A Coop in the making

Well, it won't house rabbits anymore, not unless they can work a sliding door. Or learn to lay eggs.

I woke one morning to find my father-in-law already at work. He had been secretly commisioned to build a nesting box to fit the existing hutch-soon-to-be-coop. (He had built the original hutch, so obviously knew what he was doing). He had brought the next box up with him, along with some other bits of wood for which he had plans for and a comprehensive toolkit. He clearly didn't trust that I had the tools required, or at least that I could lay my hands on them the same day they were called for...

Anyway at some ungodly pre-breakfast-coffee hour, he began loosening the panelling on the side of the Hutch-coop, and offered up the box to its eventual final position. He seemed intent on holding and fixing the construction himself, but I thought 'well he's just turned 80, he needs to start taking it easy' so I went out and helped him. He had it all worked out, so we carefully prised off 3 lengths of panelling, creating a gap in the side of the coop. Next the box was affixed to the side. In fact this happened so quickly I didn't get to take a picture before the box was on.

Next, one of the prised-off bits was trimmed down to slide back in above the box to draught-proof the coop. Of course being a tight (precise?) fit it needed to be hammered home. I hope the neighbours weren't expecting a Sunday morning lie-in, had they have looked they would have seen three generations of one family tapping home a bit of wood with a claw hammer, with the intensity, concentration and anxiety of three bomb disposal experts defusing a particularly tricky device.

Job done and final bits of wood on to seal against draughts and a natty lid affixed, as demonstrated below by egg-collector in training.

Then he set about, converting the small rabbit door on the other end, which was covered by a bog-standard cat-flap, into a pop-hole, complete with sliding cover and pull-string. Er, take my word for the pull-string mechanism, the camera man was too slow again...

It all looks rather good, and so far hasn't cost us much. We still have to finish painting the fence its new colour scheme, and I have to replace a rotten post and fix some gravel boards.  Got to admit this weather is not helping the project much (even as I write this I hear more rain falling outside) but we will crack on and get it done.

One thing that had been bugging me was the area surrounding the coop, where the chooks (see I'm getting into the lingo already!) would swarm/peck/scratch whilst we were out. I worried that the fence wouldn't be sufficient protection - neither keeping them in nor foxes out. So hunting around the web I came across this site and posted a query on the forum. Straightaway the answer came back. To paraphrase Chief Brody, 'You're gonna need a bigger fence'.

So halfway into the build we have a design issue. We need really to have some sort of enclosure for the chooks to run around in safely during the day, probably roofed over as a brick shed overlooks what will be their home, which to my mind seems an ideal launchpad or access route for an inquisitive fox.

"We could build something that links to the pop-hole, but it would be an odd shape, and the ground slopes a bit. It will look really naff", I said to the wife as we discussed it.
"What about the other side next to the wall, it would look better against that", she replied.
"We'd have to think of getting them from the coop to the run, and back again everyday. That would be a bit of hassle" I said, then thinking out loud "its a shame the nest box isn't the other end...."

She looked at me. "We could swap it around, couldn't we? Take each end off and move it to the other side. So the nest box is this end and the pop-hole the other..."
"That would mean taking the roof off, taking the front off, taking the pop-hole side off, taking the nest box side off and moving it to the other end, then putting sides, front and roof all back together"
"Yes? And..?"
"I may as well fit some guttering to the far side to catch rain water, whilst the roof is off."

She smiled at me. "You're really getting into this, aren't you?"