Mavis Mail – Melissa From Maryland Sends in Her Chicken Coop Pics

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their photographs and stories. I hope by sharing other peoples pictures and stories here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all have a rock star garden this summer. Keep them coming!

Dear Mavis,

I wanted to share with you some pictures of the new coop that my wonderful husband built for our girls. We are fledgling suburban homesteaders who are blessed to live in a small town in Maryland that desires to stick to its agricultural roots. We are allowed to keep livestock within the town limits as long as they have enough land, proper housing and are well kept.

We got our first flock of 4 chickens almost 4 years ago and fell in love. We lost 2 due to illness and cold weather over the past couple of years and decided to add 5 more this year. Our original coop had been damaged when a tree branch fell on it and was not big enough for the new flock anyway. So my husband set out on a quest to build us an awesome coop. He did a fantastic job and I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out! He found an old play house at the local Habitat for Humanity Restore that he decided to re-purpose for the girls.

This is what it looked like on the truck the day we brought it home. It was missing some parts and some parts were not attached correctly. He found a spot for it in the garden and built a platform to anchor it down.

He removed the countertop and play sink and added bracing and roosts. He also filled in some of the spaces to make it more air tight lower in the coop. He water proofed the inside, cut a hole in the side for the door and built the nesting box out of the side opening. He also painted the roof with waterproof paint and attached the gable correctly. Re-stained the outside and painted the platform and nest box on the outside.

He purchased an automatic door opener but we could not find a piece of metal thick enough for the door so he used epoxy to laminate several thin layers of metal together to get the thickness we needed.  Since the door was intended to up and close vertically and we needed it to work horizontally, he rigged up a counter weight with a water bottle to allow it to open and close correctly.

He attached and stained the front door, put hardware fabric on the windows and ventilation opening at the top and trim around the side door stained. The north facing windows have plate glass on the outside of the hardware cloth to protect from the rain and wind that we usually get from that direction.

You can see the old coop in the background and my garden (which needed a lot of attention when this was taken). We re-used the run for the new coop.

The ramp to the inside and the addition that was built to tie the coop in with the old run.

The poop hammocks that I made from canvas I purchased at the Goodwill.

Move in day! Everyone having fun and enjoying their new home!

Thanks for letting me share and thanks for a great blog!

Melissa

What an awesome coop, Melissa!! I bet your girls LOVE it! Way to re-purpose that playhouse.

~Mavis

If you would like to have your garden, chicken coop or something you’ve made featured on One Hundred Dollars a Month, here’s what I’m looking for:

• Your Garden Pictures and Tips – I’d especially like to see your garden set ups, growing areas, and know if you are starting seeds indoors this year. If so,  show me some picture of how you are going about it.
• Your Chicken and Chicken Related Stories – Coops, Chicks, Hen’s, Roosters, Eggs, you name it. If it clucks, send us some pictures to share with the world.
• Cool Arts & Crafts – Made from your very own hands with detailed {and well photographed} pictures and instructions.
• Your pictures and stories about your pets. The more pictures and details the better.
• Garage Sale, Thrift Store and Dumpster Diving pictures and the stories behind the treasures you found including how much you paid for them.

If I feature your pictures and the stories behind them on One Hundred Dollars a Month, I will send you a $20.00 gift card to the greatest store in the world: Amazon.com.

Go  HERE for the official rules.