Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Ugly coop for ugly chickens...

I have built pretty much the ugliest chicken coop ever. lol... made from an old dog kennel, it will work great, but I am planning (as soon as I am able) to make it again, out of 2X4's with the walls one foot higher (so it will be 6'X8'X5') and a nice little place for them to nest in the back. But for now... here it is, my first city chicken coop. :)
And here is my ugly adolescent chicken. The one Cyan is holding here is Rose. Amazing that they have gotten so big in just 5 weeks! They are even more scared than they were when we first got them, but they are also getting more adventurous. It will be great to have them outside as they are starting to be much more messy (bigger=more mess). Soon we will be able to give them garden weeds and kitchen scraps and such. My little city homestead. My dh said no to the mini cow though. lol!

We love our small backyard flock. The kids and I also really enjoy the idea of being more in tune with nature and living as sustainably as possible, gathering our own eggs and feeding the chickens our vegetarian kitchen scraps. Cyan especially loves this. She will sit with the chickens in their new dog kennel changed chicken coop for hours, finding bugs to feed them and talking with them. Alex feeds and waters them every morning. It has been such a wonderful experience for these two city kids. They have learned so much about nature and where their food comes from by the times we have spent outdoors. We live in a very rainy climate, and so often it is easy to stay indoors and not see the beauty that awaits outside in all seasons. Having the huge garden and the chickens gives us a reason to get into the outdoors and see what nature has to offer. I couldn't ask for a better playground/classroom/produce stand/medicine cabinet as I have in my own backyard.

Here are all the girls in their new coop:
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5 comments

Katie said...

Val,
The coop is nice, and I can't believe how big the chicks have gotten...your children are blessed with a wonderful Mamma, who teaches them such wonderful things...how magical it must be for them.....

Mom2fur said...

Awww, I don't think they are ugly at all. I think they are sweet!
I have one of those dog cages. We were using it in the house for our ferrets, but since they sleep 20 hours of the day and didn't seem to care about the big cage, they are now in a two-story ferret cage and the dog thingie is in the back yard. Gee, maybe I should put a top on it and get some chickens! They're really pretty cool!

simply patti said...

Val, Your coop is beautiful! I think I will convert our old swingset; I can email the pdf plans to you if you like...

I love your beautiful blog!

babyzen said...

If you think yours is ugly, you should see mine!!!

Anonymous said...

I think that you should be covering this cage from all the sides because it is going to be cold for them. For the first attempt it has been the best thing that I have got to see in this blog.

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