Up on the Rooftop, Quick! Quick! Quick! (Friday, Feb. 18)

 Look!  Up on the rooftop!  It's St. Nick!  Oh, no it's not--it's Herb!  But he sure is quick, quick, quick!  He's already finishing the roof of the chicken coop.

Here's a view of the back with the window for ventilation.  I still have to hinge the window flap so it can be opened or closed.  When it's open, the hardware cloth I stapled inside will keep predators out and chickens in.  And the slanted roof will let water pour off the back and run off down the hill.  Later we'll put a little gutter in with a rain barrel so we'll have water handy for watering the chickens--since when we had the water-line installed, the chicken coop was up at the barn.  Granted, it's not a lot of water to carry, but why carry it at all if we can capture rain water?

Here's the front of the coop with the window flap already installed, along with the chicken door down in the lower right-hand corner.  Those two little bits were my contribution.  The kennel panel against the barn wall will be part of the pen we'll install around the coop, giving us the option to open the gate and let the chickens free-range or to keep them shut in the pen if we want to.

I'm very pleased with our little coop, which should give us room for about 24-30 chickens if we want them.  You know, chickens are like Lay's potato chips--you can't have just one!