Daleville Diaries: Coop Building Part 2

Another big weekend of construction out here!

The first weekend was largely measuring, cutting and starting the assembly. In that first weekend the coop team completed two sides. This weekend the team got all four sides up as well as the roof and insulation. Its a pretty intense process, but there's a lot that goes into coop consideration.

I hate that I ruined this picture with a closeup of my hand.

Our area experiences all four seasons, so we have to prepare for cold winters, wet springs, hot summers and breezy autumns. Not to mention the constant onslaught of wind we face regardless of the season. The biggest rule when building a chicken coop is preventing any dampness or chill from getting inside. We are doing this by insulating the walls which will retain heat in the winter for those cold nights. We also added a vapor barrier so that the inside of the coop will stay toasty and dry.

Another big part of this task was assembling the nesting boxes. We have five chickens currently but we don't actually need 5 nesting boxes. We just need enough boxes so that the girls won't fight over them or be able to chose a "favorite" which leads to a lot of issues, not the least of which is egg-breaking/eating. Chickens may accidentally break an egg, discover that they can eat it, then figure out that they can break it themselves with their beaks. Once they learn that behavior the only way to stop them from doing it is to remove them from the flock. Permanently. Did I mention that if you don't catch them fast enough they'll teach the skill to the other chickens? Yep, that happens.

I basically made these myself. I may have had some guidance.

So three nesting boxes for five chickens should be enough, we hope.

Anyhow, the only bit of the coop we have left to do is the floor and final wall before we start on finishing touches and the run.

In the mean time, the chicks are getting huge! They're just over three weeks old and they're already starting to look like small chickens! Our Orpington named Gerty, the fuzzy yellow chick, is the biggest one. She's always been a little larger than the others which makes sense since she'll be the biggest chicken weighing in at about eight pounds (although potentially she could weigh up to ten). The other birds are not far behind, most will reach about six or seven pounds by adulthood with the smallest one, our Americauna, Pearl, getting to only five or six pounds.

Even cute little chicks like Gerty go through an awkward phase.

I recently expanded their brooder and had to put wire over top to contain them as they discover their wings. We also added a small roosting bar for them to practice their roosting.

Brooder-topia! You can see the roosting bar in the bottom box.

As adults they'll perch on a bar when they sleep. This is a behavior that dates back to their chicken ancestors' habit of sleeping up in trees at night to stay out of reach of predators.