Layla and Orietta
For Layla's 6th birthday she received 2 baby chicks from her friend. Well, 2 turned into 11! We just kept adding to our flock because they were too stinkin' cute! We will be finding a new home for some our chickens because some of our gals turned out to be guys. LOL.
They have grown and grown....here is my oldest son Rylan being a chick magnet.
After 8 weeks living in a horse trough inside our home, we finally got around to realizing they needed a home of their own. :) We googled chicken coops galore and even visited some in real life. We finally came to a decision on how we wanted our coop to be designed. Living life in the ministry means we have very little extra money to spend on things like chicken coops, so the most important factor had to be cost. We decided to make it our goal to make the perfect coop as free as we can, so that means RECYCLED!
Today we went collecting free materials. God is good. I love how he surprises us with little blessings along the way! The Auto Shop that my son, Nolan, apprentices at offered us as many free wooden pallets and plywood that we needed! How awesome is that! In addition, another friend donated cinder blocks to help get our coop up off the ground. So, today we completed Step 1: The Foundation
Step 1:Foundation
Step 2: Flooring and Walls
We decided to put down linoleum on top of the plywood for two reasons:
1. Better insulation
2. Easy to clean with a water hose which means less odor than just plywood soaking up urine and feces through the straw bedding.
We got a great deal for a very large oddly shaped remnant of linoleum from a local flooring place. This was the first real cost of our chicken coop, but I believe it will be a good investment in the care and maintenance of our coop in the long run. Plus, it is a nice gray color that really will bring out the color in our chickens. Just kidding. I don't think the chicken will care. Linoleum cost =$30
Gideon was an awesome helper today. He laid out and stapled down the linoleum flooring for me and did and awesome job too! He said the electric stapler made him feel powerful. lol. ..BOYS. :P
After the flooring was complete, I began working on the walls, while Gideon worked on what will be the door to the chicken coop.
We only got half of the walls up today. Tomorrow I'll post pictures of our finished walls.
Step 3: Completed walls and started on the roof framing.
Mr.Feather (rooster) and some of his gals hanging out watching us build their new home.
Today we got started late and had to stop early due to Youth Group, but we did get some work done!
Framing the roof! We did have to purchase four 8 ft 2x4 = $10
Our chicken coop project is almost done. ALMOST. It just needs a roof, the side pallet spaces covered, and some pretty paint. The roof in the picture is not connected. We haven't decided what we are using for the roof yet. It has been a fun project for Gideon and me. All of my other kiddos gave up and left us. lol. However, Gideon says to me yesterday, " Mom, I'm glad we unschool. If I was in a desk all day I'd never have learned all of the things I'm learning." I said, "What have you learned?" He said, "All kinds of things. I never knew how to build something...different size drill bits...how to use a saw... build a foundation..or put on a door. It has all been very cool! Our chickens are gonna love it!" Since I am 8.5 months pregnant, Gideon has been the worker and I've been like the foreman (sitting and directing). lol. We are taking a break today. I am beat up, cut up, bruised up, and sunburned. Wondering if these chicks are worth it all? lol The mommy/son time and learning experience, for us both, definitely has been worth it though!
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Layla modeling our nesting crates and perches we created for our chickens inside their coop. |
All done and Mr. Rooster and his gals are loving it! Just needs some purty paint. :)
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