Coop Construction

Well, it finally happened. Mackenzie wore me down and talked me into getting chickens. She's been trying to hatch (get it?) this scheme for quite some time, citing the numerous benefits of raising chickens, including fresh eggs (which I won't eat), free, fresh manure (which I could do without), and feathered fun (we'll see about that one).

But what really attracted me to the idea was the opportunity to do a little carpentry work. Shortly after we moved into our house five years ago, we built a shed in our backyard to add some much needed storage space. Since then, the only real carpentry work I've done is building our raised veggie beds (not much to it). So as we thumbed through book after book from the library about raising chickens, I started getting excited about the challenge designing and building a coop.

While all the books have proven informative, the most helpful by far, in terms of coop construction, has been Building Chicken Coops for Dummies. It provides both basic carpentry tips and tricks, as well as specifics on must-haves and luxury items for chicken coops. We went with a fairly basic plan with a few modifications to utilize the location we chose.

So this morning I made the first of what I'm sure will be many trips to Home Depot to gather some supplies and tools to get this project started. My goal for the day was to get the coop framed and placed on the concrete pier blocks. Cutting the boards and building the frame didn't take too long (after a second trip to Home Depot to get the right kind of nails), but leveling the concrete pier blocks took some time. But I was still able to get as far along as I'd hoped.

Check out the pics below and stay tuned for more updates from Mackenzie on the chicks themselves, which we hope to buy at the end of March, as well as my progress on the coop.