Building the New Coop, Part 2

 The Coop is coming along very nicely. We went to Lowe's and purchased some vinyl flooring. The cheaper already rolled up vinyl was too short. It was 8 x 12, but we needed 10 x 12.

The lady at Lowe's was very helpful and offered a remnant of vinyl that they needed to sell. She marked it down to $4 dollars and both rolls together ended up being around $40 even. So not too bad. Plus it's for a chicken coop and it will be buried under deep litter soon. I don't believe the chickens will care.  

So I got busy doing the very detailed work (not) of stapling down the flooring. The wood floor would rot under the deep litter so I am hoping this will protect it. The floor in the older coop seems to be holding up fine and we also put vinyl on it when will built it. Anyway, I stapled down the whole perimeter of the coop and also where the two vinyls overlapped.

I definitely would have done a much better job if it was for our house, but like I said it's for a chicken coop, so stapling it down and overlapping it is no big deal.

We installed the roosts on the right side of the coop. They'll have 3 different levels and each roost spans the whole coop wall to wall which gives them 10 feet of roost space for each, so 30 feet of roosting area which should be plenty for 22 hens. Some of the high flyers that I have will love that they'll be able to roost over 5 feet up and the bigger hens have a lower one just a couple feet off the ground. They'll also be able to hop roost to roost to get to the higher ones and there is a window close for a cool breeze in the summer. They'll be living in luxury compared to their current coop.

We have attached the nest boxes we built yesterday and also attached the top. We were going to make the lid easy to lift up and down with hinges, but then decided to just screw it in. I decided I really didn't need hinges.

The inside will be done as soon as we add a chicken door, two ceiling vents and another window or two. I need to put a coat of paint on the roosts and nest boxes and I need to cover the windows with hardware cloth.

We thought about leaving it natural, but decided after reading that paint helps to prevent mites getting into the wood, preserves the wood better and makes it easier to clean. I am not sure what color I will use, I think I have some white leftover paint or brown. I'll use whatever we have on hand.

We are hoping to have the inside done by the weekend or during the weekend depending on the weather. We have winter storm warnings right now and if the storms hit, we may be behind a day or two. The chickens will be moved in as soon as the new coop is ready. 

The next big project will be leveling the ground for the run, taking apart the chicken run and installing it next to the new coop. That will be the hardest part of this project.