The Chicken Coop

In mid-March we bought 10 two week old red pullet chicks so that we can soon have fresh, free-range, organic eggs and know the chickens they came from are very well taken care of and healthy.  We kept them in the garage for a few weeks, but once they started to try to fly we knew we had to get their chicken coop built quick!  A couple of weeks ago my dad came over to help Jason build the chickens a nice home.  We already had a 10 x 10 dog pen for their run area and built the coop on the outside of the pen to give the chickens the most running space we could.  ( All of this is also enclosed within a quarter acre 4 board horse fenced area with wire mesh - aka The Dog Yard. ) We based our plans from this coop and it turned out quite nicely!  I still need to paint it, but these photos will give a good idea of how it was built and how it turned out.  They seem to love it!  We open their hatch every morning and put them back up every evening around sun-down.  They pretty much put themselves back in the coop when we walk into the pen in the evenings, but sometimes we do have to capture a straggler or two.  I can't wait for farm fresh eggs!  Just a couple more months...