Peering in the front door

I love my chicken coop.  It has been wonderful for the girls and they are very happy in it.  The coop is well made.  However, one design flaw exists:  the nesting box roof leaks.  Cape Cod winters are very wet, snowy, and windy. Unfortunately, the coop has fallen victim to the weather. The leak has plagued me since the coop first arrived last Fall.

I worked so hard at trying to figure out where and how the water was seeping into the nesting boxes and surrounding walls.  I caulked.  I added weatherstripping.  I was continually changing the wet pine shavings in the nesting boxes.  Sometimes, even after waking in the night from the kids, I would return to bed, with my mind fully awake, and think about the leak.  It drove me nuts.  Finally, in the middle of winter last year, I covered the entire coop with plastic and waited.  The plastic solution that I had previously created in December cracked in the cold.  Spring would soon be here.  The freezing weather was no match for my bare hands and brittle frozen sheets of plastic.

Eventually Spring came, and after a trip to Home Depot, I came home with a roll of clear plastic carpet protector and shelf liner.  Over the course of an hour, I created a weatherproof barrier that worked like a charm.  Although it was not very pretty, it kept the girls dry and that to me, is what mattered the most.  I was happy with my solution, despite never getting to the root of the problem.

These past few weeks, the contractors have been in and out of our house, repairing our bathroom after a pipe in the wall leaked and required the bathroom to be gutted.  The finishing carpenters arrived and spent a couple of days at our house.  They were intrigued by the chickens.  When they took their breaks, I would find them both saying hello to the girls.  As they were visiting the girls on the last day, one of them asked me about the plastic.  I had explained the situation and he told me that he could fix it so that it didn’t leak.  Apparently, in addition to the design flaw, it was shingled incorrectly.  As I lured the girls out of the coop into the run with treats, the carpenter went to work.   Little did the girls know that their home was undergoing an “extreme makeover”.

Within no time, the nesting boxes’ roof was repaired.  It came out beautifully and the best part is that there is no more plastic covering the coop.  This labor day weekend the new roof will be put to the test.  Rain is in the forecast.  The carpenter was happy to help.  I think there was some novelty for him working on the coop.  I don’t quite think he had ever imagined coming to the rescue of our feathered ladies.