Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Building a chicken coop

I haven't posted for a while, but it's not that I've been doing nothing. With the help of a friend (or should I admit: I helped her) I have been building this chicken coop in my back yard.


We started sawing boards that I found in the attic of my shed. This was in the beginning of September. The weather was still excellent for painting several layers to protect the wood.


The coop gradually grew. This was somewhere along the project. I found a building plan on the internet and kept it as simple as I could adding my own touch to it here and there.


We built the coop with good and affordable materials. My friend came up with a lot of stray wood and ironware that could be perfectly re-used.


Meanwhile I read a bit about chickens. Because they originally live in the woods, I decided to make the stairway from branches that I collected in the forest at the foot of the Holterberg.


The perch is also made of a blown off branch. And I designed a custom made air hole ;)


Finally this clever chicken feeder was an idea of Rob Bob on Youtube. It works perfectly: our three chicks arrived last Thursday and they're eating, drinking and sleeping well.