The Finished Coop

Hi there!
Well, we finally finished the chicken coop remodel.

If you didn't see the before and during pictures, go here.

This is the outside including the chicken run.  Mr. M put hardware cloth over the window so that when it's open, predators can't get in.  The window is one that was in the old front porch on the house; we stored all the windows in the barn when we remodeled the porch.  We also put a 4 foot wide covering right outside the door to keep snow from piling up there.  The roof of the machine shed, which shares one side with the coop, is metal, so snow tends to slide right off it and ends up in front of the door to the coop. 

Looking out the door, with nest boxes on the right.  We brought these up from the previous coop.  There are ten, which will be way too many for the number of hens we'll have, but it is all one unit so that's what we have.

The walls and ceiling are boards from our barn.  We looked around by the woods and found some dead elm and box elder branches which Mr. M made into a roost.  It fits with the rustic look of the coop.  I guess the floor isn't very rustic, but it's some leftover vinyl flooring that a neighbor donated to us.  It will make cleaning the coop much easier than if we had not covered the plywood at all. 

This is where we store the chicken feed.  That window makes a huge difference on the inside of the coop.

The feeders are in place.


Now all we have to do is get the waterer back in as well as some straw, and the coop will be ready for chickens.  Our plan now is to get a few young meat chickens that will be ready for the freezer before it gets too cold this winter.  Then in the spring we'll buy some chicks that will be kept to give us eggs when they are old enough--the hens that is; the roosters will probably go in the freezer.  Maybe someday we'll want to raise our own chicks, but for now we don't need roosters.

We are very excited that we were able to complete this almost totally with materials we already had on hand.  I think the chickens will find it to be a nice home.

Also linking up with http://www.fresh-eggs-daily,com/2013/08/from-farm-blog-hop_30.html