Chicken Palace Adventure - Round One

Blue is chicken door

Human door side

So when we still lived in Ames we talked about getting chickens and could probably have easily raised a small group of birds on our lot after Neah our husky (who chased anything that ran) passed over the rainbow, however Joe didn't want to be that family that had chickens.  So we waited until we moved out to the homestead.  

The nesting boxes in theory

Our first summer was making gardens and getting the goats setup. But this summer my plan was to build a chicken structure and get some baby birds so the kids could show chickens for 4H.  All the photos in this blog are the culmination of six weekends (not necessarily consecutive) of mostly me building this lovely structure.  These don't show the final product but you get the idea.  I'll post a couple more blogs from the building adventure and of the girls when they were just little hatchlings over the next couple of weeks.

Storage for feed and bedding in back

This design was pulled together good features from other chicken blogs, Pinterest, and with function in mind.

It needed a human sized door (I had a couple spare lying around), a chicken sized door, nesting boxes, storage, insulation, water and feeders.

Water and food

Testing out the new roosting bars

I did a bunch of sketches which I will include in a future post and then off Lowe's with Abby and our first truck load of lumber.  
The first weekend Abby and I framed out the walls including the nesting box,  built out the platform and got that set into the ground.  Then over the following weekends I had help setting the walls on the platform, and then started working through the rest on my own as everyone else lost interest in the project.  

More details in the build photo diary coming soon.  Eventually I got the windows installed (after two tries), the roof installed, the walls insulated and closed in, and the girls roosting and nesting spaces wrapped up.  Last was loading in the food and water (we now have the water on concrete blocks and sealed all the floor seams after the chickens spun the water out the first week).  I learned the nesting boxes aren't really the right size and they keep kicking the bedding out of them so I have Brady Bunch grass and a lip to install soon to see if we can get them using the nesting box which we can access from the outside.  It also needs a good cleaning before winter hits.

Bob, Lacey and Amelio the rooster

Bob the friendly girl

For now they are all just laying in a convenient pile by the human door and we are getting 3-5 colorful eggs a day.  There are light brown, dark brown with speckles, blue and white eggs.  Just as diverse as our seven breeds of chickens.  There seems to be more than enough space for all eight of them in there and they all hustle in at night.  we getting them trained to come when we bring people food treats for them.  Instead of putting everything in the compost bin we are putting some things in the chicken yard and they love rotten tomatoes and watermelon the most.

First egg

My next job is building a proper chicken yard because the girls can escape from the one they have now and come winter the coyotes will be a problem.  I have to bury the fencing and come up with an automated way to open and close the chicken hatch although that will be easier once we have a door for the chicken yard.

So far we are having fun, except for when the little buggers escape as it's usually a two person job to corner them and get them back inside.  Although after Journey and Ginger got loose this weekend, one found their way back in and the other was more than ready to go back to the flock the next morning.  Stay tuned for more chicken adventures and chicken living upgrades.  As always thanks for reading.