Sprouting Up Organically Blog

I say part 1, but I have no idea how many actually parts there will be! LOL!  So now that we have decided to get chickens, we figured we better have some place to put them, since we have raccoons, golden eagles, turkey vultures, condors, and the like around here. Not  to mention 5 dogs, most of which do ignore birds and consider birds beneath their notice, but why take any chances? I don’t think total free range is in our future unfortunately, but we are going to give them a good sized run to be outdoors in!

We started off by reading up in books, on forums, and picking the brains of all the friends and family we know who have or have had chickens (which turned out to quite alot! and thanks you guys for all your insight!). After all that, we decided to start with 8 chicks and hope they all live, since we have heard it is not uncommon to lose a few chicks just because. Also we were going to try to build as much of it out of recycled wood and parts, but apparently a lot of others have had similar ideas because there was slim pickings out there. We found some usable stuff in the area around the corner of the house, otherwise known as the black hole of our yard. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard the words “Oh THAT’S where that went!” uttered when looking for something back there. I can’t tell you how they get there either, because I certainly don’t put anything back there!

So my DH launches in and starts building a hen house using a basic plan and altering it as he sees fit. Yes, he can do that, and is quite good at  it!  The base (all recycled wood) has gaps between the boards for the floor so that we can hose it out when necessary, but not so big we would have chicken’s feet falling through. I would think after the 4 to 6 inch layer of pine shavings go down, the gaps won’t even be noticed. Also the 3 windows on the garden-side of the coop will end up getting hardware cloth stapled over them, so that the chickens will have plenty of cross-ventilation.

Next up? The rest of  the walls! Unfortunately, most of the this had to be new wood since the sheets of plywood we found were disintegrating as we moved them. DH cut out ventilation strips at the top of the opposing walls, so that when the roof is on they will be protected by the roof from the elements and still get air. Both the chicken-sized door and the people-sized door were cut out and set aside to be worked back in later. The last thing he cut out for was the nest boxes, the size and quantity of which we went round and round about for a while.

We finally opted for more rather than less boxes and used some more of the scrap wood we found to build them. The tricky part was installing them onto a plywood wall. DH figured this out too eventually and the boxes were installed, but it took 3 of us to hold them in place while they were mounted to the frame. I really hope the chickens appreciate all this effort! (Yah, yah, I know, like the chickens will care…).

Well, there you go! The first day’s work done and assembled! The kids finally came out when all the tools were done running, and of course had to inspect it (by this, I mean crawling in it and checking every inch, seeing if they can fit through the windows, etc.). Their one big question? “Is this for us, or the chickens?” Hmmm…..don’t tempt me, kiddos….