Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Chicken coop Part...who knows?!




















































































































































Poor John is so O.V.E.R this whole coop thing! What started out to be a simple new 8 x 10 coop has turned into a major undertaking. We ended up having to replace the corner posts on the old coop because after 15 years in the ground, they had rotted and the coop had sunk 3 feet and it was not stable enough for me to be going in and out. So John jacked each corner up, pulled out the old post and re-dug the hole so he could put the new posts in. Now we've just spent the last 2 days getting the old coop re-chicken wired and new doors built. Not one, not two but THREE doors so we can isolate chickens if need be. We have a door going into the new coop. Then we have a door going into the old coop. We have a door at one end of the breezeway and another door between the original old coop and the addition that we put on it 3 months after we built the original coop 15 years ago. John still has to make a roost for the old coop, but other than that, we are done! He let me cut the last few wires on the new coop going into the breezeway. Survivor, who may yet get her name changed again to Queen Biotch if she won't leave the babiez alone was the first one to explore the breezeway. The little girls have been a bit slower to explore. It won't take them long though!


We had to put the new coop off to the side of the old one because of the pine trees and roots. Hence the breezeway! I keep teasing John about laying tile in the breezeway. That's the ONE home improvement job he did once and said never again! You see I look over my glasses when I'm doing up close work! I ended up taking them off. I am "stitching" the chicken wire together with long pieces of wire so the outside kritters can't get thru where it joins together. I thought the little girls were too cute when all but one (either Penguin or Joker, I still can't tell 'em apart!) were up on the pine branch perch that Survivor sleeps on at night. And I had to get one of Survivor when she wasn't chasing and pecking at the little girls. Then there's the bumble bee. The pissed off bumble bee. He/she has a very nice home that they had worked on for a loooong time in the beams of the old coop. Well, we've sprayed it once or twenty times to kill the mites. And the bumble bee can't get to the home because of the spray. But it's determined. It keeps trying. It's been trying to bore a new hole in the new coop, but the cypress is still too wet and he/she can't get good purchase to start the hole. John is getting the last outside door hung. You can kinda see from that angle how close the pine tree is and why we had to jog the new coop back further. Finally I cut the last few wires and the girls get to inspect their new digs!

1 comment:

Debbie DP said...

wow that is a huge chicken coop