thing.  This year, I think I will close in the other side, giving more inside room, which will give me an indoor intro/chick area. I will attach a run on one side and cover it.   I am happy with the way it turned out though!  It's insulated, to help keep them warm.  Ventilated in the eve area.

Laying the floor

Insulating,vapour
 barriering (sp ?) and
covering the walls.

 The inside walls are all covered with a thin plywood, so the girls didn't snack on the insulation.  I covered the floor with a heavy duty peel-and-stick tile, so that water or droppings didn't get into the floor and cause mold or too dirty to clean. 

I built some temporary nesting boxes, and put in some perches.  The set up seems to be working well, although they all want to lay in ONE nesting box, of the four.  I threw in the straw and the girls went to work on evenly distributing it all nicely.  We also put in a light, on a timer (recycled from a block heater) so that they get enough daylight.  We gave them a break between October-January so they were ready to get laying again.
They did amazingly well, considering they were uprooted and moved ( location and/or coop) four times in only a couple of months.  They are good little travelers :P

Bridgette started laying almost immediately (she didn't really stop, she had just slowed down).  Hawk-eye and Smokey starting laying almost at the same time about a month later and the day they started, Bridgette stopped.  Still trying to figure out whats going on with her.  Not molting, so maybe just taking a break.