What about the coop?

It seems to me that I mentioned I would tell you all about the coop and that it may have been several months ago.  Sorry about that.  It turns out that I thought I was busy when my kids were toddlers, but now that they are teens without a drivers license, I seem to be as busy as ever, just not wiping butts.

I did a lot of research on coops and scoured the internet until I found just what I was looking for.

Here is what I wanted:

Big - my hens will not have a lot of opportunity to be out of their coop so I wanted a hen house and run that would be spacious enough for the four of them to run around comfortably.

Winter Ready - it gets cold . . . I mean C.O.L.D. here in Minnesota.  The coop needs to be warm.

Safe - we have a nice supply of raccoon, fox, coyote, ground hogs, owls, mink, etc. that would love an opportunity to get their hands on the hens, so the coop had to be completely secure.

Sturdy - strong summer storms and deep winter snow means the coop had to be built to last

Economical - we didn't have a lot of cash to throw around

Easy to Access/Easy to Clean - this one is self explanatory

Pretty - I wanted it to look nice.

We finally settled on The Garden Coop.  The plans were about $30 and were written so well that even without building experience, the two of us were able to built the coop in about 4 weekends.  When I say "we", I mean mostly "he".  I painted and as you can see from the current picture, I have not yet finished my job.

We will add insulation this fall and probably put in a heat lamp for the month of January when the temp dips below 0 F.   I'm still not sure what to do about water - keeping it from freezing.  I'm guessing we will put the food and water in the hen house during the coldest times of the year.  I will also wrap the sides with shower curtains from the dollar store to keep the snow out, but the light in.  The ugly tarp you see is there because after all my careful planning, that side of the coop gets far too much afternoon sun and the little girls were baking.  I planted giant sunflowers but most were washed away in our torrential rain storms and the rest were eaten by bunnies.  I'll have to plant something there to shade them.

There is no door to open and shut.  They come and go as they please.  This winter, we will have to adjust that but I'm not yet sure how.  I suppose we will keep the door open unless it gets below 10 F and then move food and water inside.  I'm just not sure yet. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

So here is the finished coop in all her glory and just today, the boys added these solar camper lights we found in our basement.  We will continue to landscape around the coop as I am able to divide plants from the garden (and hopefully get some from my neighbors as well).

Tomorrow afternoon, we are letting the hens out of their coop for the very first time.  Stella will be inside the house and Blue is away at hunting camp, so the birds will have a chance to explore without the dogs harassing them.

Nighty night my little ones.