I have to admit, I was surprised and bummed to find that there were so many steps to building even the simplest (box) chicken coop. (Heck, you know I don’t iron or pin my fabric if I think I can get away with it.) You’ve recently read that my mother-in-law talked me into framing the thing. Then I found out it needed a foundation. And “What are you going to do to weatherproof it?” Jeff asked. Good grief!
A trip to Lowe’s for landscaping bricks. Reclaiming the cement sealant I’d bought years ago for the basement floor. Luckily I’d recently acquired some paint since it could double for redoing the front porch.
Then I had to clear out black raspberry canes, weeds, and other detritus. Lay the foundation. Build a rectangle for the base. Fasten the plywood onto it. Add vertical beams. Fasten three sides on (first having cut the exit into the third). (Found a neat trick: rotate the bars for resting the top on so that it has a little bit of ventilation/slope.) Try to fasten the top on with hinges (for easy egg retrieval). The coop was going under the deck, surely I could balance it on the deck’s upright? Nope. Add a hand, a head? Recipe for disaster. Stop. Re-evalute. Rotate the whole darn coop up against the house. Lean the top on the house. Now the hinges will go on. Try to add a board for the nesting box to the fourth (unattached) side. Jeff gets home to help with that part. Exhausted, stop for the day. Pray it doesn’t rain.
