The Chicken Palace
I mentioned in an earlier post that I had planned to only have 4 chickens so I bought a small chicken coop kit to house that sensible number of chickens to be but then apparently chicks are like Pringles – you can’t have just one and our plan for only 4 turned into 14 – don’t judge me!
In order to deal with this complete lack of restraint a larger coop was in order. We decided to reuse what may have been an old dog run that the previous owners had left in the backyard. A nice big 10 x 10 x 6 ft high enclosure with gate – all we had to do was build a coop onto the side of it and we would be off to the races!
Love love my nail gun
After some online research I sketched out the perfect coop for our needs – Eric kept asking for “detailed plans” and I was all like “no need – we can wing it – this will be fun!” Two trips to the hardware store later we were mostly still on speaking terms and we had just about managed to get a basic frame put together.
This Chicken Palace will be hurricane proof due to Eric’s love of lag bolts – this is what happens when you don’t give your husband detailed plans, measurements and front and side elevations LOL
Basic Frame
I had the perfect plan in my head of course but building this in the backyard with a fairly uneven surface was a little tricky – but hey – its for chickens if the floor slants a teeny bit I doubt they will mind!
The first weekend we got the thing mostly framed in before the heat was too much and we went inside to the glorious AC. A busy work week followed and we had no time to touch it.
Rafters up
The following weekend we finished framing in walls and then started on the the roof rafters and shingles – of course we ran out of shingles right at the end but between the heat and the damn mosquitos eating me alive we were done. I had to fly to Phoenix for business for a week so once again we were on hold – the chicks kept getting bigger and we were anxious to get them out of our garage….
Roof Shingles
The following weekend we had stormy weather and all we managed to do was get the doors on – the rest of the time we spent painting the master bedroom (the whispering scribbles could no longer be ignored…)
Doors on
Finally the weekend of the 4th we put our noses to the grindstone and busted it out – these chickens must vacate the garage. The black sex links are escape artists and I would frequently find them running lose around the garage!
Shingles and nestboxes
The heat and humidity are crazy this time of year an naturally everything takes a little longer than you think – frankly we have probably made the Fort Knox of chicken coops due to paranoia that raccoons will eat them LOL I put up some nice cedar shingles since it is in my backyard and I will be looking at it every day I wanted it to be attractive.
Interior view
Finally on Sunday – hot, dirty sweaty, exhausted – we transported the chickens out to their new home and they love it!!! It was fun to watch them explore their new home and find themselves a nice spot for a dustbath – of course we feed them some grapes as a treat 🙂
Whole new world
Chicken liberty – garage reclaimed for humanity – husband and wife still speaking – success all round LOL
Time to explore
spinningpixels 
Love it. And love the pringles analogy. I did manage to give four of our girls to a neighbor but I’m secretly hoping to get 2 Copper Marans (with the really dark almost red eggs) and a couple Aracaunas. I’m thinking pullets but wonder how they would integrate with the existing bunch (not to mention their price)- and we’d also be back up to 14. Our coop isn’t as big as yours.
Can someone please tell me what raccoons are good for? They are our biggest predator along with minx.
Great chicken house here. Looks completely level to me:)
Thanks Wendy – I am so glad to have it finally done – I would love some Marans or Aracaunas too and some Silkies – but I am going to sit back and relax for a bit now. As for Raccoons – they sure are cute but I will not let them eat my chickens!!!