Bird Prep
Our existing bird setup left something to be desired. I hacked together a 4x8 unfinished coop in the fall the first week we moved. This got us through the winter, but it was sitting in a low spot and often surrounded by water. While I was land clearing later in the fall, I found a couple of old and relatively large concrete slabs out behind where the coop sat.
Our first order of business was to move the existing coop up on to one of these concrete foundations. I built it on a 4x4 skid platform, and my loader has a pretty hefty lift capacity, so we snuck the forks underneath and slowly moved it over.
We moved with just a handful of chickens and ducks, but Brittany raised two geese over the winter and acquired another 20 or so chickens/ducks + a turkey a few weeks ago.
We lost a couple of birds to predators over the winter so we decided to fence in a large area around the coop. I dropped 4x4s in for the corners and ran t posts + welded wire fence all the way around. I built a small access door and left room next to it to build a large tractor gate for future excavation/work in the area. I plan to run hardware cloth and electric fence around the bottom to further predator proof it, but we've had no issues since installing just the welded wire fence.
Finally, with all these new birds and different types of birds, we really needed a second coop. I opted to build an 8x8 gable style roof shed. Over the course of a few weekends and with the help from some family, we got the first coop painted and the second coop framed and sheethed. This weekend, we finished the roof up to the point of underlayment. Next will be drip edging and then shingles + paint, followed by an automatic door and power + lighting.
