Tour de Coop

Wanna see our coop?  Hey, I never promised this blog would be exciting.  When we first started researching getting chickens, I was concerned about where they would fit into our backyard, if it would stink to high heaven, and frankly if the coop would be ugly.  We visited several coops in other people’s backyards around town and some were definitely better looking and better kept up than others.   We settled on one side of our house, with the bonus being that when I look out the kitchen window I can spy on them.  Here’s what the side looked like before we got started.

Jason and my dad cleared out the area and we put the coop in there and fenced off the area.  So far, we’ve been really pleased with how it’s turned out.  Here’s a close up of the coop. The coop part is a two story Chicken McMansion where they sleep and lay eggs upstairs and have dinner and watch TV downstairs.  During the day, we open the run on the right so they can stretch their legs a bit but still be protected from any predators that might be after them. We decided on putting sand down as the floor for the bottom of their coop and run after reading about many different options. So far so good. We use a kitty litter scoop to clean it out and it’s working like a charm. Up in their sleeping quarters, they get comfy pine shavings. Ooo la la, they’ve got it good.

And here’s a good shot of the awesome fence Jason built.  When we’re home, they can come out of their coop and hang out in the fenced in area.  They are obsessed with scratching and scavanging for worms and treats.

The girls make their way upstairs for bed about dusk, and at first they didn’t know they were supposed to jump up on their perch to sleep.  Chickens like to sleep hanging onto a perch bar, who knew? We’ve been going out every night to put them up there; but tonight when we went out, we were pleasantly surprised to find they’ve learned the drill and got up all by themselves.  There they are below, all ready for bed.   Nighty nite!