Coop Progress 4

I finished the chicken coop this weekend with some help from Richard. There are still a few things to be done but the girls are moved in and protected from predators. I think once it's fully complete I'll put together a little video tour.

In Other News

...that's not chicken related. It looks like I'm going to Chile. I don't think I ever wrote a blog post about it last year, but I went to Honduras for four days after an earthquake to assist with damage assessment of the levees surrounding some Chiquita banana plantations. They needed a Spanish-speaking engineer to help with interpreting but in the end I didn't do that much translating. They liked me, though, so after the earthquake in Chile the same guy called me to see if I was interested in going. It's a unique opportunity that I don't want to miss but it's a significant commitment. They don't have a good idea of how long it would last but I'm anticipating at least six months. At first I'll be going down for two weeks and then returning here for two weeks followed by possible longer stints.

At first I was thinking that I would slow my business down and maybe hire one engineer to look after things while I wasn't around. But after some good advice from an architect I work with, I decided to go in the opposite direction and hire two engineers to keep my office running at full capacity. That means that I need someone who can fill my shoes, so to speak, plus at least one more engineer. Things were slow for me for a few weeks not too long ago but now things are picking back up and there is a lot coming in. I already have the junior engineer, which is someone who was doing some work for me last year. And now I'm interviewing some more senior engineers. Fortunately my old boss at Double-D just did a round of interviews looking for an engineer and was able to send a couple qualified resumes my way.

It's a big step for me and I'm a bit nervous but I'm going to run with it and see what happens. I'll write more as it progresses.

Coop Progress 3

The coop is starting to look like a coop. I framed the walls during the week, put siding on the walls on Saturday, and framed the roof on Sunday. I also started digging the trenches for the run walls. I went to Urban Ore to get the reclaimed lumber for the siding. It looked like they were previously used as concrete forms. I picked up some 2x4s too, which I wish I had done from the beginning instead of the Home Depot ones. Now I just need to finish the other two sides, one as a big door and the other with the nesting boxes, plus the run.

The chicks are no longer chicks, rather they look like actual chickens. They were in a teenage stage for a while but now they're almost completely feathered out and growing fast.It'll still be a few months before they start laying but we're ready to move them out of the house as soon as possible.

Coop Progress 2

I made it a little farther on the coop today: Hardware cloth on two sides and below ground on the third. Leveled the base and filled in the trenches with dirt. Put welded wire for the floor and attached the wall bottom plates.

Starting the Coop

I started the chicken coop on Sunday but only got as far as framing
the base. It took much more time to dig the trench for extending the
wire mesh down.

Hot Chicks!

Vero, Sarah, and I took a chicken and duck class at BioFuel Oasis a couple weeks ago so as soon as the store's order of chicks arrived, Vero and I went down and picked out five. We ultimately want three chickens but because not all of them are guaranteed females, we chose five with the expectation that at least one will turn out to be a rooster. If that happens, he'll be the first on our table. The rest are for eggs.

We chose two Araucanas, one Rhode Island Red, one Black Australorp, and one Black Sex Link (the only guaranteed female). They're pretty cute and fun to watch. We took them outside the other day and let them run around. I found worms for them under rocks and they chased each other around fighting over them. They're growing pretty fast; you can see in the photo that some of the fur is already turning to feathers at the ends of the wings.