finally!

A month ago we recruited some friends to come help move the coop into place.  I only had a few more things left to do, like building and hanging doors and painting the inside, but then we went away for two weeks, and when we got home it rained for a whole week!

This week I was finally able to get outside and finish up the coop...

I still need to build the run and put rungs on the ramp, but the coop is finally livable!

This is the best the inside of this coop is ever gonna look :)

All ready for the chicks!

Today was the day...

What is in those boxes?

Our chicks!  We got three tiny chicks, less than a week old. One Golden Comet, one Barred Rock, and one Rhode Island Red...

And 3 bigger chicks. Two Americanas,

and one Buff Orpington.

The kids can not stay away!  any excuse to go check on the chickens :)

almost there

My in-laws came to visit over the weekend and we put them to work on the coop!  The weather was beautiful and in between soccer games, gymnastics, and church events my father-in-law taught me how to install a roof.

While the adults worked on the coop the kids set up camp in the back yard...

Micah needed to make his own lean-to and sleep in it to earn his camping badge with Trail Life.

We've got so many caterpillars in our yard I was afraid Micah might wake up in a cocoon in the morning, but he made it through the night unscathed :)

Addie, Tallulah, Max, and Regan all slept in the tent.

I was a little intimidated by the nail gun at first but it really wasn't hard to use at all.

Looks done from this side :)

But I still need to make the doors and put the trim on.

And then it's on to the run!

Thank to my in-laws, who I am sure would have much rather just come and have a restful visit but instead willingly jumped in with the coop construction!  Who know how long putting the roof on would have taken with our their expertise and tools!

more chicken coop picture

Still lots of work to do, but it's coming along :)

coop progress

We finished framing the coop and built the nesting boxes this week.   Although a lot of the work I need to do myself the kids are all helping whenever they can. 

The kids said they were going to put the coop in the front yard and sell hot dogs out of it if owning chickens didn't work out for us :)

I got pretty frustrated trying to cut the pieces for the nesting box with only a circular saw, but I finally figured it out and even though it is far from perfect I am feeling pretty good about what we've accomplished so far. 

This is the first time I've ever built anything like this and sometimes the task seems a bit overwhelming but it is so rewarding to push through my doubts and insecurities.  I am really enjoying the whole process!

Next up, roof trusses!

it's official...

We got our chicken permit last week and the kids and I took advantage of the nice weather and got started on our chicken coop!  Between feeding the baby, trying to do at least some schoolwork, and driving kids to extra curricular activities our progress is slow, but we are having fun :)

I spent many hours scouring the internet looking for coop inspiration and finally decided I liked the size and style of this coop.  So after studying the pictures and deciding what changes I wanted to make I drew up my plans and made my supply list.

After 3 hours in Home Depot we had our supplies.  It took us another whole afternoon just to get everything unloaded and organized!

Everybody helped prime the wood after I measured and cut our framing pieces.  I thought Tallulah was taking pictures of the whole process, but it turns out she only took a few, and they were random pictures of supplies and me cutting the wood - except the only thing in the picture is my hands holding the saw!  Oh, well!

Max helped my put the base together Friday afternoon and we are trying to get outside this afternoon to work a little more before the rain comes tomorrow!

I'll share more pictures of our progress soon :)