Table of contents for Chicken Coop
Today we have pictures of the new chicken run for the chicken coop. This is an enclosed area that is safe for the chickens to be in. It is completely enclosed to keep out neighborhood pests like raccoons, opossum and the neighbors cat. Incidentally, we have already caught two cats in the neighborhood trying to jump at the chicken wire to scare the chickens. This is only a legitimate worry while the chickens are small though. Once they are full grown, they will be about as big as the cats themselves.
Since the last blog post, we have added paint to the trim boards along the roof edge. We had to paint the trim before we could add the gutter to the back. The newly installed gutter slopes to the north end of the coop. It will eventually route into the chicken run and into the chickens water container.
Once the gutter was added, we needed a temporary run for the chickens. The wood frame can be seen on the left of this picture. We plan on stringing chicken wire across this to make an enclosure. This run is temporary, we will need to remove it to place siding on the coop. Once the siding is one, we can just screw it back in place.
We made the door out of 2×2 members for ease of framing. The chicken wire can be seen on top of the wood frame for the run now. We strung it up as tight as possible since chicken wire has a tendency to loosen over time. We apologize for the odd angle of the camera. There is very little room in the back of the coop to get a decent shot of the other side.
Our attempt to get a picture of the other side of the coop. You can see the back door/ramp that we made for the chickens. Also you can see the ledger that we used to attach the run to the coop near the roof.
Just another picture of the chickens for shits and giggles. You can see the bottom boards of the frame are pressure treated members because they will be sitting on moist ground for long durations of time. We also dug out the ground and placed the bottom boards into the earth a few inches. This will eventually get covered with earth and help to prevent pests from digging into the chicken run.
In other news, the garden has been started and is going really great. We have planted a large selection of crops including: asparagus, carrots, peas, brussel sprouts, lettuce, corn, cabbage, cauliflower, potatoes, peppers, garlic, strawberries, an artichoke, onions, and a lot of herbs. So needless to say we have been busy.
Bonus picture of the garden. You can see the onion starts and herbs that have been recently transplanted. In the makeshift green houses we have the strawberries, peppers and artichoke.
That’s it for this week. Stay safe and sustainable!
P&S
