Monday, October 25, 2010

All Done - JUST ADD CHICKENS!!


I can't believe it... the Hen House is finally done!  I started back in May and worked on it during the weekends when I wasn't riding my horse Mickey or taking care of other stuff needing to be done.  I feel like I just took my last final exam or something!  Ha ha.  Short of a little "chicken landscaping" in the run and a bit more shade covering (which can wait till late Spring if I am super lazy) and adding the shavings inside the coop for the deep litter method and hanging the feeder and waterer, I'm finished!  Now, I have to find my chickens!  And, thank goodness for Craigslist.  Since I've been working on this for months, I want hens that are gonna lay NOW!  I will get at least a couple this Friday or Saturday and hopefully more.  My dogs and neighbors will be happy soon and I'll get the enjoyment of keeping them.  I, myself, am vegan and don't eat eggs.  Actually, I have nothing against eating eggs raised like this, but I have never liked the taste of eggs since I was young.  Bummer for me, I guess!  But, since I make all my dog's food from scratch, it will be a wonderful source of protein for them. 

The coop itself is 10 feet long, 6 feet wide and 6 feet high.  The run is over 300 sf and the girls should have plenty of room to roam and do their thing.  It has chicken wire across the whole top and about 6 inches below ground.  Where the chicken wire ends underground there is a 9 inch horizontal sheet of lathe layed in the trench which is supposed to cut the paws of coyotes if they try and dig under.  I think the girls will be safe.  If not, I wouldn't know what else to do short of just not having chickens!


 

Inside, I have two roosting bars going across the coop and two corner roosting bars up where the top roosting bar is.  The ladder leads up to the lower roosting bar.  I won the cool nesting box from a giveaway on the blog of "Life on a Southern Farm".  I'll be so excited when I see my first egg in there!  I'm buying a waterer, but am making my own feeder out of an old VW hubcap I've held onto and a piece of stove pipe I bought from the hardware store.  I got the idea from Storey's book on chickens and it'll save me some money and will be fun and quick to make.




The art work is just for fun and is made out of plywood.  The two coyotes are howling for the other coyotes to stay away!!  Ha ha.  Putting a good coyote vibe out there.



Well, I really hope my next blog post is of my chickens...  I'm just so relieved it's finished and considering I didn't have any plans and just made it from the top of my head, I'm pretty pleased.  I learned a lot and would do some things differently if I did it again, but that's the case with anything you do for the first time.  It was a fun project.  So, for now - JUST ADD CHICKENS!!


and here is was 5 months ago!!  Whoo hoo!  Progress is fun.



8 comments:

  1. Too funny! I love the artwork on the coop.

    Do you eggs in cooking at all? Baking?

    So did you actually buy that place in Arkansas or are you staying where you are?

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  2. I absolutely love it. Your chickens are going to love it and the art work is perfect.

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  3. Thats amazing and beautiful!! I love the little chicken plopping out eggs on the back! Your ladies are going to love their new home!

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  4. leah - glad you added my blog! i haven't used eggs in cooking for many, many years but with these eggs will branch out for sure and give it a try! we didn't get the place in arkansas, but it was for the best since my partner's melanoma resurfaced as stage 3. surgery took place a few weeks ago and we got a green light and no metastasis! we're not gonna stay in the high desert, it's just taking us longer to get away. life gets in the way, huh?

    cheryl - thank you!

    kelly - thank you, too!

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  5. The coop is beautiful! I know you are so proud of it. You did a great job.
    I made our dogs some whole wheat doggy treats this week and they love them.
    I make their food most of the time and add eggs in for protein.
    Good luck with the hens.
    Pam

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  6. Nice job!! You're going to have some very happy hens!

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  7. That isn't a hen house or chicken coop, it's a regular Taj Mahal. Beautiful job! Hope all is well.

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  8. what a fabulous chicken mansion! i heard it was a condo, but it's really a mansion! it certainly holds it own on the homestead wesite of coops i just checked out! looking foward to seeing photos of the 'girls' proudly displaying their eggs. congratulations! steffi

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