AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Sorry this is quite long and there are multiple pictures. Thought some of you would be interested.

Had I known chickens would be so addictive I would have planned ahead. Apparently our council permits 12 chickens per residence. 12! I thought that was ridiculous. 3 at the most. I converted an old desk I got from work for $5 into a coop and attached it to the outside of a run 5m by 3m.

Now this addiction was strong and I was soon checking the net for other breeds of interest. My first three girls are Barred Plymouth rocks and when one of them went broody I managed to get a dozen eggs sent to me in the mail for her to incubate. 6 light sussex from one person and 6 speckled sussex from another. From this I ended up with 9 chicks, which soon turned into 2 month old trouble makers who took to roosting on top of the existing coop, not happy to stay in their first residence once their mother deserted them to return to the old coop. This resulted in the less than desirable upgrade below.

Now I am lucky to have a builder for a father and after much cajoling he agreed to spare me one day to help build a new coop, based on a plan I found on the net. He scoffed a bit at the "fancy" design. From previous experience I knew it would be built more to the design in his head than the one I had found. As long as it gives me the space and a few features I was after I was cool with that. Planning ahead for maximum bird numbers, I already know the breeds in line for the next broody. Five of my first hatch were roosters and I got rid of of them.

Okay one day was a bit ambitious. Here is the progress so far.

The clear out is done and the build can begin. I'm enlarging the run at the same time. Why not!

Posts to attach the floor and new roof are done. The dog (sorry about the action shot) and some of the girls are checking out the updates.
Now I did say Dad had agreed to one day. As luck would have it building a chicken coop held more appeal than his other options. Yay! So I got a second day.

Floor is in and the back wall (where the nest boxes are going)is done. Roof is on. Just three walls, a door, couple of windows, roosts, etc etc to do.

Now my Dad is awesome and thinks he can come back Friday, as luck would have it I have the day off. I have been waiting several years for the completion of some jobs, but I have hope. That and he saw how unsettled the girls were with this change in their accommodations. They were freaking a bit (except the one that sleeps in the neighbours tree.) I have to escort them to their temporary night accommodation and they weren't happy about it.

I'll add some pictures of the completed coop when it's done. Fingers crossed it's only a three day job and Dad's still free on Friday.

This last shot is from the other side and gives a better look at the back wall. The coop isn't the size of the whole wall but I didn't have enough wire and this will help shade the nest boxes.

Jo

Looks good to me. My attempts to build a coop ended with the strong wind the blew off the roof so I admire you skills

well done really starting to take shape an looking good , we all start sum where {ps} when is the plan to move to a bigger block to get more chooks coming { trust me it will } cheers n beers gary

Don't worry, I keep buying lotto tickets.
Then no-one will be able to stop me.