Chicken Coop Update

We purchased an acre from our neighbors and fenced it in last year. It had two barns on it - one of which we took down because the roof was collapsing and it needed a lot of work. The other was on the back of the acreage and it has been a good investment. We used the corner of the barn to build a coop for our chickens. I have been so impressed with my husband on this project. He had a friend come over to help him frame it in and get a majority of it built. Over the weekend he built roosting bars and did some shaker type siding inside the coop and above the outer wall. I love how it turned out!!

A friend of ours recommended The Best Nest Box so we purchased the one that can accommodate up to 50  chickens and installed it in the coop. Essentially the legs lay in the box on the other side of the wall, then the eggs roll down onto a little mat and we come in and retrieve clean eggs by lifting the metal piece shown above. I am looking forward to some clean eggs at the end of the summer. 

I love my husbands vision for the roosting bars. He made them to be able to lift up and he is adding a hook so we can literally lift the roosting bars, put them on the overhead hook, and clean up. Genius!! My son really enjoyed helping him on this. 

Another part of the project was creating a path from our house/ parking pad to the chicken coop. There's a road behind the barn but it would be a long walk to retrieve eggs everyday and do chores. In the pouring rain, he cut a path in our tree line and laid some slabs of stone. It turned out so beautiful. He also added some pea gravel in between the slabs to make it a little safer to walk on.

The next steps for the coop will be adding the main door, getting all the flooring ready with hemp bedding, sand, etc and then working on the outdoor run for them. The entire field is fenced in but we have so many hawks and even bald eagles out here so I am little nervous to let them free range without us watching them.