We have coop. Phase one.

The stars aligned. The materials, materialized. And last Saturday, the coop came to be. It all started like many Saturday mornings do. I made some tea and went out to the back yard to enjoy the tea and watch the chickens. They were still living in the Rubbermaid coop in the garage and like to get the outside time and eat grass and seeds and bugs. I then wanted to keep them over in the grass area for a while so I moved their cardboard transporting box, but that still left about a three foot gap. I then went into the garage to look for a piece of wood or a piece of something to fill that gap. Then I saw them, purchased over ten years ago, the left over stainless steel shelves from the shelves we bought at Costco. I grabbed one and brought it out back. It worked like a champ. I then thought. I have two of these, and these would make perfect sides for the coop. It all came together in my mind. It literally is almost the exact length of the grass area we have. And if I make the middle part two feet wide, it will be almost the exact size of the width of the grass area. Two feet is also the width of the wire material I bought with the floor of the coop in mind. It was all coming together. Now time for action.

I brought the shelves back out to the garage and took a quick mental inventory of the wood. My first thought and first hurdle was how was I going to affix the wooden frames to the metal shelves. I started down this road of what nuts and bolts do I have or what would I need to go to Home Depot or Lowes to get. Then it hit me. Like a ton of redneck bricks. Zip ties. Simple, strong, adaptable, on hand and paid for. A few cuts later I had the top and side frame pieces cut to length. A few zips and trims and I was hyper impressed. On to the surface.

For the surface I was going to use leftover pieces of the replaced deck. I just needed to cut them to length and standardize the width. Many of them were cupped from repeated harsh sun and wet cycles over the past year. I wanted them to lay nice and flat and tight, but how. It then hit me like a ton of yankee bricks. Wet wood. Wet wood is much more flexible. Just as you would soak your reed for those basket weavers out there. Raise your hands. Mom, I see your hand. Any others? Well, anyway. I just happened to have acquired a little kiddie pool. I filled it up with water, and started to throw my cut pieces in the water. This is when Geneva really started to “help.” She, still in her long sleeve and long pant pajamas, started to stand on top of the wood in the pool like a very unstable raft. A few wobbles later, pants wet, and then she sits on her raft. Wet butt. In the end, wet everything. But her fun meter, it was pegged. As was her smile meter. Sorry, no photos available of the raft.

Once my cutting was done, I got a nice drink of ice water. Now on to the build. I just started to screw and glue. This puppy was going to be as solid as possible. Big screws into the ripped 2 x 4 and little screws into the 1.5 x .5, and glue all around. It came together nicely and fairly quickly. Only hiccup was to cut three custom widths to finish it up. Easy.

Then it was done. Just like that. I carried it to the back yard. It does have a little weight to it, but not that bad. I put it in it's place. Put the waterer and feeder under. Threw the rotting spaghetti squash under. And last but not least, scooped up Princess and Fairy and inserted them into their new home. Oh, I also zip tied another piece of wood across on the inside. Makeshift perch.

 

Fairy chilling

It's now Tuesday night. Everything is still working like a champ. The birds are working out their 8 square feet of grass fairly well. Pecking and scratching away. Eating the grass and whatever other food scraps we throw in there.

I am calling this coop phase one. That is intentional and with good reason. The plan for phase two is building a base for the coop about a foot or so high. I plan on putting the wire on the bottom for the poop to fall through as much as possible. I am then going to place some sort of catch tray below that to catch the poop so it can be removed from the area to lower the smell factor. Then phase three, I plan to make an access door on one end and a nesting box on the other end. Timeline, soon.

That was a lot about the construction of the coop. The update on the birds. They are getting bigger. They fight over bugs. They are not as much fun and don’t like to be held as much. That is the update for now. Thanks for reading.