Souping Up The Chicken Coop

I'm running to catch up on a number of blog posts for this week. This post is all coop baby. Tom Builder is a born natural at many, MANY things, but there is one thing I can always count on...phenomenal construction skills. I realize just how much I think like a girl when it comes to moments like this. And how limited I am spatially.

Tom Builder listened carefully to my list of needed upgrades to convert one of our barn stalls into a predator proof chicken coop, and then headed down to the stall with pen and paper. Thirty minutes later, he was back making final calculations on the amount of lumber needed. It would have taken me a week of obsessing to arrive at that same junction, with many errors close on my tail. And the small ideas I provide Mr. Incredible turn into bigger, much more substantial ideas. More than once this week, you could hear me saying, "I'm getting that? Cool!! I was thinking it would be like this...".

So last weekend, we worked on the coop, and we worked on the coop some more. There was a lot of coopin' going on. For good reason. There is a lot of poopin' going on in the TV box, and my nose can hardly stand it anymore. The girls are over 5 weeks old, and starting to out grow their welcome in the house. In the name of Knucker Hatch spirit, we tried to involve the whole family as much as possible in the building experience.

Jack was all about the guy stuff: measuring, making cuts, handing tools to Dad as needed. If Dad was at the coop, he had to be down there too. Grace was our cheerleader, always giving out a "That looks great!", or "Perfect fit, Dad!". When not handing out complements, she could be found hammering nails into spare wood pieces. Faith, was always quick to alert the family when a stray nail or tool dropped, with her new "Uh, Oh."


Predator proofing was an essential, that has involved rivers of sweat in the sweltering heat, yards and yard of 12 gauge hardware cloth, an additional ceiling, and 1 million staples. The entire stall is being wired in, so that the girls can sleep at night without having to worry about the coons, foxes, dogs, rats and snakes. The only thing we are not wiring is the floor, which has me a little concerned about something deciding to go on a digging spree underneath the floor to get to the chickens. The chicken coop already has a name due to the amount of metal going in, and the caged in feeling it exudes: The Panic Room.

In addition to the ceiling, Tom Builder added an entirely new door to go behind the stall doors so that the girls could enjoy peace and safety with fresh air in the evenings. I have since lined both sides of the door with hardware fabric. We finish up the coop this weekend, and I can hardly wait. I'm excited for the chickens, and I'm happy to have a chicken dust free house again soon. After this, we will begin a new project devoted to chicken raising: The Chicken Tractor.