New Chicken Coop

 

Thanks to James and Dev the chickens have a new home!

As you know, we got our first chicken, Lenore, in October.  But chickens are social animals and we didn't want her to be alone so we added two more chickens to the mix, Lilli and Luanne (all of Dev's chickens have names starting with the letter L; in college, his chickens were Lindsay, Lolita, Loretta, and Lulu).

Lilli, Luanne, and Lenore

The three chickens get along splendidly, though as the oldest and biggest chicken, Lenore is still the boss.  Lilli is smart and ambitious and definitely chicken #2. Luanne is sweet and friendly but a bit less clever than the other two.

And look what a beautiful coop we have to welcome the new chickens home to! During the Spindler Christmas visit last month, James gave me the best Christmas present of the year, designing and building this gorgeous A-frame chicken coop.  After James left, Dev added the finishing touches and a few bonus features.

Upstairs is the chickens' sleeping area - there is a perch (like most birds, chickens prefer to sleep on a perch) and a nesting box for egg laying.  Inside the nesting box we also placed a fake plastic egg - believe it or not, this is a common trick for teaching a hen where to lay her eggs every morning.

Dev also added a pair of gas shocks on both sides to help ease open the (very heavy) side walls.

 

 Fake egg.

Downstairs there is a fenced run for walking around during the day.  Usually we let the chickens free range all over the yard, both for their own enjoyment and to keep down the insect population, but it's nice to have the option to cage them temporarily in bad weather or if we're out of town.  We want to add a hanging water dish to keep their water supply clean.

The fenced area includes a fold-down gate on one side, and on the other, a pair of heavy duty wheels that make it easier to move the entire coop if needed.

 

 

Dev built a ramp to connect the two levels and it's great fun to watch the inevitable traffic jam when the chickens go to bed at night and one chicken suddenly decides to stop at the top of the ramp.  But eventually everyone figures it out and goes to bed.

 
Chickens sleeping on their perch at night.

  
(The coop will be permanently placed beside the raised vegetable garden beds along the back wall, but we were doing some construction projects in that part of the yard this weekend so we temporarily parked the coop in the middle of the lawn.)