Chicken Barn Raising

Oct 5, 2018 | Chickens

Rolling E Ranch is home to a good sized flock of chickens, probably about  60-70 or so. We started our flock back in 2013 with 16 baby chicks and a vision of selling eggs, raising our own meat, and possibly selling young chicks to others wanting to start their own flocks.

I have to admit I am a bit embarassed by the way the coop looks in this picture…too many ranch projects and not enough hours in the day!

Hubby built a great coop for the original flock, and they all had more than enough room until things got out of control and I developed OCD – Obsessive Chicken Disorder!

So now we have too many chickens for their current coop, and free ranging has been taken to a whole new level, but not in a good way.

If the chickens don’t get fed when they think they should, I will find an angry mob of hens hot on my heels.

Days are getting shorter and hens slow down on laying because they are not getting the 14 hours of daylight they need. This can be resolved through artificial lighting, but when the coop is too small to accommodate all of the chickens, their laying slows to a trickle. This heartbreaking condition is known as Henopause, and we here at Rolling E Ranch are committed to stamping out this life changing menace! How do we do this? By building a bigger coop, of course…easy peasy!
Hubby went ahead and ordered a new building that would be delivered to the ranch to be built on site.

Earlier this week, our new chicken coop arrived in pre-built pieces on the back of a flatbed trailer along with the two men who would be putting it up.

I really enjoy watching things being built, so for me, this was all very exciting. Maybe it goes back to when I was a child and Mom would read me “Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel” or Dad would take me to construction sites and we would watch the big bulldozers…or maybe I am just odd, but I don’t think so :).

Here’s how it went:
Hubby made a level dirt pad and then built a foundation that the coop would sit on.
The crew pre-assembled a metal floor base which they then placed on the foundation.
The floor base was attached to the wood foundation and then plywood was screwed down to complete the floor.
The first wall, which came fully assembled, went up…only three more to go!
All four walls now in place and connected together.
The gable was carried in to the coop through the man door and then raised up.  Right about this time the wind kicked up, and for a moment I thought we might lose one of the men as well as the wall.
The second gable wall and the rafters were installed followed by the plywood roof sheathing.
Tar paper came next.
And then the shingles.
And finally, 5 hours after the men arrived, our beautiful new Chicken Palace was done!!!

Now all that is left to do is to paint the inside, build some walls, add the second floor storage space, electricity, water, nesting boxes and roosts…yes, that is a long list, but we will get it done. 

Our chicken flock had grown and a new coop was needed. Read about it going up in this blog post from Rolling E Ranch

Then comes the really fun part, rounding up and moving all the chickens to their new home….think herding cats and you will have a good mental picture of how that will go.

Until next time, Happy Trails!

[ssba-buttons]

6 Comments

  1. George Fergus
    George Fergus on October 6, 2018 at 7:53 am

    Nice chicken house! Hope you guys are doing well!

    • Diana
      Diana on October 6, 2018 at 8:31 am

      So good to hear from you! We are all doing well, just busy getting ready for winter. 34 degrees this morning and a cheerful fire blazing in the wood stove.

  2. Debra
    Debra on October 5, 2018 at 10:11 pm

    I want to come and see the round-up. I’ll video it for your page!

    • Diana
      Diana on October 6, 2018 at 8:30 am

      Sounds like a plan! Should make for some good laughs.

  3. Lori
    Lori on October 5, 2018 at 8:42 pm

    Let me know if you need help…I have the last week of October and all of November off…we should be able to get the, all rounded up by then! And, I love the new coupe…

    • Diana
      Diana on October 6, 2018 at 8:29 am

      We are always up for help! Those darned little critters can be pretty fast and hard to corral, so bring your rope!!

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