A Chicken Coop Raising

You’ve probably heard of a barn raising, right? Friends come over, help build your barn, and maybe have a hoe-down afterwords? Well, this weekend we had ourselves a chicken coop raising. Since a chicken coop is considerably smaller than a barn, we only needed one friend to come over and help raise the walls. We did not have a hoe-down, but I think a rowdy chicken coop party will be in order when it’s finished. I’m sure you’ve heard mention of these super-deluxe chicken coop plans in every post I’ve written for a while now, and Corey finally set the project in motion this fall with a floor and framed walls. I would like to say I had a hand in this, but I’ve been so busy working, driving two teenagers around, and trying to keep up with Mountain Hearth Handcrafts, that just putting leaves on the garden was my biggest homesteading accomplishment of the fall. I was really proud of myself. Seriously.

So, while I was making massive amounts of bean-to-bar chocolate to re-stock my Etsy shop, our friend Nate came over and helped Corey raise the walls. It was a two person job, no doubt about it, and the extra set of hands made it go much faster than anticipated.

 

This is Corey’s first framed building project, and he was excited to see things lining up. We’ve come a long way since our first nesting box building project right after we bought the homestead. I can’t say my building skills have advanced at all, but his have, so we’re going to be alright.

 

There are more plans on the horizon for a tiny house guest cottage/home
office, so Corey is looking at this project as good practice. Since our living room is currently serving as both, I’m pretty excited about this plan.

 

It’s good to have friends who will come over and hold up walls. After all, that’s what friends are for;  moral support, structural support, and so forth.

 

Within the framing, plans are laid out for some exciting features, like vintage windows, nesting boxes accessible from the outside of the coop, a brooding pen for hens with chicks, feed storage, and two chicken doors so they can free range outside our yard, or scratch around in the chicken moat surrounding the garden.  Like I said, this is going to be a super-deluxe coop!

 

Some girls have their heart set on a dream house, and I’ve got mine set on a dream chicken coop. So you don’t think it’s all frivolity, I should probably mention the practical reasons we need a new coop. The coop that was here when we got the place is really far from the house, it’s right by the woods and cougars eat our chickens, the chickens make secret nests, the layout of the old coop is not conducive to cleaning at all, and the garden really needs some slug and bug patrol around the outside. All that, and I have chicken coop goals. Thanks to Corey’s hard work, and a little help from our friends, my chicken coop goals are becoming a reality. There’s still a lot of work left to go, but it sure feels good to see a floor and four walls standing. I am going to get so many fancy chickens this spring. It’s going to be ridiculous.