I love seeing other peoples' setups, so many people are so creative and artistic with their coops! Unfortunately ours is just plain, functional chicken housing. Due to $$ constraints and the simple busy-ness of life, this is what works for us, so it's what we have for now! Maybe someday. . . (dreaming!)
So here's our coop
I have to say it looks MUCH prettier in the winter :)
We have only girls (layers) and our breeds are Rhode Island Red (Big Red and Rhona), Barred Rock(Mackey and Lacey), Ameraucana (DeeDee), Australorp (Nancy and Blackie), White Rock (Snowbelle), and Buff Orpington (Marty and Linny). The kids named them, and they're named after several Iditarod racers, Grandma, and the others are just "made up" names! The kids pretty much do all the poultry care (yay!) and they enjoy the birds. This is our third flock, we always like to have a flock with a variety of breeds (I wish I could say something scientific about it, but truthfully, we just like the looks of it!)The kids do poultry projects for 4H and really enjoy the showmanship part of it, showing them at the fair!
Back to our coop design. . .our coop has a HUGE FLAW and that is its location. We do not own the land here, so we were a bit limited as to where we located the coop. We built it our first summer here, before we knew. . .it floods like crazy every huge rainstorm, and especially in the early winter/early spring. Here's a pic of the result of that--our chickens get their own ice rink! (they pretty much stay off the ice and on the shavings area or in the yard
During the day, when we're home, we just let them roam around the yard. They are so hilarious and crack us up frequently. The FUNNIEST thing ever is to see a chicken running toward you! We give them "treats" (stuff that would go in compost) quite frequently, so whenever we go out they want to check out what we have for them :) We also stand at the back door and call "chickie" and they come running to get scraps from dinner plates. We call them our "pre-composters."
They like to hang out under my son's rabbit cages and dig for all the worms living under there
We raise a few batches of meat birds also, but right now they are in the fridge
and tomorrow they will be "moving" to the freezer or the canner! :)
To end this, I'll say that we thoroughly enjoy keeping chickens, and like most chicken owners, we eat a LOT of eggs! Here's my favorite way to make a super-quick breakfast
Looks like a perfectly fine backyard chicken operation to me troutwife! Love that your kids have fun with showing in 4 H too...what types of birds do you raise for meat? I've been thinking along these lines as well!
ReplyDeletethanks so much for sharing your story and coop with us on the Hen House Hop! ps. Love your yellow coop!
Deb
Love your coop. Looks like it serves it purpose. I crack up when my largest Buff Orpington comes running at me. She squawks all the way.
ReplyDeleteHi Deb--the meat birds we raise are the fast-growing Cornish rock crosses. I know many people prefer heritage breeds, but back in July I wrote a post about why we raise the ones we do. Here's the link
ReplyDeleteHow do you can chicken I have canned veggies and fish,but never chicken. Would love to try it.
ReplyDelete