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.
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.