Chicken Coop Before

The spring before last we added four new chickens to our flock, which meant the coop I had built for the first bunch was too small. So that summer break we built a new, and much bigger coop.

Coop #1

Coop #2

Of course we finished the main structure of the coop the day before Vince had to go back to school. At this point the coop had no real roof, no warm indoor area, only a temporary roosting rod, and we set the old nesting box on the floor so they had something. Over the next couple weekends we added the roof (which took longer since I mismeasured… big time) and the nesting boxes. The nesting boxes first were 5 gallon buckets they hated, which were replaced with ugly blue plastic storage boxes with cutouts.

Thanks to school and wedding planning the next thing I knew it was Halloween and the temp was supposed to drop to below freezing that night. I rushed home after school and frantically put up something to block wind and keep them warm. It was supposed to be temporary, but it remained all through the winter.

This spring I added a vine outside to add more shade because I could tell the sun was bothering them, but I did nothing to fix the indoor.

However, my mom just got back from Round Top Texas and found a pretty nesting box for the coop, and now its finally time to fix the indoor coop.

Here is what the inside looked like after I took the outer wall down and set the new nesting box in there. Not very pretty….

Also notice all the places the dogs broke into the coop, not to hurt the chickens but to hang out. 

Stay tuned for the after.