Today Jenn continued her painting of the coop; now all of the trim boards and soffits have been painted, just waiting for the siding.

Meanwhile, I finished installing ground barriers, installed the cute weathervane, and made a ramp for the pop door.

Painting done (other than siding), and weathervane installed.

Another view of the weathervane and painting.

Soffits.

Pop door ramp.

Today I took advantage of some fine weather to do a bit more on the coop, including mounting the poop door, and installing hardware cloth under the coop.

This is the poop door — a hatch below the roosts, that will enable me to more easily clean out the coop. The door is missing a handle on the left side currently. Though maybe I should move the handle to the middle? Not sure having handles on each side is all that useful after all.

Digging a trench below the edge of the wall.

Stapled on some hardware cloth (wire fencing), to keep the chickens (and other animals) out from under the coop. The top will be covered by the bottom of the siding.

Buried. Chickens are diggers, so burying it about a foot underground will prevent them from digging under it.

It was a bit drizzly yesterday and this morning, but this afternoon we both did some work on the coop. 

Jenn painted the window & door frames a bright pink, while I did some small stuff: I tweaked the front door frames, built a pop door, and pop controller internal door.

Just one picture today, showing some of Jenn’s work.

My original design for the coop didn’t include window boxes, but Jenn asked about it, and I figured I could add them below the two side windows. So this morning I did.

The boxes are cedar, with a plastic liner to help protect the coop and make it easier to plant. There is a plywood backer to give some vertical space from the bottom of the window, since that will hinge from the top. 

They’ll not only make the coop look a little nicer, but have practical benefits, if we plant things like mint and such that help to repel flies. 

I spent some time today finishing off the trim, including the corners and around the vents at the back.

Here you can see the trim on the corners and back vents.

A closer view.

Over the weekend Jenn started painting the coop in vibrant colors, inspired by Caribbean styles.

The latest update on the chicken coop: soffits. Those are the panels under the eaves. Not vitally necessary, but make it look nicer.

First step: boxing under the eaves, in line with the gable ends.

I then stapled insect screen in the gap between the underside of the roof and the top of the wall, between each rafter. This will serve as additional ventilation on both sides.

Here’s what the screen looks like from inside, before the soffit was installed.

Then I added a beam to the top of the wall, to help mount the soffit panels.

Here’s the first soffit panel in place. You can see the holes for the vents, plus temporary blocks on the wall to hold it while I nailed it. The gap between the soffit and opening below is sized for a trim board, to be added later.

The south soffit finished, with the vent covers in place. (Well, it still needs caulk and paint, of course.)

Same thing on the north side.

Then there’s the soffit on the east side.

And the west.

One more step on the chicken coop: adding trim and roofing to the awning over the pop door (the chicken door from the coop to the run).

Here’s the pop door, with trim added.

The wooden awning, with trim added.

Roofing paper.

Starter strip.

Shingles underway.

Done.

A little more done on the chicken coop: trim around some of the windows and doors.

The trim around the front window, egg door, and people door. (Not quite completed; still needs boards at the bottom.) I used wider trim around the door to avoid a narrow strip of siding between the two doors, and between the door and right corner (which will also have trim, not yet installed).

Trim around the east side window, looking through to the west side window.

The front and west sides.

The east side, including the poop door, sitting temporarily in place.

Closer on the poop door. I cut the sides narrower to allow for the corner trim (yet to be installed), and the bottom to fit around the concrete footings.

Back to working on the new chicken coop, in between work, garden stuff, etc.

This week I built all of the doors and windows.

Here’s the person door under construction:

These are the egg doors — double doors to access the back of the nesting boxes, which will be configured as “roll-out” boxes, where the eggs gently roll into a padded collection area, so they stay nice and clean and easy to collect:

Here’s the poop door: a hatch underneath where the roosts will be, with trays to collect the night-time poop for easier cleaning:

These are a couple of the vents on the back of the coop, temporarily clamped in place:

This is a small Lexan window that will go between the above two vents, covering the pop door controller. It needs a window as the controller has a light sensor to automatically close the door at night, and re-open it in the morning:

Here’s building the front window, that will be above the egg doors:

And the two side windows:

Finally, all of the doors and windows together, after being caulked (somewhat messily, but the paint will cover that up):