The Chicken Palace

Hubby added new roosts to our Chicken Coop Palace this past weekend.

There was one in there from this coop's previous life, but it was old and decrepit!

We have some nut trees that need a good pruning, so hubby went to work pruning - for the roosts!

And you know, his girls don't just get a stick.

The get two nice, large roosts.

And a third stick acting a a ladder from the ground up to the other two roosts.

The gals aren't quite old enough to fly themselves up on the roosts yet, but they can walk up to them. And they do seem to enjoy them!

I must say, I never thought watching chickens would be, well, so interesting!

My help transforming the coop to palace that day was pampering the nesting boxes - which won't even be utilized for 10-15ish more weeks! - with some nice, fresh straw.

Next on the palace to-do list -- a ladder to the nesting boxes. 

And don't you think hubby won't go all gang busters building that for them too!

The Coop Remodel

Our farm had a 'semi-dilapitated' poultry-of-some-sort coop in place when we moved in 4 years ago. We have heard stories from neighbors that all kinds of things from chickens to pigeons have been housed here.

So this past weekend, hubby got to work on fixing it our for our ladies since I want them out of our spare bathroom ASAP :) In the process of discussing the 'remodel', we also discussed how an outdoor brooder can be set up in the coop barn to accomodate any future chicks welcomed here on the farm - thus not to share my spare bathroom with poultry any more.

The coop is housed at one end of a metal barn type of structure. In the past we've used it for hay storage, atv storage and anything else that was homeless :)



View from inside the coop -- you can see it's pretty nasty!



Hubby raked out the old nasty dirt and bedding and then he and our niece and nephew shoveled it into the tractor to be disposed of.



Hubby assiting our niece off the tractor.



He then had to elevate the ground and fix some of the foundation as their were gaps making it way to easy for a hungry coon to stop by for a snack. Once he took care of that, he brought in fresh dirt and filled the coop floor, tamping it all down. We'll lay down shavings for bedding before the ladies move in.

Shamless Child Labor

He's been busy ever since working on additional renovations, such a a skylight :) Stay tuned for more Coop Updates.