The Hens get new digs

As I was perhaps a bit too wordy in my last post, I will keep my hands away from the keyboard this time, with the exception being to add a bit of explanation to the following photos. This lack of text has less to do with me apologising for a long post and more to do with the near-vacuum we have been living in lately: nothing noteworthy has happened. It is, as they say, a slow news week.

About the only thing to report is the completion of the chicken coop. I think it was done in record time, too, although in this case the record is for the longest time between anticipated completion date and actual completion date. We may also be in contention for notable mention in the largest cost over-run (chicken coop category) and most over built structure (chicken coop category). How over budget and over built, you ask? Let's just leave it at knowing there are two, full-sized paint cans worth of exterior porch and deck paint on the inside of the biddy barn.

The four phases of chicken coop painting, as demonstrated by Hunter:

Step one: Mix paint, even though it is, by all appearances, already thoroughly mixed.

Step Two: Rough in the large areas, using broad strokes to ensure maximum coverage. It's best if both hands are used for this step in order to increase productivity.

Step Three: Once the large areas are more or less covered, concentrate on the trim. A trained interior designer will always spot shoddy trim work and, if noticed, this lack of care will translate throughout the room.

Step Four: Stick your head out of the wee chicken door. This fulfills two criteria at once: the door size is deemed accurate and it allows the diligent painter a break from the fumes.

The over built chicken coop.

There it stands, in all it's completed glory. When I started this project in the spring, Jenn and I were planning on using an old, already existing structure. It was not nearly as sturdy as this and in hindsight, I'm glad we decided to go this route. The gate is the entrance for us into the one side of the chicken's outdoor yard. I don't know what the square footage of the area is, but it took nearly one hundred feet of fencing to enclose and one short side was already fenced from the rabbit run, as they adjoin each other.

Inside the coop. The roost was a design of Jenn's. The floor is pine shavings and the metal deal-y is a feeder, which came to us all the way from Elmvale because Jenn had to have it for her birds. It's a nice feeder, though, because it holds a lot of feed at one time yet it dispenses it in such a way that they chickens can't land on it or spread the seed everywhere and lose it in the shavings. Bet you thought a feeder was a feeder, hey? Me too.

The nesting boxes inside the coop. Even though chickens are supposed to roost at night, we have one that insists on sleeping in one of the boxes. Maybe she's just being efficient, wanting to be ready in the morning for egg laying without getting out of bed. I'm sure that's it. The roof has a fairly steep slope to prevent the chickens from standing on it for if they can stand on it they will and where they stand, they poop. Limiting their roosting areas helps keep the coop cleaner.

These are a few of Jenn's chickens. All of these ones lay the coloured eggs.

The chickens are at the far end of their 'pasture' where they like to dig in the woodchips for bugs. They love grasshoppers and will chase each other down should one of them boast too loudly over her catch. They are also pretty good at keeping the grass down; in the foreground is the area they inhabited prior to the move into the coop and beyond their fenced area, in the background, is an area that they have spent little time in.

One of Jenn's chickens, close up. Gaze into and feel the emotion in that eye; full of compassion and understanding. It's as though this hen is wise beyond her years. No? You don't see it? Me either.