Sunday, March 23, 2008

The evolution of the coop, part 1

This is how the barn looked on the day we first saw the property.

And here it was the first winter we lived here...

And then we decided to cut down a tree next to the barn so it wouldn't blow over (the base was almost rotted through) and while we were at it we knocked down the old corral and made a pile where wildlife could live.


And then we decided to get chickens... So we cleaned up the scrap pile and planned an outdoor barnyard. We even cut a door in the barn for the chickens to come in and out...

It seemed like a big area for the chickens (at the time...)

We even left the stump outside the door for them to play on...

Here you can see the chicken door from inside the coop...

Here is the rest of the barn, when standing inside the coop.

And here is looking toward the coop area from the front of the barn.

This is an old box we had left in the barn from a previous owner. It made great next boxes and saved us a fortune! We had no idea how expensive commercially made next boxes are!

Here is Phil Brown, of Brown's Diversified Services, standing in front of the nest boxes. Phil is our friend and handyman and without him we would not have a chicken coop or barnyard! Thanks Phil!

The completed nest boxes, minus the ledges and perches.

Here is the original roosts we built. We have had to redesign the roosts because this corner of the barn floods when it rains. There will be pictures of the new roosts and coop configuration later...

Here is the other side of the coop. You can see the board over the chicken door on the right side.

And here are the chicks in the coop on the first day. They were almost 4 weeks old when they moved to the barn.