The Chicken Coop Project {with a confessional}

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It is no secret that I have developed a love for chickens. Because of that, I have acquired more chickens than my chicken tractor will hold.

Totally on accident. Ahem.

The point is, I need a bigger place for them. Also, I think I have a rooster on my hands. Check out that comb. And he is starting to make funny noises. I can’t decide if I want to keep him or not.

Anyways. We came up with a brilliant plan for a coop! But before we get there, I have some confessions. I think our property looks so crappy. I mean, I knew when we bought it that it was a fixer upper. But everything has taken so long to get done! It is kind of frustrating and a little bit disheartening.

These are three lovely piles of stuff that needs thrown away. Just sitting there. Looking great. {not}

This is the building we are turning into the coop. Let’s not talk about how the weeds are taller than me. Mmkay?

It used to be a full “barn” but it was really pieced together and not sturdy and just downright strange and gross. You couldn’t even walk all the way to the back and remain standing upright. There was just layer upon layer of animal droppings intermixed with straw. A big “shame on you” to whoever kept animals like that. Seriously. So we took half of it down last summer and then the roof blew off half of the remaining structure so that was trashed.

We realized that we could turn the last standing part into a chicken coop and solve two problems: Tearing down buildings is super tedious when you are me and you try and salvage every last piece of wood and half the nails, so we would avoid that. And we would avoid doing too much building for a chicken coop. Win win! {Sidenote: remember in this post how I talked about barrels of used oil? Yeah. Those babies are still crashin’ my party hardcore over here.}

So this week, we began working on The Chicken Coop Project.

In the photo with the barrels of oil, you can see that opening right behind them. Here is the inside of that portion of the coop. I am removing the piece of wood behind the door with the X’s for increased ventilation. We will just leave it open and use it to store the chicken feed. Until a raccoon crashes that party. Hopefully not. Anyways, this was pretty easy to clean up. Nothing major in here. Except broken glass. For real, who keeps animals in a stall with broken glass?!

Next up, we have the portion that will actually be the coop. This first opening will have roosts, nesting boxes and the coolest feeder and waterer Andy and I made for about $10 each. Which seriously beats over $40. More on that to come.

The inside looks like this. Pretty woody. And there are mud wasp nests everywhere. Don’t worry though, I emptied an entire can of wasp spray on their happy little homes.

Behind this wall is the feed storage compartment I showed you earlier. This is where the nesting boxes will be. I am making them out of an old cabinet so the back of the cabinet will actually mount to the other side, allowing me to open the cabinet doors to collect the eggs.

Next door will be the run area. This wall currently separates the two. I will trim this door down and make an opening between them. I will probably still let them free roam but if for some reason I don’t want them out, they will be able to go in the run and have a little more space.

This is the other “wall.” I’m good with it being open because it will also allow for better ventilation. I’m going to remove the chain link and cover everything with chicken wire.

This is the cute gate that is the opening for this compartment.

The tasks we accomplished this week are completely separating the part we want to keep from the part we want to take down:

And fixing the roof. Which I have no photos of because my phone memory is full and it was raining while we were fixing it so no big camera :).

This will be the door for the main coop. We saved all the doors and hardware when we took down the rest of the barn and I am so happy I can repurpose it.

We had some of these slider tracks left over so we will mount it on that instead of having it open since it’s a pretty big door. That way it isn’t’ in the way of our fence.

This is the old cabinet I am using for the nesting boxes. It just needs so trimming and readjusting so it has the correct size compartments inside.

And I shouldn’t get so discouraged about our property. It will get there. And every time we clean an area up, the land gives back. Andy says its just because whoever lived here before was a slob and left crap everywhere but I like to think the land appreciates being cared for. Some awesome finds so far with this project have been this feeder. Which says horse feeder but horses really don’t need feeders. Let me tell you what though. Cattle do. They are freaking slobs. A horse can eat off the ground and not step in it or pee in it or poop on it. A steer is another story. So this will be going in the cattle stall.

We found this level. Score! And I finally bought a pitchfork. Pitching straw with a manure fork is fruitless.

There are also a bunch of these feeders that I have. I’m not sure I would use them as feeders but I am sure I can find something to do or make with them.

Until next time! I will post a full tour of the coop when it’s done. I can’t wait!