All Cooped Up

Well the time came. We could tell by the look in his eyes that it was time for Kekoa to get out into the natural world. So I spent the weekend (2 weekends ago-geez time flies) making a little coop for him so he can be safe while experiencing the sites and sounds of the "wild." I gathered up all the scrap wood we have to come up with a design that used as little material as possible (to keep it light for mobility) and also create the least amount of waste. That's basically how I ended up with the size. Also, the chicken wire we had was 3 feet wide so there had to be a support beam every 3 feet to be able to tack up the fence. The resulting footprint is 6 by 3 feet, and 5 feet high. For some added stability and for the roof I used scrap aluminum roofing material. Since these pics were taken, I've added a shelf for him to perch on. Oh and I left the bottom of the coop open so he can experience digging in the grass for bugs, it's light enough to lift and shuffle over to another spot. We stacked some logs in there too so he can climb.

I propped up one side against the ladder. The other side stood on it's own while I marked, cut and secured the side supports. It's nice when cuts are actually square.

We moved the fenced frame into place before securing the aluminum panels.

Back piece is on. Ready for the roof.

Conn had to test it out.

"Hey, what's up with this wire crap?"

"Hey, where are you guys going? You're not going to LEAVE me here are you?"

Well, we couldn't bare to to leave him out there of course. In fact, we take him in at night. This is his self-chosen perch, the top shelf of a book case, where he seems to be perfectly content spending the night. He just flew up there one evening, out of the blue. He does try to feed on our vintage paper flowers though. Poor misguided lil' chicken!