Winterizing the Chicken Coop

We are almost finished getting our coop ready for winter.  We now have about an R-11. Not perfect, but better than the R-1.75 our plywood was previously! We added blue panel insulation and another inner wall-board.  I still need to paint - but it may have to wait until after the winter if the weather doesn't hold out. Soon it will likely be too cold to paint. Plus I want it to be dry so it will be good for our ladies to sleep in that night. 

Here is the inside - we now have two roosts.

 One at 18' and one at 28". 

The thermometer is obviously so we can keep an eye on the inside temperature.

  Here is a view from the opposite side - facing south.

 Looks like someone is in need of privacy! Soon after she laid a lovely perfect egg.

Yay! The "finished product" as it now stands. We realised their run was far too small and they needed more room. We have had to contain them in their coop and run more often for their own safety as our little yard fence in some spots is only 3'  and one day another dog got in our yard! Thankfully, our dog came charging out (likely to play) and scared the other dog away. Phew!  So, we added a dog run to the side which is 6' high and 7x13' which gives them a total of 129 sq ft in their run to play and scratch.  We will add some aviary netting on top of the run to help keep predators out.  We try to be diligent about putting the ladies away promptly at night as their new run extension is NOT predator proof.

Squirrels and Chickens are friends...

Wow, our chickens are friendly. They even let a stranger eat from their food.

Notice how they are just watching the squirrel with interest, but not doing anything. Only time they raise a stink about anything was when the squirrel was caught and tried to get out of the coop (even though the doorway was not obstructed - he must have been a bit disoriented from being afraid of my husband).

Chicken Coop Finished!

Okay, well, not quite.
It is finished on the outside (except for adding hardware cloth to the perimeter - buried under some rocks to keep critters from digging underneath).
But we still need to winterize, add a perch and trim the interior of the windows.











Here you can see a couple of features:
-back window to let the light through, but keep the appearance of a shed from the back view
-gate hardware to close the screen door
-hand sanitizer, just in case children who are visiting handle the chickens (I use it if I have been cleaning out the coop too)







DH put an eavestrough at the back. We still need to add a rain barrel at the side.
I have learned that white is not an appropriate colour for a chicken ramp - I will likely replace this with a different design too so the chicken poo can fall through.

The whole thing is pretty cute - it was of the upmost importance that it not be ugly to our neighbours. So far they seem to approve.

Chicken Coop Update

Things are really shaping up.

We pretty much have the coop finished "enough" that our young ladies can sleep in there. And in the nick of time too, with them being 6 weeks yesterday!

Update ... They are in there sleeping now. Hope they are warm enough as it is supposed to be about 14C tonight.

Chicken Coop Progress

We are progressing well on our coop. However - the chicks are now four weeks old and we are running out of time. But it is ready enough that they can spend some time outside each day as long as it is warm enough. As you can see, the roof is not on yet.

Yesterday was 14C and a bit windy, but they went out anyway for about an hour and a half; they did not want to come in.











Here is the coop - standing. I primed/painted as we went so it would be easier.

















This is the back/side. You can see that it is completely blocked off at the back - it will have windows soon. The idea is to have it look like a shed to passerbys.

We aren't exactly illegal here - but the lack of a by-law doesn't mean that there won't be one passed if neighbours, dog-walkers or other nosies complain.

Actually, we consulted our immediate neighbours first - always a good thing in such cases.

Chicken Coop

Our chickens are fine in their brooder for now, but they will need a real coop when they are about six weeks old.

I set out designing a coop that would be esthetically pleasing, warm, and big enough for four large birds, yet small enough for our tiny backyard.

We will keep you posted on our progress.