She Started Coop Building July 10, 2009

I had a great dinner tonight.  It was my One Local Summer meal week 5, I believe.  I took the lobster that I cleaned out of the shell, put it in a casserole dish, covered with butter, bread crumbs made from homemade bread, Parmesan cheese and Basil and Thyme from my window box of herbs.  Baked it in the oven, and made up some potatoes that I bought from the Farmer's Market last week. Swiss Chard from my garden fried up with some garlic scapes.  YUM!!

We need a lot of coop space built.  I have 28 Dorking chicks that are getting too big for the brooding pen they are sharing with the Guineas and the Buff Orpingtons.  Jane and her crew need a bigger house too.  I'm starting with the Dorking house.  I bought a deck from a guy on Craig's List.  He delivered it for a total of $60.00!  That is 5'7" by 7'5".  Dad and I went over to "ReStore", in Dover.  It's a store for Habitat for Humanity.  The bring building supply leftovers, from houses they fix up, as well as donated items that are sometimes new and sometimes used.  They sell them at the store and use the proceeds for more Habitat projects.  It's very cool, and one of the business offering a 10% discount to all Green Alliance Members!

They had a bunch of solid wood doors, one that was particularly cool and already had a hole in the front, with a pull down door...perfect for a nest box access!  The doors were only $15.00 each, and for a total of $105.00 I got all the wood necessary for the walls of the coop!  I have a window in the backyard, that came free from the side of the road.  Restore had a few hinges, some screening and vents, as well.  I have to buy aluminum roofing, and maybe a trip back to Restore for some framing wood, if we run out of our stash, but otherwise, we have everything we need, and it shouldn't cost over $200.00.  I'm not sure I'll be so fortunate with future coops, but this one is helping the pocket book!

Oh, and it's going to look super cool.  Here is a drawing from my journal:

Today I saw a woodchuck in the garden.  I called dad to come down with his gun, but the little guy disappeared before dad arrived.  There was no damage signs in the garden, so hopefully, he won't be back, but I need to do something, as I don't want to lose what has come up, since the rain has already detered some growth.  I'm going to spray the Animal Stopper from Mesina and hope for the best.

Comments

[Colleen]

Thanks for the reminder about the ReStore - we went there when they first opened, and now we're doing some work on our kitchen. Seems like a trip up to Dover to check out what they have is definitely in order!

Colleen, Be sure to sign up for your Green Alliance Card before you go, so you can get the 10% discount!! Happy Remodeling.

[Mangochild]

Swiss chard and scapes are both wonderful on their own, and together they are even better. Your chicken coop sounds very ambitious - how did you come up with the design

Hi Mangochild,

I went to the discount store and saw what they had and went from there. Basically, I just figured it out as we went. I loved how it went together and I'm thinking of making another out of more doors, since it worked out so well, and was so cost effective.