All coop'ed up

       It was finally time to start work on the chicken hotel and garden shed at Fittnell Farms 

as the chickens had out grown and partially over stayed their welcome inside the house.  The idea was to build it off the back of the garage where it provided easy access to power and allowed us to use the block wall as a structure to tie the chicken run to.  My initial thought was to build a small building reminiscent of an old maple sugar shack and single room school house. Once the idea was worked through most of the way, it was time to start the foundation. 

      I proceeded to hand dig in what was the easiest 12 inches of loose topsoil on our property, followed by the not so easy layers and layers of clay and large rocks. After finally reaching around 3.5 feet, the clay became hard and contained rocks too large to dig out. After a little gravel was put in the base of the holes, two 4 foot sono tubes, and more 80lb bags of concrete than one set of legs and a back wanted to deal with, the front footers were poured. For the rear of the shed, I decided to try something different as digging along and down the existing garage foundation was not really an option. For that I dug down and set concrete deck blocks, where the idea was that if the structure was to settle, it would settle against the garage wall where it would rest. 

The floor was next.

The side walls followed

And lastly the front wall. Note the working
drawing for the design nailed to the wall 

As you can start to see in the picture above, the front right corner of the shed was framed with the intention of installing old windows on the corner as this half was to be the potting shed. After I had framed out the roof and begun sheathing, I knew now was the time to work on the cupola if I was to ever put one on it. I mean, how can a chicken hotel not have a cupola and weather vane? It also provided a nice little surprise for the wife.

A farmstead is not complete without a barn red barn.

What kind of chicken farmer would I be if I did not provided them with the most comfortable home? As I plan on overdoing everything I do, I decided to insulated the interior walls, install a a vapor barrier, and finish the interior with wood and vinyl flooring (makes cleaning a breeze I must say)

They are happy chickens

Still on the list for finishing the chicken hotel and garden shed before winter is completing the enclosed chicken run, adding finishing trim work, installing metal roofing, and attaching vents and a weather vane to the cupola.