Which Came First?

In the case of our chickens and their proper housing, the answer would unfortunately be the chickens.  Having raised 3 chicks from day-old before, neither of us were worried about handling a new group of young, locally grown chicks.  We had settled on 16 chicks (8 Australorp, 8 Welsummer), knowing we would likely have several roosters in the bunch.  We needed to make sure we had enough hens for the egg production we hoped for.  We also knew we would need to raise them in the house, as we have no secure outbuildings, but certainly we would have a coop and run ready for them by the time they had feathered out......?

I picked up our 16 chicks from a hobby farm south of us in Duncan, in the first week of April.  We settled them in a Rubbermaid container with food, water, and a heat lamp, and watched them be adorable peeping balls of fluff.

While they spent most of their time eating, pooping, scratching shavings into their water and sleeping - keeled over on their faces for a lot of the time - we planned and built a larger brooder for them to inhabit.

We built big, knowing that in the future we would likely be using it for 40-50 chicks over several weeks' time, and designed it with a divider down the middle to allow for more options with brooding different groups, or for use with a couple of broody hens if needed.  It's assembled with bolts, so it can be stored relatively flat when not in use.

Then, we got started on the 'real' chicken house.  This is the last project to be started in our scary workshop before the building is demolished - it's the flattest spot on the property, given the cement floor, so I'm not sure how we'll manage until we've saved enough to build again.  We assembled the base of the house, covered with linoleum for ease of cleaning, and mocked up the wall framing as best we could so that we could assemble it on site.

We built nest boxes to attach off the back of the house so they won't take up valuable floor space. The build is roughly 8x4, minus the frame, so the maximum capacity for this coop should be about 10 chickens.  We're temporarily housing more while we 'audition' roosters.  There is an attached 10x20 run we've covered with 2-inch stucco wire, to provide them a space protected from the ravens, eagles, and goshawks that might find them a little too interesting. There are also mink and raccoons to think about - even bear and cougars - but we've constructed the coop itself to lock down rather tight at night, and raised it off the ground to prevent digging in.  One can hope that there are other sources of food that would be less trouble to access.  Once the flock has learned where to eat and drink, and roost at night, we can carefully give them daytime access to the additional area outside their run, enclosed by electric net fencing.  Hopefully the rooster we select to keep will be good at keeping an eye out for predators, and there are trees and space under the rabbit hutches in the enclosure for the chickens to find cover if they need it.

In order to prepare the site for the coop, we spent quite a bit of time digging, leveling, and scratching our heads.  I bought a bigger level, just to get it right.

Which only served to show us just how off level everything else is....

Trim work and paint went a long way towards making the coop presentable, and giving it the illusion of being square.  We've added 1x4 boards at the doors, to keep shavings and poop inside the coop until clean out, and we will be adding plastic bins to the nesting boxes, for ease of cleaning.

The wired run is now attached to the front of the coop, and hardware cloth and 2-inch square wire surround the base, to give the chickens a dry covered place for dustbathing in the heat of the day.  The enclosure wire extends 6 or more inches out from the bottom, and is screwed tight to the frame, then pounded into the ground with tent pegs.  Hopefully this will discourage digging by any predators curious enough to make their way past the electrified perimeter.

The chickens are outside and loving it now - and it only took us 2 months to get things sorted out.  Word to the wise - keeping 16 chickens in the living room is not an ideal situation.  Oh, and the current estimate is that we have 6 hens and 10 roosters.  It's going to be interesting.