Now you might not think this looks like it should have taken very long (we only built the yard, not the house--it's borrowed), but you didn't build it with my perfectionist husband. The yard slopes, but all the posts are perfectly level and the chicken wire is tight all the way around. Really, this is not an easy task. We sunk our corner posts in the ground that was super hard (he did the digging) because of wind around here. The door is 1" steel frame with 1/2 inch hardware cloth, brick underneath and still waiting on a latch (bungees doing a fine job in the meantime). Oh yeah, and it exactly fills the doorway with no gaps when it closes. Did I mention my building partner is a perfectionist? Still need to build our permanent coop on the temporary end by the door and cover the whole mess with bird netting to keep everybody in and everybody else out, but those are projects for another week off ;-).
The crazy chickens don't know to go in the house at night, so we have to go gather them up and throw them in there. The food is in the house, but they don't go eat it until I pull it out and show it to them, then they ambush the feeder as I try to shove it back in the house--you'd think it might occur to even one of them to go in the house to eat or sleep, but as my mom told me: "you'll constantly be amazed at how dumb chickens are." I was hoping my chickens would be above average! Maybe they'll figure it out sometime . . .
8 comments:
I showed my hubby your chicken coope. Now he has decided that he is going to make ours like your. Thanks for the idea!
Do you have the chickens for the eggs or meat? I've been considering getting chickens for eggs recently. I found a great way to preserve eggs recently by coating them with a layer of warmed mineral oil. Amazing what you can store these days. http://tinyurl.com/lgqv4z
Small farm girl--you're very welcome-thanks for stopping by!
preparednesspro--We got them for the eggs. I guess we'll eat the non-producers if there are any, but we eat a lot of eggs and home grown eggs taste lots better than store eggs. That egg preservation trick is pretty neat. Might have to try it.
You've got to watch the young ones about going into the house. We had a hail storm and lost 5 that couldn't or didn't find the entrance. They seem to learn fast, though.
Looks like a good setup. Is the grass inside the pen gone, yet?
Wow, that looks fancy! I can't wait to come see it in person. By the way, I heard your message but we're up north at Eldon's parents right now. I'll call you when we get back so the kiddos can play!
My "yard birds" just roam about at their leisure and they roost in trees at night. They eat books and small snakes, which is ok with me.
I like the looks of the chicken pen...
I want to thank you for the updates to all that you have going on. It's fun to follow along!
Bitmap--the grass was from a lawn mowing job, so they quit eating it when it dried up. Unfortunately for the chickies, the coop was built on dirt--we have lots of that around here :)
Sharla--house hunting? Let me know when you're back in town :)
Hermit--too many wandering neighbor dogs, foxes, and racoons to let chickens run free around here. They'd be lunch in a hurry. Too bad, or our job would have been a lot easier!
Jim--thanks. Always appreciate you stopping by! :)
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