Behind the Feathers

It's occurred to me that I didn't show the construction or interior of the coop and run.  What was I thinking?

Eric did the whole thing after a lot of research, but basically without any plans.  It started, as most construction projects would, with a frame.

He made sure that 3 of the sides would be on or butted right up against a cement walk, since we do have quite a few predators in this area, and didn't want to get up one morning to some random feathers and no chickens.

That platform base over on the right is where he built the coop itself, lofted above the 6' x 12' run below.

I lined the coop floor with linoleum tiles we picked up at the ReStore.  It's not the prettiest, but it's whole purpose is to make cleaning the coop easier, so that's quite all right.

If you haven't ever been to a ReStore, you should check it out, by the way,  Everything's wonderfully inexpensive, but also all the proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity.  In fact, all the "employees" there are actually Habitat for Humanity volunteers!  How cool is that?  While we were there, we also got the roof shingles, since Eric built one heck of a serious roof for the top, to foil any hawks that might try to use our girls as lunch.

Inside the coop, Eric built removable roosts (left) for the girls to sleep on, and cut out the entrances to the nesting boxes (right).

I'm honestly proud of all the great construction he did, and especially impressed with the nesting boxes and other doors.

That unstained piece on the front is a double door, the nesting boxes are easy to get to, and to the right of them is another small door with easy access to their feed bucket.  Everything has double locks, too, in case those wily raccoons figure one kind out.

Inside, there's a sliding chicken door with a cord and pulley, and Eric built the ramp for them too.

Overall, it's just really gorgeous.

And another shot of the girls, just for good measure...

Going around from the blonde down front, that's Adele, Reba behind her, then Lita.  Martina's in the back middle, Miranda's the other blonde, and Cher the black Australorpe up front right.