Chicken adventures: Coop done!!!!

HAPPY 100TH BLOG POST!!  :)

Well, its been a very exciting last few days!  We finished the coop on Sunday, finally!  Brought it out of the shop, finally!  We could have built it a lot different and a fair bit cheaper, but we wanted it to look really nice and be a little fortress for the chickens so they would be completely safe and sound.  So its probably overkill, but we are sooooooo happy with it!  Worth all of the sweat, blood and tears that went into it! :) Here are some pictures of it!!!

Here is the front door...

 View from the run door...

The window on the rear and the little door that goes from the coop to the run...(I really enjoy the contrast between the green rafters here and the white roofing--we got a really nice green color I think).

Here is where the nesting boxes will go here soon...They are only 2 months and won't start laying eggs until they are 4 to 6 months old, so we have some time.  We made the roof come out more so that the nesting boxes can extend out of the building which will give us more room inside.  (I made the filler screen thing all by myself! haha)

Here is a side view of the other window and the coop propped up on the wheels, this picture was taken during transport! :)

Here is the inside on the right, the roosts and the one window, I'm so happy with how it looks!  It was a nice touch to paint the inside green.  Plus, it'll keep the wood longer and should be easier to clean (maybe?).

Here is an inside view on the left side, this is the nesting box window...the little door on the right and the rear window on the top right.

 Here is what hubby made to make the coop mobile (so we can move it regularly around the yard).

Here is how we make it mobile, move the bar up and then it props the coop up on the wheels.  He did such a great job!!!!

Here is how he is hooking it to the riding lawn mower, we realized the wheels need to be farther apart, so we'll be working on that tonight.

 Here are the chickens right before we put them in the coop!

 Here is the coop in the morning sun (this morning).  Sooooooo cool!  Oh, and the chickens are in there too.

 Here is a different view of it.

2 nights ago was their first night in the coop.  They piled up on the ground under the roosts together.  LAST NIGHT though at dusk, I went outside to check on them and see what they were doing and this is what I found!  They were all on the roosts!!! (you might not be able to see very well)

I was kind of worried that it would take them longer to get comfortable and get into their good chicken systems, but no, they're right on!  Their little instincts are kicking in and all is well!  I'm so proud of the little babies, they're so smart!  We left them in the coop all day yesterday so they would get used to the space and know that it was their new home, but this morning I let them into the run.  They weren't sure what to think of it at first, but afterward, they came outside and started doing their grass eating!  They'll start to love that time (when they come outside first thing in the morning) and rush me when I open the door! Haha... :) And Basil has started crowing at like 6 or 6:15 (since I'm already awake at that time, I get to enjoy hearing it!).  I think I'm going to call the little partridge rooster Parker.  (Par-tridge..Par-ker)  He hasn't started crowing yet, but we THINK he's started chasing the little girls around... wink wink.  Funny enough, Basil doesn't seem to crow much around hubby, its weird! :)

We fed them some different things too, but I'll save that for another day.  I'm running out of things to post on here! The chickens won't change much any more, so I just don't know.  And the garden is pretty much done. Except for the watermelons and the million tomatoes I need to pick...What am I going to do with them!?!?!?! Maybe I'll try salsa? I just don't know.  Any ideas?

xoxo
c