The Old Homestead Coop a.k.a Fort Huevos

There's so much to catch ya'll up on that it's going to take me a while and several blog posts to do it!

It's been chickens, chickens and chickens!

Back in mid-May, I got my order of Golden-Laced Cochin chicks. The hatchery delivers the chicks to the post office. As soon as I opened the door to the post office I could hear my chicks hollering in the back. They were not happy!

The babies' first home was the "Little Deuce Coop", made from a large storage tub.

That's some food on a paper towel in the middle of it. Setting it up that way helps the chicks learn to eat.

Once they catch on to eating, they can use the regular feeder.

Of the sixteen chicks who arrived, one died within a few hours and two others died over the next month or so.  The remaining 13 chicks quickly outgrew the Little Deuce Coop.  

Thanks to my friend Kristi, who gave me a large box from her new patio furniture, I built the "Coop de Ville".

With the extension fashioned from part of a large moving box, the Coop de Ville measured six feet by just under four feet.  

They looked so small in it at first. 

But just five weeks later, they were HUGE and ready to move into their permanent home.

This is the chicken coop that came with our homestead.

 Someone had used particle board on the exterior of the coop. Not the best choice of material for outdoors. The particle board was crumbling apart. The roof was a mess, too. Lots and lots of work to be done before the chickens could move in.

I started the demo work a few weeks ago. First to go were these particle board patches.

Next, off came the door and window cover. I saved the old pieces in case we needed them as templates for the new ones.

Then came the frustrating process of getting all that rotten particle board off the front. 

Whoever put that stuff on used screws in some places and nails in others. Some of the screws were small, 2 1/2" ones and others were four-inch monsters. Same for the nails, with a few of them worthy of spiking railroad track to ties. 

Slowly, bit by bit, piece by piece it all came off.

This huge mouse nest was in the wall above the door. Gross!

All of this old chicken wire, which wrapped around the coop to keep digging predators out, had to come off as well.

Then it was time for the big boys to step in and do the heavy work.  Enter Richard and G.W.

While I was at work last week, they were hard at it on the coop.  By Wednesday, they'd completely rebuilt the front of the coop as well as the door and window cover.

Considering that nothing was square on that old coop, cutting all those pieces to fit was a nightmare! They used treated plywood, which will be covered by rough cut lumber as siding. 

The original scope of the project was to rebuild the front of the coop, make a new door and window, replace a few rotten boards on the other two sides and put a new roof on. Then I said those fateful words..."could we do the other sides the same way you did the front?"

And so it began....more demo work....

Tearing off the old boards from the side...

...and from the back of the coop.

Once the outer layer of rotten boards were removed from the back of the coop, we found a second layer of boards that was in very good shape. This meant the guys didn't have to cover that part with the plywood. We'd just put the rough cut lumber siding over it.

I've got to give Richard and G.W. credit. I tripled the amount of work I was asking them to do and neither of them said one word of complaint!  Bravo, guys!

And they worked until it got too dark to see!  G'night and come back tomorrow for the next chapter.