More Than We Bargained For: Uplifting the Chicken Coop

Even before moving to a larger property, Anita and I had a plan to get chickens, and our place in Gippsland seemed like the perfect opportunity. Within the goat paddock there are a few structures already. The playhouse is already being used by the goats, and perhaps a bit of a squeeze for them, but that works quite well in the colder winter months. The other two structures we call the chicken coop, and the turkey coop. After a wet spring, and a hot dry summer, and some mildly territorial goats, we realised that what we called the chicken coop might have to become the goat coop.

Repurposing the turkey coop

The turkey coop - hereafter referred to as the chicken coop - is already surrounded by a 1.8 metre high chain link fence, and gives us a decent space for a run. The main reason it wasn't our first pick is it was in a sorry state of disrepair. I won't go into the details, but let's just say it had been a coop for something other than a turkey for years, and they hadn't kept a clean house.

So, bring out the PPE, because the first task was giving it a full clean out. When I started this project, I thought that once we'd done a thorough clean, and replaced the shade cloth on the door, maybe patched up some of the fencing, that would be it. The deeper we looked though, the more we found.

Fox proofing the run

The existing fence was in fairly good condition, but we didn't want to take any chances with foxes. We did quite a bit of research on our options, and found an article that suggested our best chance would be to add a skirt, dug into the ground around the outside, and a floppy fence on the top. This was, as had become the standard for the chicken coop project, quite a lot of work. We had to dig out around the fence line, then bury a line of chicken wire around the full perimeter. It probably would have been easier with machinery, but we used a shovel.

The floppy fence was an interesting challenge, as they don't have many consumer options. We opted for cutting lengths of 13mm poly pipe, and tethering those to chicken wire. This worked quite well, but took a little while to install. It was a task we had to spread over multiple weekends. Eventually though, we had a floppy fence with a skirt.

The ever-growing project

We did our best to clean the walls and floor, but noticed some of the palings used as flashing was in poor condition. We were having trouble manoeuvring in the tight space anyway, so had to open it up and replace the whole back wall. This made the cleaning a lot easier, but added a bit of work (and cost) to replace the old palings. It also revealed some rot of one of the structural beams and water damage in the flooring.

Removing the flooring wasn't an easy task either. There was a lot of seemingly structural weight on the flooring from the laying box, preventing us from shifting it. I had to cut away the legs to give enough space to remove the old. After removing the flooring to replace it, we uncovered one of the supporting joists had rotten and wasn't even touching the floor anymore. No wonder the floor had sunk! Finally, it felt like there surely wasn't anything else to uncover. We'll see about that!

We installed the new beam, as well as the new joists, perhaps going slightly overboard on structural integrity, either way an upgrade on its predecessor. Getting the flooring in on top was another challenge, but with a bit more cutting and forcing, we got there.

After seeing the consequence of not sealing the flooring properly, we decided it was probably worth caulking and sealing the floor, before we painted. After sealing up the gaps between floor boards and the ends, we used a product that is normally used to bond with concrete, but seemed to be the most cost effective way to protect the internal floor from moisture.

At this point, we were on the home stretch. With the floor in, we could replace the walls, get it all painted, and get it dry just in time for the wet autumn weather. We also replaced the shade cloth on the window, refitted the flashing, and a new lock for the door.

We decided to go all in with an automatic coop door as an additional precaution against foxes, and built a brand-new ramp to avoid any hens from faceplanting on their way out. Then we hooked up an automatic drinking trough which should keep them happy.

Looks like we're finally wrapping up the project. Now it's time to actually get some chickens!

Closing out the project

There was a point I wasn't sure the project was ever going to be done. It seemed like every time we worked on it, our task list grew. It reminded me of some of the worst software projects I've worked on. At the end, we're way over time, and even more over budget, but we are finally ready to put some actual chickens in the coop. I can't wait!