After what seemed like years I finally had my coop built but it still lacked chicken amenities. I used PVC piping and some 1" mesh hardware cloth to frame up part of the floor for the coop. It sits on the edge of the 2x4 panels that the coop also sits on. A little trap door in the floor opens and closes so I can trap the girls upstairs if I need to get hold of them.
A piece of plywood made up the rest of the floor so that there was a platform for food, water and a nesting box to sit on. The nest box was a double-decker. I made it just the right size for a couple of dishpans to fit in it. Then when the nest boxes got dirty I could simply take the dishpans out and wash them out. I installed a roosting pole across the coop. I also made a ladder of 2x2s and hardware cloth for them to get up into the coop. Each one of these little jobs took another afternoon or two, of course. Finally what house would be complete with out curtains? To cover the window in hot weather I clothes pinned a towel to a bungee cord that I could hang over the outside of the window. That just left the electrical work.
I wanted to provide a light that would work on a timer so that the girls would lay better during the winter. I also wanted to provide a heater for water so I wouldn't have to be thawing out fonts in the winter time. I had installed electrical boxes and conduit in the walls so mice would not be able to get at it. Now I needed to wire it up. I used an old extension cord and left a short piece of cord with the male end hanging out of the coop to plug in to a cord from the house. The other end was wired up to a cheap porcelain light fixture inside the house. I used a plastic trouble light cage to protect the bulb. Big mistake. It seems that chickens are attracted to lights. When I finally got the girls in and tried the light they tore up the porcelain fixture in a few days. I think they may have been trying to roost on it or something. I ended up replacing the fixture with a simple electrical outlet and a night light on a timer.
If you have ever looked at what an electric heater costs you know that they are bulky and very expensive. So of course I decided to make something a little better (cheaper) but it had to be mouse-proof. The old wooden box and light had kept the water from freezing but it was a perfect mouse playground. Fortunately I never throw anything away. I had picked up a small round porcelain hamburger grill at a garage sale. The picture below is of one that is similar but mine was an older model. I turned it upside down, pulled out the electric heating element and replaced it with a cord and light bulb socket. To keep the mice from chewing on the exposed cord, I threaded the cord through a long screen door spring before wiring everything together. A 40 watt appliance bulb provided more than enough heat to keep water from freezing. Cost about $5.00.
After 3 months and about $200 in materials the Mouse-proof Chicken Coop was finished.
(To be continued)
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