The Coop build is underway!

The chicken coop will be located on the south side of our new orchard. The chickens will enjoy the morning sun and the trees should help give them some shade during the hot summer months. The coop and run will have a metal roof so they will have some protection from the heat of the sun and a little shelter from the rain. 

Day one - cleared the area of trees and brush and lots of pricker bushes.  Dug them up by the roots!
Dug the post holes and set the 4 x 4 corner posts in concrete

Day 2 - We removed the cross bracing from the concrete work and framed up the raised portion of the coop that will be the floor of the roost.  Only spent a few hours on this project.  The weather wasn't really cooperating.  The footprint of the coop is 8' x 8' (although 1/2 will be shared by me for their food storage and some garden tools) and the run will be 8' x 16' so they should be pretty happy chickens.

Day 3 - We worked on getting the roof framing started.  You can start to see the basic outline of the overall design.  Weather cooperating we hope to get more accomplished tomorrow.

Day 4 - spent a few hours working on the roof panels - we picked these up from an old commercial chicken coop that was being demolished.  So lining up the existing hole with our framing was a bit of a challenge.  But, hey at the end of the day, it's a chicken coop!

Day 5 - the roof panels are mostly done.  We still need to frame up the run - 16' that will extend out the left end of the coop.

Next, we dug the post holes and cemented in the 4 posts for the coop run which will be 8' x 16' with the same metal roof we bought from some commercial chicken coops they were dismantling. We dug out the area of the shed floor and framed it up for concrete.  We mixed and poured the concrete, unfortunately, a little too wet and a little too late in the day which meant the perfect time to do the finishing work was about 3am. But no one cared enough to get up at 3am, at least not until the next morning when I saw the not so pretty floor, then I wished I had gotten up.  Ahhh, lesson learned...don't pour concrete at the end of the day.  I just need to remember its a shed. It will be covered with dirt most of the time.

We worked on supports for the run and framed and poured the concrete floor under the chicken roost area.  (Poured it on a slight slope to help the water runoff when we hose it out.) With the concrete work out of the way, we should be able to make a little more progress a little faster.  None too soon either as our birds are outgrowing their temporary pen very quickly!