The Coop and The Girls

 

It just occurred to me that I've never actually shared photos of our coop.   I introduced the girls on the old blog, but since then they're almost completely grown and one has left.  SHE turned out to be a HE, so he got to go back to the farm - for real, not "the farm" - and got to be passed along to live with a family who needed a rooster for their flock. We got two girls to replace him since it would have been mean to introduce just one girl to an already established flock and pecking order, so that brings our total to 5 girls: Penelope, Beatrice, Nicholas the Girl, Henrietta and Stella.

Since we inherited two old sheds when we bought our house, John decided to build a wall inside one of them and use it for the coop.  Not too shabby for only $10 spent on lime to whitewash the inside being the only cost for the shed space and about $100 spent on wood and supplies for the run!

He managed to piece together scrap wood for all of the interior walls, windows and nesting boxes, so the exterior wood and chicken wire were the bulk of the cost. Yes, our sheds are rotting and need to be replaced, or at the very least need a fresh coat of paint, but projects are slow around here, so the priority was making sure we had somewhere for the chickens to live.  I have just under 5 zillion gorgeous chicken coops on my chicken board on Pinterest, but you know what? I'm sick of living in this world of pretending that everything is beautiful and Pin-worthy. Sure, I'd love to look at something great, but I love that we have a great spot for our girls to live and be cozy and I'm crazy proud time after time of what my husband is able to build out of nothing but some wood and nails and tools! 

I took a bunch of these photos before we moved them in, then just forgot to share. You'e welcome, since it means there was a lot less dirt and grime (and poop) before they moved in! 

Thinking of getting chickens? I cannot say enough good thing, this has been such a great decision.  These sweet girls are such low-maintenance and so much fun for all of us. Now, we wait for eggs!