Nearly there...

After about 10 hours of work on the coop this weekend, I was able to finish the hen house part of the coop! There are Plexiglas windows on the end to let in extra light and on the front there is a small door that can be opened to access the nest boxes and collect eggs without having to go into the coop. I still have to stain the cedar siding and one piece of the door frame - but I think I can finish that one night this week. I also need to build the nest boxes, add roosts to the interior of the hen house and a few in the coop and I need to add rungs to the ramp from the coop to the hen house. I also have some linoleum tiles that I may add to the floor - especially under the roosts to make it easier to clean. Then I will be 100% finished. So with luck the chicks will be moving into the coop by Friday night!

The picture on the right is looking into the coop through the hen house access door inside the coop. The nest boxes will go along the front where you can see the inside of the egg door.

From inside the coop there is a large access door to allow cleaning the inside of the hen house easily. The small door on the right has a ramp that comes down from the hen house to the floor of the coop. The ramp needs rungs still and needs to be stained.

The floor of the coop also needs gravel and sand and I need to hang the food and water feeders from the floor of the hen house. I guess thinking about it there is still a lot to do - but at least all the work that is left is light work - no more heavy lifting, no more jigsaws and no more skil-saws! I guess I will still need to cut the roosts to length - but those are small compared to what I have done the last two days!

I will try to get new pics of the chicks and garden in the next few days - both are growing very quickly. The chicks really turned a corner this week and are looking much more like chickens than chicks. The are awkward teenagers now! :)