Ok...I dont have a lot of time to type...but I said I would share pictures, so here they are. We are still waiting to get the rest of the matching tin..so that front wall we used scrap of a different color. I have a big window that is going to go in after we get the rest of the tin...and a small door and ramp for my chickies.
This shows some of the concrete that I burried. It is on top of that 2-3 feet of chicken wire and goes out (except for this one piece) at least 18 in from the wall of the coop.
This shows the steel fence and if you look under the hen house you can see that I even burried that chicken wire...concrete...and 3in rock under THAT just in case. I even installed a nice drainage system while i was at it.
Installed the pop out windows so they only open into the enclosed run...notice the chicken wire over the top as well?? Eh??? Eh????
Talk about the nicest front door on a chicken coop EVER! We took this door off of Ryan's parents house...they havent seen what we used their door for yet. Hahahaha...
looking good, mcamden. you have a LOT of energy.
cement floor in the coop?
And this is the inside. Ryan build those nesting boxes, and he was very proud. We made them to were we can add more later and them lower the whole contraption. They even have access from the outside...through a door we havent built.
Melissa, Yours is one of the most well built and expensive looking back yard chicken sheds I've seen. I built another one this spring for our hens (the previous hen house was too nice and 4 times too large. The new 8 X 8 ft structure 7 ft tall in the front and 6 ft in the back. We covered it with corrugated metal. So far we have no window .... just a doorway that has a screen door (it fills both purposes). The floor is dirt. Digging animals can dig into our hen house or walk through the other little doorway. Skunks are the only animals that try to dig their way into our chicken compound. The skunks still have to navigate through an external fence line (they can/do dig under it too). I have 4 ft roosting bars and I get no feedback from the hens on how many skunks come visiting at night. I collect the eggs daily around 4 pm so the skunks get nothing. I know they dig in to visit but the repeated empty nests likely have dissuaded their visits to a great extent. I have to go out and fill in the holes under the fence line and bury the fence line where it becomes exposed a few times every year. 1 nest box will take care of 4 hens. I check the fence line every few months ..... and especially in the fall. Ryan did a nice job for your poultry. There are too many American humans living in less reliable housing.
Great set up !!!!!
You could put a small roost on the other side of the "peep hole" in the door....lol, couldn't resist !!
~Julie =0)
That's a really nice looking coop. You all did a great job.
Thanks...we thought the nice door was pretty funny. It even has Ryan's (and soon to by my) last name on a gold nameplate! We are going to making another to go below it that says "Hen house'. We joked about turning the peep hole around so we could see in too! I switched the deadbolt so we lock it from the outside as well. After we get the big window in the front it will be VERY nice I think. The floor is a drop in, and removable floor...so if we ever have to move it for any reason.
Orange chicken 'crowing hen' sure seems to like it...and even stays inside in the mornings for a while. He/She loves to sit up on the perch and look out the window. Darn spoiled chickens! :)
Melissa, I just realized that you're in Glenwood, Mills County, IA. My grandfather and his 7 siblings were born there ca. 1879-2002. I have a copy of his birth certificate dated 1896. His dad (my gr grandfather) was employed at the State School for the Deaf & Blind as a dairy herdsman there in Glenwood. They all left there in 1904 shortly after my gr grandmother died. My grandfather moved north into South Dakota where my dad was born in the 1920's and later after graduating from HS my dad moved west to Seattle, WA when WW II began. I was born out here in Seattle 11 yrs later just up the hill in a neighborhood that is called 1st Hill ..... a mile east and a mile north of the stadium where the Seattle Mariners play baseball.
Oh...quite a small world after all! Yes...I drive past the Iowa school for the deaf every day to and from work. We live up in the Loess hills...and the elavation is so great its like living on a mountain...and driving down to the valley every day to work! My ears still pop every single day! Glenwood is very nice. Big family! Most everyone from here has big families. Ryan's mother was one of 17 children!
Great looking house! Now hire an armed guard and install a couple high powered spotlights and nothing will get near them!! LOL (that last part was a bad joke!)
I like you door! When we build our hen house (10x10 shed retro fitted for chooks) I bought two lil vinyl windows for a cross vent. We are going to paint it for now and then side it to match our house next spring.
Good luck with finishing it I am sure it will finish up beautiful!.
