Lil Rock Inn now in place

The little coop is now moved into it's place behind the flower bed.  In the summer the mimosa tree will shade it.  We put chicken wire next to the wrought iron fencing, across the gate and put the wire across the back of the flower bed.   For now, it does not have a top because it does have the tree over it.  We can add netting if needed the only problem we would have would be neighborhood cats.  The space is so long and skinny and with the tree overhead a hawk couldn't dash and run, it would hit fence.  We got the roof glued on.  That is a long story in itself.  Long, long ago, my ex husband had a new roof put on our place.  They framed over the top of my existing roof, added insulation and put this large piece of rubberized stuff over the entire roof.  It was supposed to be one piece with no seams, yeah, right.  It had a lifetime guarantee.  Yep, they saw us coming, it was $4000, they left me the mess in my yard, the business went under before I paid the roof off.  We got a divorce, I got the bill, and the bad roof.  Steve and I removed it and had the roof foamed, it is wonderful.  So, we had this huge piece like 20'x50' after it was all done, which we cut up in fourths and have been using sections of it everywhere.  It is the floor in the Rockin' Chick Hotel and the roof in this Lil Rock Inn and we have a huge piece covering our garden area so no weeds grow off season and we pile our mulch and leaves under it and til it in as needed.

 

These were just quick photos I'll do some close ups later.  The egg box is on and it has a piece of old roof on top of it also.  We can get eggs from outside the coop.  The white pipes are water and food.  We put a pipe down for two chicken nipples but they haven't figured them out yet.  They still need a bit of training so we still have the waterer down.  The Silkies are enjoying the pile of dirt that was leftover from a 2'x6' wood bed that I lifted out and left the dirt for them to scrounge in..  I had to put fake Easter Eggs in the next box so they would know where to put their eggs.  We kept finding one on the ground outside.  Hopefully they figure it out.  They haven't figured out the roost inside yet, well, Tina Turner has, Selena and Reba both sit on the floor opening.  I had the roost about 8" high and they didn't use it so we dropped it to four inches, didn't use it.  It is a tree branch that has a curve so we mounted it on the floor and now they can get on it easy.  Why do chickens need a big coop, they only go inside at night or to lay an egg?  I'm thinking of adding some polish chickens to the lil coop. :)  Just a couple!