A year goes by and you realize you are putting in a third chicken coop on the homestead. Chicken Math. It’s real. We now have 15 hens and 1 rooster. The numbers slide up and down. We have lost a few to Bald Eagles, but then we adopt ones in that need new homes. Of these 8 are laying eggs (the newest 6 won’t lay till later, or maybe even next spring).
But chickens are so easy to raise, unlike other farm animals. And the boys actually play and take care of them.
Our neighbors wanted to get out of chickens and approached us about taking their last 2 hens in. They also offered up 4 metal garbage cans, various chicken stuff, an entire dog run and an older (6 years old) coop, which was nearly a twin to one we had already. For $50. A bargain if you will! Now then….going into moving it all, we knew the coop would be tricky. It had been sitting on the ground for those 6 years and would have issues. We decided to break it down into manageable pieces. Having assembled one before we knew how it would come apart.
Kirk moved the main part of the coop using the tractor with pallet forks on.
He took it up to the shop and him and Alistaire power washed it, let it dry out for a couple days. Then they stained it and did a few simple repairs. After that, he reassembled the coop. For all our coops we build a foundation of pressure treated wood under them, for stability, but also for weight – to ensure the coops won’t blow over in the bad windstorms we get.
Meanwhile the two hens moved into one of the other coops, the one that held Lady V and Lady Grey Gray, who are dwarf hens. They moved in easily with no fighting. Which was good because….there were 6 hens waiting to move outside from our bathroom tub…..
Moving day was Kirk using the pallet forks to bring down the finished coop to its new place. Not shown: we added wire skirting all the way around, held down by rocks. It will have a larger fence installed later so they have room to wander once they are bigger.
It sits outside the other coops, but will be connected by paths eventually.
6 little hens (6 weeks old today) checking out their new home.
Finally they came downstairs to check out the food and water.
I saw this sign and had to have it. Two zip ties and ta-da!
~Sarah