Finishing the Coop on a Rainy Sunday

How dangerous is this?!  Brandon is standing on a ladder, in the rain, pulling the cord to a stubborn chainsaw.  It's times like this that I mentally revisit my first aid training and start to wonder if I can make a tourniquet from a tool belt strap if I needed to.  Whew, I was glad when he finally got so frustrated with the stupid chainsaw that he declared he was heading to town to buy a hand saw.  Yes, please do.    

Unlike the day before, Sunday's chicken coop work was done in the wet.  It rained enough to fill every puddle and create a sucking quagmire of mud where we were working.  

I stapled chicken wire across the bottom of the coop, and the type of wire with the little holes on the sides.  Since folks on the inter-web said to plug up any hole big enough for a hot dog to fit through, to prevent a weasel, I had plenty of work to keep me busy.  

Once Brandon returned with his new handsaw, which cost twenty-five dollars, he was able to saw the top of the post off in less than a minute!  He spent all morning fussing with the chainsaw, trying to get it to work, and the handsaw did the job in a jiffy.  And, I didn't have to worry that I was going to need to fashion a tourniquet.  Money well spent.  

I like this saw.  It was quite and pretty.  The posts we used are cedar trees stripped of their limbs and bark.  The cut wood smelled wonderful.  

With the posts at the right height, it didn't take long to screw on the metal roof.  

The west wall of the coop is solid, especially since we covered the gaps between the boards, and the tops of the north and south walls are solid.  We used a painting that someone made on wood, that Brandon saved from the dumpster at his university, for one of the sides.  We like to sneak a little art in where we can, although I'm not sure the artist would appreciate the location.  We added one low roost, two roosts up high, some straw, and as a final touch - thirty little chickens!

I think they like it!

The guineas were extra excited about the little chickens, and stayed near the coop until dark.  Despite all the warnings about how noisy guineas are, I hadn't until this day really noticed that they were extra noisy.  But during this project, whenever we made loud noises with the saws, metal roof, and nail gun, the guineas would get excited and make a racket.  For a few moments, I had an intense craving for guinea pot pie.  Weird.  

At night, the little chickens cuddle together in the corner, on the straw.  A few brave ones have figured out how to jump up to the roosts above, so I don't think it will be long before they learn to roost at night.  

There it is, in all it's glory - a chicken coop.  Whoop!   It needs some paint on the raw wood, but otherwise it's fully functional.  I promised Brandon that he wouldn't have to build more than one coop a year.  Last years coop is still working well.  Maybe next year's coop can be for turkeys?!