The Quest for the Mouse-Proof Chicken Coop: Chapter 2

If you have never had chickens before you may not understand the improbability of combining the words "mouse-proof" and "chicken coop". If you have chickens you are laughing uncontrollably by now. Mice are a regrettable part of raising chickens. Chickens are messy. They pick through their feed for the choice morsels and throw the rest around. Mice love this. They can't help it. They are mice. I keep the chicken feed in a metal trash can but once it goes into the chicken coop it is easy picking.

In order to keep the mice out I needed to limit the places to hide. One problem of the old coop was that it was open to the ground with a screen floor just above the dirt to keep chickens off the ground and out of dropping. This created a space for the mice to hang out without being harassed by the chickens. Given an opportunity some chickens will eat mice. In order to provide more opportunities for mousy snacks I decided to get the coop up off the ground. I did this by building 4 - 2'x4' panels from 2"x4" pressure treated lumber. To minimize the chicken's contact with the pressure treated lumber I lined the chicken side of the frames with hardware cloth. The panels fastened together with bolts and wing nuts. Each panel is reasonably light and I can take the frame apart, move it to a new spot and reassemble it in a few minutes. One end of the frame uses 1 - 2x4 on the end. The other end requires 2 - 2x4s so that there is a surface to mate with the next panel. As a result each corner has 3 2x4 supports resulting in plenty of support for the house. Two of the panels have doors, the other two are have none. The panels can be assembled to open out on any side I want. I had now eliminated one hideout. Mice wanting to get to the coop would have to climb two feet to get to the house and during the day the chickens will be on the look out for them. So far so good. End of the easy part. From here things began to get complicated. If only I had known what lay ahead.

(to be continued)