From start to finish...
We were given our chickens in April this year from my husband's sister. We were not prepared at the time and decided to keep them in the small fenced in area in our side yard. It was okay until somehow one of the chickens got loose. We began building the chicken coop as fast as we could. I learned very quickly that chickens do not listen or want to be round up easily. I'm not entirely sure what I thought they would be like, but needless to say, I was surprised.
My husband came up with a rough plan of how to build the chicken coop beside my garden. One day, we would like to collect rain from the slanted tin roof of the chicken coop and conserve it for the garden. The back wall was completely boarded up, and the other three were simply chicken wire. The floor was just the grass. We quickly learned that the floor was going to be a problem. The chickens loved to take their dirt baths on the ground, which I loved, but they were getting to the point of digging under the walls almost. I decided to give them something else to do by buliding a couple of different roosts, which worked for a while, but we knew we needed to give them a different flooring eventually.
Their nesting box was propped up high. We gave them a little walkway, but it was too steep. We had to readjust and bring it down lower so they would feel more comfortable for laying. This, too, ened up being a problem later on (they apparently needed more privacy). We had a predator of some sort break through the chicken wire four different times. This led us to boarding up the remaining three walls and elevated the floors.
As if things weren't chaotic enough, we decided to get more chickens. I had them delivered to us, and we kept them in a brooder box while we made the updates to the chicken coop. When I introduced them to the hens, they weren't so friendly. So, I decided to keep the chicks in an old dog kennels inside the chicken coop to protect them for a few weeks. Next, I moved some fencing inside the chicken coop to seperate them. Now, they are all in there together and doing just fine.
Needless to say, we went in blind and didn't know what we were doing. However, the chickens are pretty forgiving, and we have managed to set them up with a nice chicken coop that is protecting them perfectly now. I have just recently added a light to help keep them laying eggs through the winter (not in the video). I will be posting about this and more in the near future. I hope this helps anyone considering getting chickens or making changes to their coop!
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