Fort Clux, the revenge of the siding…
We had estimated two or three (four tops!) weekends to put Fort Clux together. We were… wrong.
Our SIL came and helped us with the building, but it took a little longer than we expected (about eight weeks). A lot of the delay was because we tried to use materials that we had sitting around and it often took a little longer to get them situated.
We were stumped.
The base of the chicken coop sits on oak and hickory stumps that we had around the homestead. We de-barked the stumps and set them on brick footers. The coop is on top of a former gravel pad, so the ground under it was stable and we wouldn’t have to worry as much about predators digging into the run.
And then we were framed.
The frame of the coop went up very quickly (yay nail guns!). Within a weekend the coop frame was standing tall and waiting for siding.
We took sides.
In part because the pandemic caused wood prices to soar, and in part because we thought it would be fun, we decided to make the coop siding out of a tulip poplar tree that fell between us and our neighbor last year.
Finally, we went on the run.
Once the siding was up, we wanted to make an enclosed run around the coop to give them some space before the coop was opened in the morning. We used logs from our wood pile to hold up the chicken wire, with a 16” skirt of wire around the bottom (also held down by logs). We made a ladder and perches from branches we found around and then we declared victory!
Our best upgrade with this coop was the automatic door. We went with the “Ador” door, which is battery powered and has a light sensor to automatically open and close with the sun.
One of it’s more entertaining features is it’s “last chance” feature, which closes the door, waits 1 minute, and then opens the door again to let any stragglers run in.
So far, the chickies seem to be loving their new home with space to roam!
Postscript:
Maybe it would have gone faster if our helpers didn’t sleep on the job….
