Current Residents: 2 People, 2 Dogs, 2 Chickens

"Hey, Mel...what's that there behind your gardenia bush?"

"Oh, nothing much...just my new chicken coop."

WHAT the WHAT? Yes, that's right. We are now the proud landlords to a couple of sweet little chickens. David and I have been thinking about the prospect of raising poultry for quite some time now, but when I casually mentioned the idea to my daddy, he showed up with this at my house mere days later.

That's the way we get things done around here people. Ask and you shall receive!

Just kidding. I was so excited when my family showed up with an adorable chicken coop in tow...it was a total surprise. Daddy and Jonathon designed and built the coop just for us...they even painted it to match our house.

How cute is that, I ask you?

The coop has come to rest here, on the north side of our house. We originally placed it in the back yard, but it turns out that chickens and dogs are a risky combination, so we moved it here even at the risk of being those weirdos with chickens in their front yard.

Notice the wheels on the coop? That's because this is technically called a "chicken tractor," meaning a mobile chicken coop. Daddy and Jon Jon made the coop movable because they weren't sure where we would put it. This way we can move it whenever necessary.

I'll show you all of the other neat-o features of Casa de Chicken, but first let's meet the ladies.

These are our two chickens, Flannery and Eudora. They are both Dominicker or Broad Rock hens. They are very sweet and they lay beautiful brown eggs. Daddy bought us grown chickens instead of tiny chicks so we've had the instant gratification of new chickens that already lay eggs.

Now, let's take the tour...

The part that looks like a little house is the actual coop. If you open the door to the coop, you'll find the roost pole, where the chickens sleep and two laying boxes, where the girls lay their eggs. The floor is covered in pine shavings that get changed to keep the coop nice and clean instead of smelly and gross.

On the side of the coop, there's another door where we can easily access the laying boxes to grab our fresh eggs and there's also some storage space where we keep the chickies' food.

Here's David checking for eggs.

In each laying box, we placed a plastic Easter Egg (per Daddy's instruction) so the ladies would know where to lay their eggs. It works, too! Everyday there's a nice brown egg right next to this purple one.

The chickens can come in and out of the coop using their little ladder/board walk. The chicken wire area is called the run and that's where the chickens spend most of their day, scratching and pecking around in the dirt.

I decided to make the coop a little more cottage-y with the addition of a window box. The window is for ventilation inside the coop, but I think Eudora and Flannery really appreciate the nice view, too.

There's another door on the run so we can come in and out of the coop to change the water and food or grab a chicken when necessary.

And when it's open the girls can wander around for some for some fresh grass. Free Range, for goodness sake.

So here we are...chickens in our front yard...fresh eggs everyday...neighbors coming to stare...children "bocking" loudly beneath our windows...

We wouldn't want it any other way!
Mel

Do you have chickens? Do you want chickens? We'd love to answer any questions that we can!