Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Chicken Coop Dreamz

Hey friends!

It has been a busy month!

I finally found time to log on and post pictures of the extremely rad and decadent chicken coop Nathan recently finished building, with lots of holiday help from his brother. Family is good for much more than judgement and racist jokes!



Anyhoozle, this chicken castle easily houses our 8 birds. They have even started laying more eggs since moving in! How about that! The neighbors have been slowing down on the road to catch a glimpse of this bad boy when they think nobody is looking, but so far nobody has crashed into the creek.

The welded wire run up front has wire buried under ground so we don't have to hurry home every night to put the ladies to roost. Foxes and panthers ain't getting in there without some work!

The inside features a cozy yet spacious area for lots of birds to roost without a fight -- or so we thought. They all seem to prefer the one branch in the corner. At least nobody is left on the floor to get pooped on in the night.

All the wood panels are from the sawmill up-mountain, grown from backyard trees. It doesn't get more local than that, and I love all the colors in the wood grain. Nathan is debating painting the outside of the coop... internet thoughts, anybody?

We have three nest boxes, easily opened from the back for egg collection. So far, the girls have used two of them. Hopefully there won't be an egg laying nag fest every morning like there was in Asheville, when the hens all wanted to use the same nest box.

I can't wait to see how this coop will look in the spring, surrounded by plants and a mob of chickens. Nathan did a great job, and I'm so happy that our animal family is comfortable out here. Happy holidays everybody!