Written by Heather Zubiate
Aww...this brings back memories! This is the first
coop I built with my son back in 2013! What a pain in the butt that was! As you know, I absolutely HATE construction! But I will suffer through it to get what I want. In this case, a little chicken coop! Not bad, if I do say so myself. But as with all things, time takes it's toll, and the lil coop is more shabby than chic. This sweet lil coop is really showing it's age. Since I've have the desire to expand my operation, naturally this little coop was in need of a makeover! Here I go again! This will of course involve some... construction!
I steeled myself against what I knew was going to be nothing but pain and agony. I am a tortured artist, dear reader. I torture myself when I create, I don't know why, it's just what I do.
coop I built with my son back in 2013! What a pain in the butt that was! As you know, I absolutely HATE construction! But I will suffer through it to get what I want. In this case, a little chicken coop! Not bad, if I do say so myself. But as with all things, time takes it's toll, and the lil coop is more shabby than chic. This sweet lil coop is really showing it's age. Since I've have the desire to expand my operation, naturally this little coop was in need of a makeover! Here I go again! This will of course involve some... construction!
I steeled myself against what I knew was going to be nothing but pain and agony. I am a tortured artist, dear reader. I torture myself when I create, I don't know why, it's just what I do.
As you can see, dear reader, the little coop had seen much better days. I had my husband and my son Timothy bring it over here, to it's new home behind our garage so I could lavish some well deserved TLC upon it, and some colorful metaphors. Sorry, I'm really working on that--really, I am! As you can see the roof must have been leaking and the trim is shot too.
*Deep Sigh* All I could see was A LOT of work was ahead of me. I knew I wanted to give it taller legs, and I needed to give it much more ventilation. I read, or heard somewhere that you need at least 5% of the coops surface area to be dedicated to ventilation. As you can see, those tiny little holes were not cutting it. I wanted to give it a fresh coat of paint, and better trim. I originally used cedar bender board for the trim, as it was cheap. It curled as soon as it dried out in the hot So.Cal sun, which didn't take long. Another BIG mistake not to be repeated. And of course, it needed a good cleaning. I started with the cleaning and giving it more ventilation, and a fresh coat of paint. I knew making it taller was going to be... eh, involved! I couldn't remember how I attached the legs, so that would require some investigation.
So much better already! What a good cleaning and some paint will do? And I actually used a jigsaw to cut bigger ventilation holes after I removed the screens. I was so glad that I had cut the screens so big! I didn't have to replace them to accommodate the larger vents, I simply re-stapled them back in place. I left the back vent holes the way they were, partly for nostalgia, and mostly because it was going to be a pain to cut out, and it's very busy back there now. That is also the low end of the roof, so I didn't want any leaking issues with wind driven rain. Yes, we get some rain -- sometimes. Now for those legs!
Not only were the old legs too short, they were also half rotten. So they really had to go. I used pressure treated 2x4's this time and I put them on concrete bricks. This may change, but for now, it is what it is. Did I mention that I had to nearly take this newly cleaned and painted coop apart just to get the legs off? Yeah, I was SO happy about that! At least I was able to clean the nooks and crannies I couldn't reach before I put it back together. I never wanna see another one of those, what are those things?-- silver fish? -- uh huh huh! I also stripped off the roofing, as it was leaking anyway. When I built it, I barely had enough asphalt shingles to cover the roof, and I didn't use any drip edge. BIG mistake! Huge! A mistake I didn't care to repeat. I had left over shingles from the birdhouse library I made for my husband's aunt, and after generously shingling the coop's roof, I had one piece left!
The egg box was going to get a makeover, and I decided to shingle it too. The question I was wrestling with was if I should have it open from the top, or have the front drop down. The easiest would be to just keep it the way it was, a top hinge, and shingle it. Even though it would be a lot heavier, the good thing was, it would be a lot heavier. That way no thieving vermin could open it up. But then again, it would be hard for any predator to reach it now with its taller legs.
Well, here she IS!-- the new and improved coop 2.0! I used cedar fence boards ripped in half for edging, stained in redwood. The look is smart and beefier. And I put the hinges on the little hen door on the side instead of on the top. And of course, the ventilation is much larger.
Here you can see the roof line now has brown drip edge. I hope this will help direct water away for when it does rain here. Again I noticed some evidence hat the roof leaked some last year. Again, more ventilation for my girls. Since I'll have 10 birds in here, they will need a good deal of ventilation to stay healthy.
The little egg box received its own roof this year, drip edge, and I reinstalled the dinky bit of scrap gutter to help protect the hinge side of the lid from water. Will it work? I don't know, we'll see. The lid is VERY heavy now, so there is no need to latch it. I don't know of any animal that could get past this barrier! I just hope the handle lasts.
The roosts are a work in progress. I'm hoping they will accommodate 10 girls, but then some may not like to roost up on the bar. My other flock? Most of the girls "roost" on the coop floor. All that hard work I put in to make their lovely new roost. Oh well. Also in the works is fencing in their run area. All in good time, but I have 4 weeks to complete this project, the lil peepers are growing bigger every day!