... building a chicken coop

Hello everyone,

We had decided some time ago that this year would be the time for us to get some laying hens for eggs.

The one problem that we knew we would have is that predator pressure is quite high here. All of our neighbours have lost chicken, ducks and guinea hens to various predators like foxes, weasels and fishers.

When we began work on the chicken coop one of our primary concerns was that it needed to be safe. Therefore we have put a lot of effort into taking precautions as you will see from these photos.

We began by selecting a level spot not too far from the house. Frank laid down a base of cedar 6 x 6 and then he proceeded to dig out the bottom of the area that will be the coop. As is always the case here, he dug up lots of rocks as well.

 Once he had dug down far enough he laid 1/2" hardware cloth along the bottom and up the sides of the cedar. It was all secured and attached together with plastic tie wraps. We want to be sure that nothing can tunnel it's way into the coop.

After the hardware cloth we laid down some of the smaller stones that had been dug out and then a layer of pea stone. We have decided to have a dirt floor in the coop so after the pea stone Frank began to back fill with the soil that he had dug out.

Then construction of the walls began. We were fortunate that we had a couple of windows given to us by friends and we will be able to use them in the coop. We purchased the doors from the Re-Store. The door to the feed room is a solid steel door and the door into the coop is a wooden door with a window which will allow in a bit more light.

It took the two of us a couple of hours to get the four walls lifted and installed in place and then we needed to square it up.

This area that you can see on the left and in the photo below will be a feed and storage room. There is a base of crushed stone and pea stone and then Frank will lay down a floor of patio slabs to keep it rodent proof. It is not a particularly large area but certainly big enough to keep the feed and the tools needed to keep the coop clean.

The area on the right side is the coop portion. It is 8' by 8' in size and it will house 12 chickens. That will give them ample room to move around. We also plan to allow them to range outside so they will only be locked in the coop at night for protection. There will be the human size door into the coop and two chicken pop holes for them to use. They will stay open all day so that they can come and go as they please.  There will also be two windows for light and the necessary ventilation.

So there you can see what we managed to get done today. I think it looks great and I really hope that the ladies will be happy in there.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. If you have any chicken tips to pass along, I am all ears. Cheers.

 ~ Melanie~