Coop Update – Rush, Rush.. It’s Chick Week!

I had one good productive afternoon last week in which I built two doors. With mitered trim, thank ya very much :) I painted the interior a lemony yellow yesterday. And today.. I had help! Which I gladly accepted since this is Chick Week after all, and the babies are scheduled to be shipped to me one day this week. I was getting so close, but still a lot of details to do.  So I swallowed my Farmgirl Pride and said… yes, it’s okay to have a helper today :) And a most excellent helper he was.

Here is a view of the interior.

Mr. W was kind enough to build a sliding window cover bracket for me. This is the “gridded” window. I still have hardware cloth to attach inside. I had visualized the cover for this window as being a slider, and voila, the hubs came through for me again. It is perfect… just as I had imagined.

Here is a view from the front – you can see the window with sliding cover here as well. Also the tin edge trim he installed today. It is actually silver/galvanized but looks green in this picture for some reason…

For those interested in how the sliding bracket was made, here’s a close-up of first the top bracket and then the bottom. Laminated wood and nuts & washers were used to shim the back.

I painted the hinges, latches, handles, etc. today also.

Also, the remaining doors were built. Here is a view of the back. These doors are not attached yet  (awaiting exterior paint). The top door is the roost access door. The bottom door is the egg access door. Of course, for our brooder purposes the egg door won’t be utilized. However sometime in the future it most likely will be used as a portable coop, and the nest boxes & access door should come in handy.

Next up will be to paint the exterior with red oil-based (Valspar Porch & Floor) paint; apply the tin roof; trim corners; attach the doors and installing all necessary hardware, and a couple other miscellaneous items.

Now, how do I get oil-based paint to dry fast in this 100% humidity, daily rain, and chill we’re experiencing now? That is the question.

This little coop is just about finished. Stay tuned for more Coop Building Adventures, and also the long-awaited arrival of….

the return of Chickens to Flat Creek Farm!