Building the Winter (Permanent) Chicken Coop

Dad's retirement is benefitting me greatly.

Just as we copied the plans for the chicken tractor from the book, Self-Sufficiency for the 21st Century, Dad found a Maine website, Downeast Thunder Farm, with detailed plans for a coop.

It has been hot and we need rain. I think Dad is looking for signs of rain clouds here.

Once again, Dad has been doing all the design and more than his share of the work. (Is it pathetic that the power drill makes my piano-playing forearm shake all evening? Don't answer that.) And again, there have been some key alterations.







One ridiculously awesome alteration: since we recently replaced the windows in our house, Dad has repurposed our old kitchen and laundry room windows for the coop.

 

This narrow structure will have windows on either side. 

The view the chickens will have of the pond.

In the dead of winter, the chickens will be getting southern exposure, which is nice.

The siding will be metal found in our back woods, leftover from the barn. I'm trying to convince Dad the chickens need a solar hot-water heater. (I don't want to spend too much on electricity, do I? No, I will not go out there several times a day in the freezing cold to change their water.)

To recoup our investment (re-coop?) we would have to charge maybe $10 per dozen eggs for years to come. But my father is out of control! What can be done?