The New Chicken Coop

The add a room was our first major construction job.  In August 2009, before I started blogging, my Father-In-Law came to live with us.  My Mother-In-Law had fallen, broken her hip, not enough bone density to walk again, diabetes, dementia...  She was accepted into a nursing home, he wasn't.  The nursing home would take all of her money, leaving him unable to pay his rent.

Our house is much too small for permanent house guests- 3 bedrooms, 3 closets, 6 people.  We set up a bed in the livingroom for him.  It was cramped to say the least.

However, the summer before we had helped Mom and Dad build an add a room on their trailer on the corner of our property.

This was their cabin in the woods, before they bought the place next door.

We had some building experience, and we had room, so we decided to build FIL an add a room as well.  The first step was to get the trailer in place, and set up logs around it for the foundation.  The logs had to be BIG and solid.  Then levelled off.  We enclosed our trailer inside the structure to add insulation.  Windows  and doors were framed in.  We built around the propane tanks, keeping them and the trailer hitch on the outside of the building.

Press board sheeting was used on the roof, not quite in time for winter. 

Press board sheeting was put up for the exterior walls.  Windows and doors were installed.

Construction moved inside for the rest of the winter.  We installed the floor.  We insulated.

We put up vapour barrier.

Press board walls for the interior.  A partial wall was built in around the inside side of the trailer, leaving the windows exposed for light and heat.

My Dad built the wood stove and delivered it.  We used four 2'X2' patio stones for the floor, and a piece of tin siding for a heat shield.

Spring came, and we went back to work outside. 

The boys and I laid shingles, while Husband cut a hole in the roof to install the chimney.

Chimney in, flange tarred, no leaks...  Heat!

A little deck, a little porch.

Paint and firewood.

We added the firewood lean-to.

And then filled it and cleaned up the yard.

FIL moved in, using the trailer's propane heater as soon as the weather was bearable.  My interior pics seem to stop there.  Husband installed lights, electric sockets, wiring. We painted the inside.  #2 put up interior wood panelling.  Husband added a pipe and fan to blow hot air under the trailer.

We did all of this while Husband was still driving long haul, the Bigs weren't very big yet, trying to run a farm, looking after FIL, bringing MIL home on the weekends...  And less than a year later FIL went to live with one of Husband's brothers.  Six months later, another brother.  He's in an old age residence now.  MIL passed on February 7, 2013.


At first it just sat there.  What were we going to use it for?  A guest house maybe?  We don't have that many guests.  We thought about tearing it down.  That's too much work.  Eventually it became the playroom-

pool table, dart board, air hockey table, card table.

It was great until the insurance company decided that they wouldn't insure the home made stove.  Then it was pretty useless most of the year.  So it sat there.

And then I got an incubator for my birthday.  And now I hatch eggs.  And I have big plans for more eggs next spring!  And now it's a construction zone again.

We removed the chimney and patched the roof with a sheet of tin.

We took out the wood stove, heat pipe and fan, and ceiling fan.  We started building pens!

Mouser has moved in, and has given it her approval.  She's not crazy about the loud noises from saws and hammers, but she's happy to be out of the cage and loves climbing up the side of the pen.

We thought about removing the trailer, but it would be a lot of work.  The plumbing froze and split when FIL was with us, four windows are cracked, the floor is rotting, and the roof leaks.  Where are we ever going camping in that?  For now it will remain in place as storage. 

The back section (in the pic above Mouser) will be divided into two pens.  Then there will be a small pen on the wall side in front of the window, and a larger pen from there to the door.  The trailer side will have one large pen in the corner for turkeys.  There will be a walkway down the centre and to the trailer door.

Nesting boxes will go on the walls, with brooder boxes above.  The brooder boxes will hold each batch of chicks when they come out of the incubator. 

The geese and ducks will spend the winter in the old chicken coop, with the cement floor.  Geese and ducks are very messy. 

The four pens in the new coop will each have 1 rooster and 4-8 hens.  One will be a meat rooster with meat hens.  One will be a meat rooster with new hens- my incubated chicks.  One will be an incubated rooster with meat hens.  The last will be current rooster with mixed meat and laying hens.

Most of the old laying hens will be going to the stew pot.  I'll take one out at a time and put them in the new pens to figure out which ones are actually laying eggs.  They'll be the keepers.

The turkey pen may not be used for turkeys this year.  I can't tell yet whether they're toms or hens.  I only have seven of them, and for this to work, I'd like to have two toms and five hens.  If they end up not being a suitable mix for breeding, I'll use the pen for another batch of chickens.

Garden Update and New Arrivals

I guess because there just wasn't enough going wrong in the garden this year, sweet Mother Earth decided I needed to be plagued by potato bugs as well.  I dusted the plants twice with diatomaceous earth.  It may have killed some of the little buggers, but not nearly enough, and not quickly enough.  Serves me right, I guess, for bragging that the potatoes were doing well.

I resorted to pulling the bugs off the plants and feeding them to the birds.  The chickens do not mind at all!  After a couple of weeks the plants are recuperating well.  I'm still picking a dozen or so potato bugs off every day, but a big improvement over the hundreds I was picking off in the beginning.

My stunted little beets.

 I'm not sure what is going on with them, they just don't seem to have grown at all in the last month.  We've had a good mix of rain and sun lately, they're planted about where the beans started last year, and I've been keeping up well with the weeds.  They started off well, and then just seemed to quit.  I hope they get a second wind, with only 1 month to go.

The few surviving bean plants are just about to flower.  We might get a meal or two yet.

We went to the auction yesterday, where some people were standing in the parking lot with a couple of cages of kittens to give away.  Their barn cat population had gotten out of control.  I told them I wanted a barn cat, a female, and they handed me this adorable little calico kitten, probably not more than 7 or 8 weeks old.

It tried to kill me.

I know that sounds hilarious, but I'm really not kidding.  It hit me with the claws on contact, started hissing. I brought it to my chest trying to sooth it,  it spun around, still clawing and went for my jugular.  Luckily??!!  I brought my chin down in time to save my throat, so I only had to pull the cat off my face, with one hand firmly around her neck.  She was still clawing and hissing as I stuffed her back in the cage.

On the one hand, I'd have really liked to bring her home.  I'm sure that kitty would have taken care of all the mice, voles, squirrels and chipmunks around here, and given the weasels and minks a good fight.  On the other hand, the Littles would have wanted to play with the kitty, and I'm not sure they would fare so well.

The second kitten he handed me, a total sweetheart, fluffball.  She cuddled up and started purring instantaneously.  One extreme to the other.  I figured he'd have no problem finding her a cushy indoor home.

In the end, we chose an older kitten.  She's about four months old, and quite sweet.  Hopefully still young enough to not be pregnant!  #1 named her Mouser.  Hopefully she'll grow into her name.

For now she's in a cage in the chicken coop, until she gets familiar with us and her new surroundings.  #3 dropped her last night, outside, and it took over an hour to find her and catch her again.  #1 gave her a squirt of fresh milk before bed.  Mildred was not amused, lol.  We'll give her a squirt every morning for the next few days, hopefully teaching her to come and say hello at milking time.

My other new arrival- Minuet.

She's an Emden Goose.  Well, we're calling her a she, though honestly, we have no idea.  She's sleeping in the brooder with the new chicks for now, but she'll be spending her days in the turkey pen with Goose and Gackle.  Or at least, that's the plan.  They haven't met yet.

I took 10 of my meat chickens to the auction with me to sell, but ended up bringing them all back home.  The highest bid was $3.  Unbelievable!  It cost me $9 just to run them through the auction and bring them back home.  A learning experience, I guess.  If I try it again, I think I'll put fewer birds in cardboard boxes.  They seem to sell better that way.