My Handy Hubby is at it again! And this time he has built the most amazing chicken coop. With a few finishing touches yet to go, I thought I’d share what he’s done so far, as I am super proud of him and what he’s accomplished!
Isn’t it magnificent!? He created his own plans and then had to adjust them (because of me wanting certain things). And of course along the way he made modifications, but that’s how most projects go.
On the right side is our Sad Tree. Any time a chicken (or animal of ours) is killed, we make a board for them and put it on the tree to remember them. And behind the tree is part of the goats’ playground. They jump on everything (especially little Hazel) and they like having this ramp to run and jump and play on. Eventually they will have some big cool toys to play with, but for now this is it.
The goats think they belong in the coop. They like to stay with us, so if they see us go in they run to their feeder so they can eat too…
Here is Laelibug in the nesting boxes. There are 13 boxes in all. We have put hay in them…lots of hay, but they keep scratching it on the ground. We might have to put another piece of wood up there to keep that from happening. Otherwise, when they lay eggs they crack from the wood (sometimes) or they can roll right onto the ground and become chicken treats.
This is the ramp from their old coop. It’s dirty, but still works great! It was nice for Scott to have one less thing to build.
Laelia brought Vannelope to see the chickens. Funny fact about our barnyard friends: they like to visit each other. Our chickens go over to the rabbit hutches to look in and see them. They stay for a while and just look at each other. It’s pretty funny to see. I need to get a picture of that sometime. Today our rooster and 4 hens visited the bunnies at one time, as if they had made an appointment or something. And the goats do the same thing!
Scott made outside access on two sides of the coop to grab the eggs. It’s pretty easy for the girls to do by themselves.
This is the back of the coop. Scott made the chickens’ feeder out of PVC pipe, accessible from the outside. Completely full, this will last about 6-7 days before needing to be refilled. The chickens mainly forage during the day, so we have gone down significantly on the amount of feed that we have to buy. His next two additions to the coop will be some roosting bars that he is making from pine trees from our yard and a rain barrel watering system!
